Well, I thought I knew just about everything about Jewish food and had seen, heard or tasted it all, but I recently saw a reference for eating black eyed peas or rubiya or lubiya.I had not heard of this symbolic food before. We eat black-eyed peas in the hopes that our merits increase and we are purified. The custom of eating black-eyed peas is Baghdadi. Peas are eaten as a symbol of abundance and fruitfulness.

In addition to the unique prayer services of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, the High Holidays are known for one other service: selichot. A collection of religious poems and verses, selichot are penitential prayers that help one focus on the mood of the season.

We hate to be a buzz-kill, but now is when you need to begin the transition from one season to the next, while taking the time to soak in the last of the warm weather.  But fear not, as the editors at SingleEdition.com, we have put together a checklist of things you should consider as summer (and your tan) begins to fade.

While one of the founding principles of the United States of America is freedom of religion, any historian would agree that in the early days this was often more principle than practice. Mordecai Manuel Noah, a lawyer, politician, journalist, diplomat and playwright (and a few other things) who was born shortly before the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, firmly believed that his government would uphold this principle.