Some Question About Jewish Holidays

Maprilynne · Mar 27, 2007

I was wondering if someone could give me a brief description of the major Jewish Holidays.

Well, not all of them, I know all about Hannukah have actually done a lot of study on Passover. But I know that there are several very important holidays that most people don't really hear about. For example (I'm going to butcher this spelling, please forgive) Rosh Hashanah? Am I close?

Also a quick question . . . do Jews celebrate Thanksgiving? They do, don't they?

I'm asking because I just found out my agent is Jewish (and very devout, actually) and other than the obvious faux pas (I was going to tell her Happy Easter when I checked in next month *forehead slap*) I just would like to know which times of the year are important to her so I don't bug her during that time.

I guess mostly I want to know because I have studied quite a bit about Judaism but when it came down to some of the simple things (like holidays) I was totally lost and I'd like know what I can.

Thanks in advance and I hope this is the appropriate forum to ask this in.

Thanks!!

Maprilynne

Robert Toy · Mar 27, 2007

Maprilynne said:
I was wondering if someone could give me a brief description of the major Jewish Holidays.

Well, not all of them, I know all about Hannukah have actually done a lot of study on Passover. But I know that there are several very important holidays that most people don't really hear about. For example (I'm going to butcher this spelling, please forgive) Rosh Hashanah? Am I close?

Also a quick question . . . do Jews celebrate Thanksgiving? They do, don't they?

I'm asking because I just found out my agent is Jewish (and very devout, actually) and other than the obvious faux pas (I was going to tell her Happy Easter when I checked in next month *forehead slap*) I just would like to know which times of the year are important to her so I don't bug her during that time.

I guess mostly I want to know because I have studied quite a bit about Judaism but when it came down to some of the simple things (like holidays) I was totally lost and I'd like know what I can.

Thanks in advance and I hope this is the appropriate forum to ask this in.

Thanks!!

Maprilynne

Check out this link:

http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday0.htm

Maprilynne · Mar 27, 2007

Thanks so much! That's exactly the kind of link I was looking for.

Much Appreciated!

Maprilynne

Robert Toy · Mar 27, 2007

My pleasure

Tallymark · Mar 27, 2007

Thanksgiving is a totally nonreligious holiday, it's an american holiday.

So jews do celebrate it, if they want to of course.

Also, in addition to holidays, very orthodox jews may observe shabbat, the day of rest (just as god rested on the seventh day). Shabbat is on saturdays and you're technically not supposed to work on shabbat (though it depends on what is considered 'work').

Alas, many of us don't have the financial leisure to take a day off. ^_~

Aesposito · Mar 27, 2007

Oh, and FYI, Channukah is not a major Jewish holiday....it's not even counted among the 12 biggies in the faith. It just gained notoriety in America (and increasingly in some other countries) due to its child focus and proximity to Christmas.

Audrey
(raised in conservative Judaism)

Maprilynne · Mar 29, 2007

Aesposito said:
Oh, and FYI, Channukah is not a major Jewish holiday....it's not even counted among the 12 biggies in the faith. It just gained notoriety in America (and increasingly in some other countries) due to its child focus and proximity to Christmas.

Audrey
(raised in conservative Judaism)

I did know that and actually the site that Robert gave me emphasizes that. It's kind of like Christians suddenly making . . . I don't know, Boxing Day a big holiday just because it's around Yom Kippur. . . or something.

Hapax Legomenon · Sep 15, 2007

Only American Jews celebrate thanksgiving. The rest could care less.

Well, also a bit of help here, if you need any about Jews during Christmas time, assuming you're talking about Jews in the United States:

Most Jews that I know, including myself, go to a Chinese restaurant and then a movie. Stereotypical, I know, but it's about the only thing to do. Jews do often end up giving and receiving Christmas gifts because they like their Christian friends and either their Christian friends don't know, or they may try to give a 'Hannukah' gift at Christmas even though Hannukah was two weeks ago, but the sentiment is nice anyway, although they're usually annoyed when they receive Christmas ornaments.

rugcat · Sep 15, 2007

And let's not forget Purim, when the Jews mix the blood of Christian and Muslim children into their holiday cookies.

Ralyks · Oct 6, 2007

Maprilynne said:
I did know that and actually the site that Robert gave me emphasizes that. It's kind of like Christians suddenly making . . . I don't know, Boxing Day a big holiday just because it's around Yom Kippur. . . or something.

