Month of Many Holidays

The Hebrew month of Tishrei is almost over (thank god).  I think the translation of "Tishrei" is "A month that everyday is a holiday".  Children here don't stress out about the first day of school because they know that they will only have to suffer about 2 hours before they are on vacation again!

The month of many holidays starts off with a good one, Rosh Hashanna.  Rosh Hashanna is the Jewish New Year.  Instead of staying up late with lights and music, we go to bed early after eating a feast.

The next one is a little less fun, Yom Kippur, ten days later.  The Day of Atonement.  That's the one where we fast and think about what we did.  This one is the toughest of all.  It's not so much the fasting, I can do that, but why do you have to bring little children with baggies of food to temple to taunt me?  That doesn't seem very fair.  Luckily for all when the sun goes down, we get to eat- a lot.

And then comes the holiday that I didn't know existed when I lived in the States.  If I knew, I would've insisted on a week off.  Sukkot- which apparently is the time where the Jews made a pilgrimage to the Temple of Jerusalem.   This is the time of year when Israelis get out there tools and start building a Sukka (as in the fragile homes of our founding fathers.  Not "sukka" as in slang for "sucker").  A sukka is decorated with children's drawings and Christmas lights (yep, that's right, Christmas lights) and most people eat their meals there.  This goes on for about a week until Simchat Torah (that's when we finish reading the Torah and start all over again).  Israelis are normally pretty good about taking down their Sukkas right after the holiday is over. 

So let's count them up: we have 2 days for Rosh Hashana, 2 days for Yom Kippur, and 8 days for Sukkot and Simchat Torah = about 2 weeks off of school in the month of September (not including weekends of course).

Not only am I glad that this month is almost over and the kids (and their parents) will be going back to where they came from, but I can also get back to the gym and start eating right again (did I mention that Jewish holidays involve feasting?).

Happy Holidays!