Everybody from the Orthodox to the Reform, knows the “big holidays”; Rosh Hashanah, Passover, Yom Kippur, and Chanukah. One of the more “off-the-beaten-path” holidays is Shavuot, or Shavuos (also known as Pentecost), which is one of the most important holidays on the Jewish calendar – even if you’ve never heard of it.
You’ve heard about it, if you’re Jewish you definitely know about it, if you have Jewish friends you’ve probably attended at least one Shabbat service in your life. And if you haven’t and you’re interested please feel free to reach out to me and I would be more than happy to have you as my guest.
Shabbat represents the end of your work week. It is literally the separation between the time in which you work and play any time and the rest and regrouping you spend for 24 hours each week.
If you immediately caught the Lonely Jew on Christmas reference in the title to one of my favorite South Park episodes then you and I can definitely be friends! I’ve always been a fan of South Park. I love the straight-up honesty and ridiculous unrealistic dialogue between all the characters. They make fun of literally everything. And on the surface I’m totally okay with it. If I thought about it any deeper than that it would probably be terribly disturbing. LOL but that’s not what I’m about here today.
How many of you hear the word Chanukah and immediately start singing “Hanukkah oh Hanukkah come light the menorah”? It’s definitely one of my favorites when it comes to singing Hanukkah songs. growing up Jewish and at different times of my life in different Jewish Community settings somewhere a large community and others were quite small. In high school I only knew of about 10 people at my school who were Jewish. And found out 20 years later that several others so I graduated with were also Jewish but kept it under wraps.
As a child growing up Jewish, I remember celebrating certain BIG Jewish holidays, like Rosh Hashanah, in a large synagogue outside San Francisco somewhere. Don’t ask me, I don’t remember the name. (maybe ask my mom) But the place was HUGE and with many buildings. I also don’t remember the inside of the sanctuary ONE BIT. But I remember the lobby, which was the sanctuary for kids looking for sanctuary from the sanctuary. LOL!
Yom Kippur is one of our major Jewish holidays! Being raised Jewish in a very SMALL synagogue near San Francisco I got a front seat view of all the experiences and practices involved in my faith. I have ALWAYS loved honoring the deep traditions and the values I have been taught. When lighting the Chanukah candles on my grandmother’s menorah it makes me think about how many family members and generations who have lit the same menorah as me for decades before myself.