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Public Confession and Unification with All Peoples
A holiday custom comprised of artificial origins, is perhaps the most genuine of all, in a religion full of holiday nuances, usually introduced in the Books of Moses, and detailed extensively in one of the two Talmuds. The very common custom that defies those beginnings is called tashlikh, "to send" and occurs on the Jewish new year, to start ten days of repentance.
The ten days of repentance, as I know them, only involves a line of prayer added to each of the three daily prayers, but I'm not an expert. Also, I rarely say prayers more than twice a day, but the two for day and night are important to me.
Tashlich involves a group of prayers walking to a moving body of water, plucking some grass or leaves, and tossing them in, signifying the taking away of sin. I recently saw that pebbles or stones are used, which I would imagine is for arid regions. The same source said bread is thrown in, but that breaks the roots of pure nature in the tradition.
After the 'ten days' are complete, the next day is the holiday of Yom Kippur, meaning 'day of repentance' where a 24-26 hour fast is invoked.
Four days after that, the eight day holiday of building and eating in a hut begins, called Sukkot and sukkah respectively. The hut's build is special, as the roof must be of whole, organic origin, and a certain percentage of stars and night sky must be visible looking up, which inspires me profoundly. There are other necessities described in one or another of the Talmuds or commentaries, which are impractical to the point of being comical.
Be prepared to learn a few more holidays, and many details, or depending on what strictness your process involves, many more significant days.
The ten days of repentance, as I know them, only involves a line of prayer added to each of the three daily prayers, but I'm not an expert. Also, I rarely say prayers more than twice a day, but the two for day and night are important to me.
Tashlich involves a group of prayers walking to a moving body of water, plucking some grass or leaves, and tossing them in, signifying the taking away of sin. I recently saw that pebbles or stones are used, which I would imagine is for arid regions. The same source said bread is thrown in, but that breaks the roots of pure nature in the tradition.
After the 'ten days' are complete, the next day is the holiday of Yom Kippur, meaning 'day of repentance' where a 24-26 hour fast is invoked.
Four days after that, the eight day holiday of building and eating in a hut begins, called Sukkot and sukkah respectively. The hut's build is special, as the roof must be of whole, organic origin, and a certain percentage of stars and night sky must be visible looking up, which inspires me profoundly. There are other necessities described in one or another of the Talmuds or commentaries, which are impractical to the point of being comical.
Be prepared to learn a few more holidays, and many details, or depending on what strictness your process involves, many more significant days.
Probably the Oldest Continuous Religious Customs
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My theory on how our prayer shawl developed involves the tassel, called a tzitzit, and each shawl has one on each corner, always with one set of invariable knots and wraps. I believe tzitzit derived from two directions. One was an attempt by our forefathers to save babies immediately after birth, by always having a cord to tie off umbilical cords, and the other, possibly earlier, was having a source of fire starting material at hand at all times. |
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These two safety measures on a garment may have established customs of Hinduism and Judaism during early contact. Anyone that has read the Bible would probably notice the similarity between the Jerusalem temple apparel descriptions, when compared to the style of attire in many Hindu temples in modern operation. If an early Jew showed up in India and said 'this is for fire making and tying umbilical cords', or vice-versa if an Indian establishing the Hindu religion found Israel, and saw the tradition in use, the reaction to form a contrasting custom could be, 'To avoid some fires, I'm going to be vegetarian.' I'll assume that the tzitzit wasn't ever a tradition of Hinduism, since we still wear them, at least on occasion. |
| This is how you might see a modern orthodox man wearing tzitzit he believes must be displayed. |
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| When I do wear one, its tucked into my pants completely. |
| picture from crazyjewishconvert.blogspot.com |
| Day After Log - Under Construction |
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| October 15, 2017 |
Its shabbat. I just started reading the first reading of the Jewish year...story of creation. Eve just fed Adam the Apple of knowledge of good and bad.
I read in Hebrew with no vowels. Its the start of my fourth cycle. Before that I would read out of a book with vowels. Now I have a toy torah. Actually in the coming weeks I'll probably have to peek at the book still...but getting there.... |
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