Rosh Hashanah

Yesterday we studied the celebration of Rosh Hashanah. We tried our best to celebrate it traditionally. Rosh Hashanah literally means "head of the year" and refers to the Jewish New Year. It is considered the most solemn day of the Jewish year. Rosh Hashanah begins The Ten Days of Repentance ending with the holiday of Yom Kippur (which we will study).

We actually began a day late. It begins the night before at sun down. We began at sun down last night. I lit the Shabbot candles, which I found is traditionally done by the woman of the house. It is custom to bring certain foods to the table in celebration of the new year. I chose to make a chicken soup using leeks and Kosher noodles. Our meal was not Kosher, but the kids understood the importance of the food being just right for the celebration. We also had unleavened bread to serve as well as bread to represent the Challah bread traditionally served. Round Challah bread represents rounding out the year. We also dipped apples in honey in the hopes of having a "sweet year". It was a really fun celebration and the kids were excited about it too because we didn't have school at all in the morning. We cleaned up the house and had some free time. Our lesson was the celebration and Jerod got to be home with us for our school time. It was neat to all talk about the traditions etc. One tradition we didn't get to participate in was blowing the Shofar. A Shofar is a rams horn used in Jewish celebrations. It is blow 100 time over the course of Rosh Hashanah. We did show the kids a picture of several of them so they had an idea of what they were. We may still try to get one for our other celebrations this year.

All in all our first Jewish celebration went well. We are Christian, but it is so neat to take a peak into another culture and another religion. Studying Hebrew Culture is great too for us as Christians because we get to really dive into the Old Testament and pick up on some of the theology and legends behind it. We read stories from this Legends of The Bible Book when we are done reading the Bible and the stories are so beautiful and a really fun way to bring to life what actually happened. I have found that through the Legends book the kids really grasp the events that took place in the Bible even though the legends are simply, well, legends.

Here we are enjoying our celebration meal

Our apples and honey...yum!

Bread

Soup made with leeks and German Kosher noodles. I made the stock homemade from chicken, leeks, onions, carrots and cabbage, sea salt and pepper. I strained it and then added the chicken I pulled off the bone, sliced carrots, leeks, cabbage and noodles.