When is it fashionably acceptable to wear white after Labor Day? On Yom Kippur!

Laws about food, business, relationships, worship, time and even the way one should speak…Is Judaism all about laws, about doing this and not doing that?

An ancient Jewish proverb declares: “Loose tongues are worse than wicked hands.”

On Rosh Hashana, God judges the world (and all the people therein), but their fates are not sealed until 10 days later, on Yom Kippur. It is during these ten days during that we must present a compelling case of our worthiness to the heavenly court.

No prayer so thoroughly captures the Jewish people’s dual relationship with God as Avinu Malkeinu, “Our Father, Our King.”

Since Rosh Hashana is the day of judgement, it is customary to eat simanim,* foods with symbolic meanings that invoke God’s blessing. We also recite a short prayer before eating them. While apple with honey is a universal custom, other symbolic foods eaten depend on family custom.

When most people think of natural light, they think of the sun. Strangely enough, the sun (along with the moon and stars) was not created until the fourth day. So what was the “light” that God placed in the world on the first day?

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.

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.

“The fear of God is the beginning of knowledge…” (Proverbs 1:7)

The idea of “fearing God” carries with it overtones of fire and brimstone, a puritanical flavor that seems foreign to our 21st century mentality. With humanity (especially Western society) feeling secure in its understanding of the universe, most people no longer fear the so-called “wrath of God.”