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Rating: 
Summary: Clarion call
Review: "Everyone loves birthdays," begins this lovely book explaining Rosh Hashanah to children. "Rosh" means "head. "Hashanah" means "Year." The book celebrates this birthday by explaining God's "gift of time" in the context of many other Jewish celebrations of annual "birthdays."Rosh Hashanah "is the birthday of the world" while Nisan (the Hebrew month of Passover) is the annual birthday of the Jewish calendar, the first of Elul is the annual birthday for animals, Tu B'Shevat celebrates the annual birthday for trees and Tishri--the month of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur--celebrates the New Year. Like the companion volumes on other holidays, this one contains many Midrashim--stories with lessons--and poems. We hear from the Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, who cries "Woe is me! Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Judgement is almost here, and I have not mended myself!" And from a man, lost in the forest. When asked the way out by another lost soul, he replies, "Do not take the way I have gone, for that will lead you stray. Now let us look for the right way together." It also includes one of my favorite stories--that of a generous rabbi who before dawn awoke, disguised himself as Vasil the peasant, crept in the shadows to the edge of town, cut a tree, chopped it into wood and brought it to a run-down shack at the edge of the forest. "How will I pay you?" asked the widowed occupant. "I will trust you," replied the rabbi, before kindling the fire and leaving without a word. Children learn, also, about important New Year rituals, such as prayers for forgiveness (Selichot) at midnight on the Saturday before Rosh Hashanah, the giving of Tzedakah (charity), blessing and eating round Challah and apples dipped in honey (for a sweet and full year), tossing crumbs into moving water (Tashlich, to throw away our bad deeds), and the blowing of the Shofar, the ram's horn, to announce the beginning of the year, remind us that God is ruler and judge and warn us to improve ourselves. Alyssa A. Lappen
Rating:
Summary: Clarion call
Review: "Everyone loves birthdays," begins this lovely book explaining Rosh Hashanah to children. "Rosh" means "head. "Hashanah" means "Year." The book celebrates this birthday by explaining God's "gift of time" in the context of many other Jewish celebrations of annual "birthdays." Rosh Hashanah "is the birthday of the world" while Nisan (the Hebrew month of Passover) is the annual birthday of the Jewish calendar, the first of Elul is the annual birthday for animals, Tu B'Shevat celebrates the annual birthday for trees and Tishri--the month of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur--celebrates the New Year. Like the companion volumes on other holidays, this one contains many Midrashim--stories with lessons--and poems. We hear from the Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, who cries "Woe is me! Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Judgement is almost here, and I have not mended myself!" And from a man, lost in the forest. When asked the way out by another lost soul, he replies, "Do not take the way I have gone, for that will lead you stray. Now let us look for the right way together." It also includes one of my favorite stories--that of a generous rabbi who before dawn awoke, disguised himself as Vasil the peasant, crept in the shadows to the edge of town, cut a tree, chopped it into wood and brought it to a run-down shack at the edge of the forest. "How will I pay you?" asked the widowed occupant. "I will trust you," replied the rabbi, before kindling the fire and leaving without a word. Children learn, also, about important New Year rituals, such as prayers for forgiveness (Selichot) at midnight on the Saturday before Rosh Hashanah, the giving of Tzedakah (charity), blessing and eating round Challah and apples dipped in honey (for a sweet and full year), tossing crumbs into moving water (Tashlich, to throw away our bad deeds), and the blowing of the Shofar, the ram's horn, to announce the beginning of the year, remind us that God is ruler and judge and warn us to improve ourselves. Alyssa A. Lappen
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