Well, Boxing Day is not of any Christian significance whatsoever. It's more like Christians making a big deal of Reformation Day just because it's right around Halloween. It's rather ironic that the source of the story of Channukah is found in the Catholic Old Testament but not in the Jewish Bible.

Religious holidays evolve according to cultural influence all the time.

Rich · Oct 6, 2007

There's a Catholic Old Testament? Is this the four-book thing?

Deleted member 42 · Oct 6, 2007

skylarburris said:
Well, Boxing Day is not of any Christian significance whatsoever. It's more like Christians making a big deal of Reformation Day just because it's right around Halloween. It's rather ironic that the source of the story of Channukah is found in the Catholic Old Testament but not in the Jewish Bible.

Religious holidays evolve according to cultural influence all the time.

Err . . . there isn't a Jewish Bible.

There's the Torah, the books "Five Books of Moses," the first five books of the Christian OT: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy; these are the books about law, and how to live. It's sometimes called the Tanakh.

Then there's the stuff that was oral for generations, but was eventually compiled, organized, and written down, the Talmud, from around the 4th century, more or less; it's half the original oral teaches, the Mishnah, from roughly, more or less, the 2nd century C.E. Then there's the commentary on the Mishnah, the Gemara.

It's not considered holy writing, or law, so the Biblical book containing the Hannukah story, Second Maccabees, isn't part of either Torah or Talmud, but it is considered historical and is known, and studied.

The Apocrypha, where Second Maccabees lives, isn't technically part of the Catholic Bible; it's a separate collection of books, deliberately marked as "outside."

Rich · Oct 6, 2007

Astute of you, Lisa, but I think all the Judeo-Christian knowledge ye need to know was established in the '50's in downtown Brooklyn.

frimble3 · Nov 4, 2007

Really, really dumb question: if you had those glass Christmas ornaments of fruit, and nuts and such, would they be okay to decorate a booth at Succot (sp?) or would that be inappropriate? We're dividing up our parents' stuff and I was thinking that it would be a way to give my sister (married a Jew, planning to convert) something of her childhood without implying 'Hannukah bush'. Plus, I'm looking at the glass grapes and thinking they would look nice hanging around the edge of the booth, among the greenery. So, any thoughts? Is this just a totally wrong idea?

Gray Rose · Nov 5, 2007

Medievalist said:
Err . . . there isn't a Jewish Bible.

There's the Torah, the books "Five Books of Moses," the first five books of the Christian OT: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy; these are the books about law, and how to live. It's sometimes called the Tanakh.

Umm, the Tanakh is not the Torah, but a contraction of Torah, Neviim, Ktuvim (The Five Books of Moses, the Prophets, and the Writings. Together they do, indeed, comprise the "Jewish Bible" or at least the canon of texts.

Gray Rose · Nov 5, 2007

frimble3 said:
Really, really dumb question: if you had those glass Christmas ornaments of fruit, and nuts and such, would they be okay to decorate a booth at Succot (sp?) or would that be inappropriate? We're dividing up our parents' stuff and I was thinking that it would be a way to give my sister (married a Jew, planning to convert) something of her childhood without implying 'Hannukah bush'. Plus, I'm looking at the glass grapes and thinking they would look nice hanging around the edge of the booth, among the greenery. So, any thoughts? Is this just a totally wrong idea?

It should be fine in principle, but nobody in my community does it. Sukkot decorations tend to be natural things, e.g. sheaves, fruit, gourds and such.

However, this would very much depend on the community. If it is Reform, I am sure you'd be fine. If Orthodox, I would not advise it, but you should ask her what she'd be comfortable with. Often converts can be less comfortable with displaying potentially Christian symbols than an established member of the community would be.

Hope this helps,
Rose

Gray Rose · Nov 5, 2007

Ah, and as for the holidays - again, this would depend on the kind of community. Hanukkah is very important for my Reform friends, but not at all important for us (Modern Orthodox), since it is considered a minor holiday. The most important holidays in the Mod.Orth. and Conservative communities are Passover and the High Holidays (Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur), which happen around agriculturally important times of spring and harvest.

Work on Shabbat is defined as doing anything that could have been used in building the First Temple, this includes lighting fire (and by extension electricity), writing and drawing, and moving around in a vehicle among other things. However you can, and are encouraged to, read

Deleted member 42 · Nov 5, 2007

My point is that Bible does not mean canon of texts, so it's not really appropriate to use it in this context; bible literally means "books," even in a Christian context. And if you refer to the Torah as a Bible a fair number of Jews will be less than pleased.

