by hadassah | Oct 5, 2016 | Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur Sukkot Hosha ‘na Rabba and Shemini Atzeret
“The Jewish pilgrim Isaac ben Joseph ibn Chelo who visited Hebron, among other places in the Holy Land, wrote: ‘The Jews, who are very numerous here, do a considerable trade in cotton, which they spin and dye themselves, as well as in all sorts of glass-ware made by...
by hadassah | Oct 5, 2016 | Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur Sukkot Hosha ‘na Rabba and Shemini Atzeret
October 12, 1039 On Hosha ‘na rabba, or the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles (i.e. Sukkot), Jews gathered on the Mount of Olives. Solomon ben Judah wrote “from the morrow after Hosha ‘na rabba or the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles” Source: A History of...
by hadassah | Oct 5, 2016 | Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur Sukkot Hosha ‘na Rabba and Shemini Atzeret
The Jewish people’s continued attachment to the Temple Mount is exemplified by an event that occurred during the reign of the Byzantine Empress Eudocia. When she went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 438, she was greeted warmly by Jews everywhere, probably as a...
by hadassah | Oct 5, 2016 | Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur Sukkot Hosha ‘na Rabba and Shemini Atzeret
It is in the Mishnah, the oral law that preceded the Talmud compiled in Israel by Yehuda Hanasi, that we are first introduced to the main theme of the holiday, that of judgment: “On Rosh Hashanah all human beings pass before him [God] as sheep before a shepherd”...
by hadassah | Oct 5, 2016 | Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur Sukkot Hosha ‘na Rabba and Shemini Atzeret
Letters written by Simon Bar Kokhba, leader of the Jewish revolt against the Romans, were found in a cave near the Dead Sea in 1960. “Send wooden beams (lulavs) and citrons (Etrogs) for the celebration of Sukkot.” Request by Bar Kokhba for the “four kinds” required...
by hadassah | Oct 5, 2016 | Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur Sukkot Hosha ‘na Rabba and Shemini Atzeret
Quaestiones Convivales, IV, 4:4 – 6:2, pp. 669 C – 672 B (6:2) At this, all did urge him (i.e. Moeragenes) and beg him to go on. “First”, he said, “the time and character of the greatest, most sacred holiday of the Jews clearly befit Dionysus. When they celebrate...
