Holidays

'Paying to Pray': Can You Get Around That?

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Not a synagogue member? Don't have High Holiday tickets? Don't feel like shelling out money for admittance to services? Truth be told, free options locally for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are not very plentiful. But they're out there if you know where to look. In addition to the region's Chabad Lubavitch houses -- which request, but don't require, a...

Rosh Hashanah

Early Rosh Hashanah Means Time for Contemplation Is Now

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Fredda Sacharow, JE Feature

For parents, it's all about packing away buckets and sand shovels, and hauling out dressy clothes. For their children, it means transitioning from playing on the beach to sitting quietly in shul. For synagogue choirs, it means having virtually no time to practice the intricate melodies and depending on the sense memories of last year's tunes. And for rabbis, it...

Tisha B'Av

On Tisha B'Av Participants Can 'Feel the Mood'

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Bryan Schwartzman

A somber darkness envelops the sanctuary; prayers are read in muted candlelight, and the Torah scrolls are draped in black. At the 31/2-hour service on erev Tisha B'Av at Congregation Mikveh Israel in Center City, the normal prayer melodies are "replaced by the monotonous and heart-wrenching cadence" that evokes a sense of mourning, explained Rabbi Albert Gabbai. The holiday, a...

Shavuot

Understanding the Days of the 'First Fruits'

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Bryan Schwartzman

Apparently, not all Jewish festivals have been created equal. Passover has the seder -- the most widely observed Jewish ritual -- the eating of matzah and a stirring narrative of a people's deliverance from slavery. Sukkot, which has undergone something of a revival among non-Orthodox Jews in recent years, has the building of the sukkah booth at home, and the...

Torah

Shavuot: How Israelites Became a Holy Nation

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Rabbi Shmuel Jablon, JE Feature

In the Talmud, the festival of Shavuot is normally referred to as "Atzeret," which, roughly translated, means a "day of assembly." However, the word implies even more, since atzeret signifies a closing day of assembly. For example, after the festival of Sukkot comes Shemini Atzeret, the "Eighth Day of Assembly." Though it is, in the words of the sages, "a...