KJCC, Congregation Ohr Hayam Rituals & Holidays

Celebrated every week from Friday sunset until after sunset on Saturday, Shabbat may be one of Judaism’s greatest gifts to the world. It is a day of rest, joy, family and community. A portion of the Torah is read each week. Shabbat begins with lighting of candles and ends with the sweet spice and multi-wicked candle of the Havdalah service. All Jewish holidays begin at sunset the prior evening (example: erev Shabbat) and end after sunset at night.

 Jewish New Year is a celebration of the world’s creation- A holy day on which Jewish people are not expected to work. It is a time to reflect on the year and ask for forgiveness for any wrong they feel they have done. It is an opportunity for a fresh start, the beginning of ten days of repentance. The shofar (ram’s horn) is blown. Traditions include eating round challah with apples and honey, symbolizing hope for a sweet year, and pomegranates, symbolizing the opportunities for good deeds.  

The holiest day of the Jewish year, Yom Kippur means “Day of Atonement,” as the verse states, “For on this day He will forgive you, to purify you, that you be cleansed from all your sins.” It is a day of prayer and fasting, when we are closest to G-d and to the essence of our souls. According to tradition, God seals the Books of Life and Death for the coming year. The day ends after sunset with the blowing of the shofar and a festive “break-the fast.” 

This week-long celebration is named after the booths or huts in which Jews lived, according to rabbinic tradition, during their 40 years wandering the desert after escaping Egypt. During this week, five days after Yom Kippur, we dwell (or eat) within the Sukkot. We make a prayer with a lulav (a palm frond with myrtle and willow), and etrog (a special citrus). Sukkot is the first of three annual pilgrimage festivals when Israelis were commanded in the Torah to journey to the Temple in Jerusalem. 

The day after Sukkot, this joyful holiday celebrates the end and immediate new beginning of the weekly cycle of Torah reading. Before the reading begins, congregants take all the Torah scrolls from the ark and parade them around the synagogue, singing and dancing.  

A holiday not mentioned in the Torah, this holiday tells the story of the Maccabees, a small band of Jewish fighters who liberated the Land of Israel from the Syrian Greeks who occupied it, cleansed the defiled Temple and relit the menorah. 

New Year of the Trees, it marks the beginning of spring in Israel, even if it is midwinter here. We eat dates, figs, pomegranates and other fruit grown in Israel. It is a time of tree planting and appreciation of our natural environment. 

Jews have celebrated Purim for thousands of years by reading the Book of Esther, a story of the Persian Jews’ deliverance from annihilation. We wear masks or costumes, enjoy feasting, drinking and funny skits. 

Celebrating the deliverance of the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. The seder is a festive dinner preceded by a dramatic retelling of the redemption story, using the Haggadah as the prayer book. During the holiday, no bread is eaten. Passover is the second pilgrimage Festival. 

Officially known as Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day. It was set by Israel’s Knesset in 1951 to fall within the timeline of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, during the counting of the Omer. In Israel, public entertainment venues are closed, and all activity stops as sirens sound for two minutes. 

 Israeli Independence Day – On 5 Iyar, May 14, 1948, Israel declared its independence from Britain by virtue of its historic right and based on the resolution of the UN General Assembly. On May 15, 1948, the neighboring Arab countries declared war and invaded, which ended in a hard-won Israel victory and the 1949 Armistice Agreements. The day before Yom Ha’Atzmaut is Yom Ha Zikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day.  

Shavuot comes after Passover, after counting of the Omer for 49 days. It is a springtime holiday that celebrates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. Alongside Passover and Sukkot, it is one of the three pilgrimage festivals, marked in ancient times by the gathering of the entire Israelite people at the Temple in Jerusalem and timed to an important moment in the agricultural calendar: the first grain harvest of the season.