Smiling Ted · Nov 23, 2007

"'Bible' does not mean 'canon of texts'"

Medievalist said:
My point is that Bible does not mean canon of texts, so it's not really appropriate to use it in this context; bible literally means "books," even in a Christian context. And if you refer to the Torah as a Bible a fair number of Jews will be less than pleased.

Actually, "Bible" does mean the canon of texts, either Christian or Jewish. (See any current dictionary.) Its meaning as simply "book" is obsolete. When Jews get pissed (and only if we're feeling pissy) it's at the use of the term "Old Testament," which implies that the Christian scriptures are a "New Testament" or a "New Covenant" that supercedes the TaNaKh.

Also, "Torah" can refer to any one of three things:
1. Jewish Law, as laid out in the Pentateuch and the Mishnah;
2. The Five Books of Moses (the Pentateuch);
3. The entirety of Jewish scripture (the TaNaKh) from Genesis to Chronicles.

Deleted member 42 · Nov 23, 2007

Smiling Ted said:
Actually, "Bible" does mean the canon of texts, either Christian or Jewish. (See any current dictionary.) Its meaning as simply "book" is obsolete.

1. Bible doesn't mean the canon of texts because, frankly, there isn't a canon. A Protestant Bible is different from a Roman Catholic Bible, which is different from a Greek Orthodox Bible which is different from a Russian Orthodox Bible, which is different from an Armenian Bible, or a Coptic Bible or . . . Jews are quite extraordinary in that they mostly seem to agree about the Jewish canon, even if there's disagreement about what Rabbi Achiva did or did not say . . .

2. Here's a current dictionary definition, from the American Heritage.

1a. The sacred book of Christianity, a collection of ancient writings including the books of both the Old Testament and the New Testament. b. The Hebrew Scriptures, the sacred book of Judaism. c. A particular copy of a Bible: the old family Bible. d. A book or collection of writings constituting the sacred text of a religion. 2. often bible A book considered authoritative in its field: the bible of French cooking.

3. Canon means something very very specific--a canon, whether legal, scriptural or literary is decided upon by a particular group/culture/society--hence equating bible with a canon is sloppy scholarship--you need to qualify it in every case, and in terms of religious texts, likely the qualification needs to include a date reference.

4. Technically, Bible means "books"--and it was used to mean a collection of books that included scripture but was not exclusively used for scripture, for a very long time.

jst5150 · Nov 23, 2007

During my conversion, I learned that the Sabbath (Shabbat) is the most important holiday -- and that occurs once a week. In my conservative upbringing and even within my temple, everyone has a different way of ensuring the Sabbath is kept sacred. Further, it is more important than the other "holidays" since it's part of the covenant with G-d. However, Yom Kippur followed by Rosh Hashanah usually follow in that order. Jews come out for YK and RS (especially YK) if they never go to temple at all that year. The equivalent might be the "Christmas and Easter" Catholic.

johnnysannie · Nov 28, 2007

Rich said:
There's a Catholic Old Testament? Is this the four-book thing?

The Catholic Old Testament is much the same as the Protestant Old Testament except we have four additional books - Judith, Tobit, Wisdom, and Sirach.

(Sigh)

jst5150 · Nov 28, 2007

I think that we've closed the loop on her original question. Further theological debate can move elsewhere.

StephanieFox · Mar 5, 2008

Short cut on many Jewish holidays

They tried to kill us. We won. Let's eat!

(Unless it's a fast day. Then, we'll eat later.)

mario_c · Aug 27, 2008

StephanieFox said:
They tried to kill us. We won. Let's eat!

(Unless it's a fast day. Then, we'll eat later.)

Words to live by.

Haphazard said:
Only American Jews celebrate thanksgiving. The rest could care less.

Well, also a bit of help here, if you need any about Jews during Christmas time, assuming you're talking about Jews in the United States:

Most Jews that I know, including myself, go to a Chinese restaurant and then a movie. Stereotypical, I know, but it's about the only thing to do. Jews do often end up giving and receiving Christmas gifts because they like their Christian friends and either their Christian friends don't know, or they may try to give a 'Hannukah' gift at Christmas even though Hannukah was two weeks ago, but the sentiment is nice anyway, although they're usually annoyed when they receive Christmas ornaments.

I'm from one of those Chrismukkah families (extended) and my poor uncle and cousins have had their share of inappropriate, late and perfectly well intended gifts and cards in their day. Their revenge I think, was convincing us that the Dreidel Song worked as a carol. And I still get Chinese noodles for a post-feast snack!
Oranaments though...

Some Question About Jewish Holidays

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