Yom Kippur

looks back at the destruction of the second temple. Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish new year and one of the biggest holidays in the religion highly celebrated in the synagogues. This is celebrated in September and then greeted by Yom Kippur in October not too long after. Yom Kippur is known as the most important day of the year for the Jews and the day of Atonement. The next big holiday is Hanukkah. Hanukkah is celebrated in december and is known as the festival of lights. Kosher meat is the only…

“We are all alone, trapped in these bodies and our own minds, and whatever company we have in this life is only fleeting and superficial,” writes Jennifer Niven in her novel, All The Bright Places. In the year 1942, Elie Wiesel is unwaveringly loyal to God and he is a young boy full of potential. When he and his family are deported in 1944, his entire life changes over the course of a few days. In his memoir detailing his experiences during the Holocaust, he writes of the events that had…

Yom Kippur is “a Jewish high holy day observed on the 10th day of the month of Tishri by abstinence from food and drink and by the day long recitation of prayers of repentance in the synagogue.” Yom Kippur is viewed as one of the most important Jewish holidays. For centuries, people of Jewish religion celebrate Yom Kippur on Tishri; the seventh month on the Jewish religious calendar. Yom Kippur is known as “A Day of Atonement” and originates from the book of “Leviticus 23:27” which states that…

My auto-ethnography encompassed a three-day span from last Thursday afternoon to Saturday afternoon. During this time, I visited Boston to participate in the celebration of a rabbi’s installation as the first woman to lead New England’s largest Reform Jewish Synagogue (Temple Israel of Boston). As points-of-reference: this particular rabbi was also the person who oversaw my conversation to Judaism and was particular influential during some of my tumultuous life events. Additionally, I have…

Yom Kippur is the 10th day of the seventh month and is often referred to as “the sabbath of sabbaths”. Yom Kippur is a Jewish tradition that is observed by Jews, Samaritans, and some Christian groups . According to the Jewish tradition, God inscribes each person's fate for the coming year into a book. This book is called the Book of Life. God inscribes each person's fate on Rosh Hashanah, and waits until Yom Kippur to “seal the verdict”. During the Days of Awe Jews try whatever they can to…

The Churchill Room A mini-ethnographic essay Introduction There is no doubt that ethnographic studies can vary in terms of scope, details presented, audience targeted, researching skills of the writer, objectives aimed at and several other associated motives. Primarily aiming at acquiring the benefits of developing what Clifford Geertz calls as “thick description” in his book The Interpretation of Cultures (1993), this essay will examine the daily activities in a public space…

people pray, Elie stews in silent anger. “Why, but why would I bless him?” He wonders. To him, it seems, God has left. Next, let’s touch on rebellion. On page 69, the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement, is being celebrated; however, Elie chooses not to fast, which is the traditional approach to Yom Kippur. He…

During Yom Kippur, or the day of atonement, Jews normally fast, miss work, and say a certain prayer. They fast to ask God to forgive them for their sins that happened during the year. Yom Kippur is also the holiest day of the year in Judaism. The inmates discussed the situation, and were in to try to decide if they would fast, in the book Night by Elie Wiesel. “Some said we should fast, precisely because it was dangerous.” (Night page 69) To me, this would make no sense. They were already in so…

The perversion of having sexual involvement with some form of “beast” remains a noteworthy factor in the Bible after the exodus out of Egypt. It states, • These warnings regarding “lying with a beast;” follows shortly after Lev 17:7, concerning “whoring after devils, (goatmen).” Concurrently, by these verses being so adjacent to each other and corresponding similarly, there certainly reason to associate them together. As mentioned, Pan became claimed by the ancient priests in Egypt (where the…

Within all the short stories compiled to make up Ayelet Tsabari’s collected work, The Best Place on Earth, violence is consistently present. Naturally, the conflict which has, and currently still creates strife in Israel leads to the inclusion of violence in her stories. Whether the characters presently live in Israel, or have moved on from the region, the chaos from the country is incorporated into their lives. Tsabari was born in Israel, and is all too familiar with the horrors the wars have…