Shabbat and Days of Awe

Days of Awe  Rosh Hashanah  First 2 days  G-d writes in his book who will live, die, be prosperous or not  The ten days of Repentance  Devoted contemplation remorse past sins.  Yom Kippur  the final day of atonement  G-d’s book is sealed.

Rosh Hashanah  Rosh Hashanah has a fourfold meaning - It is the Jewish New Year, the Day of Judgment, the Day of Remembrance, and the Day of Shofar Blowing.  These two days are a time of celebration in which sweet and bitter foods are eaten to symbolize the hope of a “sweet” or “bitter” year.

The Ten Days of Repentance  Time of reflection  Permission to work and continue on with everyday life and activities, unless it is the Sabbath  Continual petitioning to G-d

Yom Kippur  The last day of the Days of Awe, called the Day of Atonement  At the end of this day, G-d’s book is sealed and judgment is passed

Rituals  Past  Kapparot: fowl  Synagogue transformed to symbolize purity  Fasting  Oral Torah recited  Present  Bag of Money  Wearing white to symbolize purity  Restrictions and exceptions  Oral Torah Read from prayer book

Shabbat  The Sabbath day  Gift! God gave the Jews this day to show them the importance of working but also the importance of resting  Starts Friday evening 18mins before sunset and ends Saturday evening approximately 45 minutes after sunset (3 stars visible)  They prepare by cleansing themselves and setting things up that are not able to be done during Sabbath  Shabbat is more important than any holiday because it was given to the Jews as a Holy gift from G-d and is enforced in the 10 commandments

Remember and Observe Shabbat Remember Remember  Deut 5:12 – Calls people to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy  Creation  Freedom from slavery  (Reciting kiddush)  Fulfilling positive precepts associated with the Sabbath day Observe  It’s not that you can’t work on Sabbath it’s that you can’t create.  God rested on sabbath and did not create, therefore he is the example  Not violating negative commandments on the Sabbath

Rituals  Cleaning and Preparing  Lighting of the Sabbath candles  Evening service  Three meals:  First: focuses on remembering the Sabbath over wine along with reciting the Kiddush  Morning Service  Second: After Kiddush in the Synagogue, family goes home and repeats Kiddush again. Everyone eats Challah. This meal is part of observing the Sabbath.  Third: Similar foods are served as the first and second meal. Celebrates the upcoming week.

Biblical Shabbat  Sabbath for Creation/Sabbath for Exodus  Deut 5:15  For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it must be put to death. Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.“ ~Exodus 35:2-3

Rabbinic Shabbat  “The rabbinic rules and traditions concerning the Sabbath must be understood as attempting to achieve a state of joyful rest.” ~ The Sabbath in Jewish and Christian Traditions “Sanctify the Sabbath by choice meals, by beautiful garments; delight your soul with pleasure and I will reward you for this very pleasure.” ~Midrash by Rashi on Megillah 9a, on Gen 2:2

Biblical Yom Kippur  The LORD said to Moses, "The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present an offering made to the LORD by fire… Anyone who does not deny himself on that day must be cut off from his people. I will destroy from among his people anyone who does any work on that day."  ~Lev 23:26-30

Rabbinic Comments  “There is nothing more important according to the Torah, than to preserve human life…Even when there is the slightest possibility that a life may be at stake one may disregard every prohibition of the law” ~Genesis rabba 19,3  “There are 4 new years” (Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:1)

Biblical Rosh Hashanah  Rosh Hashanah  Leviticus 23:23-25  Numbers 29:1  Ezekiel 40:1

Origins in the Talmud  Masechet Beitzah 4b  Length of the ‘festival’ is either one day or two.  Avoth 2:1  The deeds of every human being are recorded in a book by God.

Sovereignty  Numbers of Perfection and Completion  Justice  O Father and King! We have sinned before thee.  O Father and King! We have no King but thee.  O Father and King! Deal benevolently with us  O Father and King! Deal benevolently with us  O Father and King! Renew unto us a good year Sung During the Concluding Service for Day of Atonement

Sovereignty II  Mercy  On Rosh Hashana, “The perfectly righteous are immediately inscribed and sealed to life; the completely wicked are immediately inscribed and sealed to death; the intermediate are in suspected (will neither be punished nor acquitted) until Yom Kippur. If they repent, they are inscribed to life, if not, they are inscribed to death” (Birnbaum, 267).  The Shofar

Repentance  Sins committed against God  Sins committed against other people  A person who committed a sin and then confesses it, but who does not stop sinning, to what can he be compared? To a person who holds a reptile in his hand, for even if he were to immerse in all the waters in the world, the immersion would not be effective. If he lets go, once he immerses in forty seahs, the immersion is immediately effective, as it says: ‘[He who covered up his faults will not succeed;] he who confesses and gives them up will find mercy’ [Prov 28:13], Ta’anit 16a.

Repentance II  Redemptive Suffering  Let a man rejoice in sufferings more than in happiness; for if a man has lived all his life in happiness, any sin which he may have committed has not been pardoned; but what is pardoned through suffering is forgiven him. (Sifre Deuteronomy 32:37b)  Devotion in Place of Sacrifice  Prayers  Fasting

Blessing and Covenant  Covenant  Contrition, Sovereignty, Restoration  Blessing  Given to God for all things  Blessed by God  Psalm 32 (Concluding Prayers of Yom Kippur)