Notes for Religious Studies 369:

Introduction to Judaism

Minor Festivals and Fasts

Viewing the New Moon
(from a manual of Jewish customs,
Amsterdam 1695)

Rosh Hodesh: The New Moon

• The beginning of each month, determined by the appearance of the new moon, is also celebrated in Rosh Hodesh. It is marked by additions to the prayers, but has few mandatory observances.
• In some traditions, Rosh Hodesh is celebrated especially by women.

Purim: The Feast of Lots

• Purim is based on the book of Esther and celebrated on the 14^th day of Adar. It celebrates the rescue of the Jews (under the leadership of Esther and Mordecai) from a plot (by Haman) to kill them.
• Major observances:
1. The reading of the Scroll of Esther (Evening and morning).
2. Exchange of gifts (food)
3. Charity for the poor
4. A festive meal held in the afternoon.
• A Talmudic tradition recommends drinking "until one cannot distinguish between 'Cursed is Haman' and 'Blessed is Mordecai.'
• European Jewish communities adopted some practices of the Christian pre-Lent season, such as carnivals and masquerades.

Hanukkah: The Feast of Dedication

• Hanukkah begins on the 25^th of Kislev.
• Hanukkah is observed in commemoration of the Maccabean victory over the Syrians in 168 BCE, and the rededication of the Temple that had been desecrated.
• According to Rabbinic interpretation, the festival celebrates the divine miracle of the flame miraculously burning in the Temple for eight days.
• During the festival one candle is lit on the first night, with an additional candle being lit each of the eight night.
• Traditional foods are fried in oil: Ashkenazic Jews eat potato pancakes, Sepharadic Jews eat donuts.

Historical Fast Days

A series of communal fast days commemorates stages in the destruction of the first Temple. Fasting is observed during daylight hours.

• Tenth of Tevet (in winter) marks the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.
• The Seventeenth of Tammuz marks the beginning of the destruction of the walls of Jerusalem (by the Babylonians and later the Romans).
• The fast of Gedaliah ben Ahikam (on the 3rd day of Tishrei, following Rosh Hashanah) commemorates the assassination of the last Jewish governor of Judea after the Babylonian conquest.
• The major fast is the Ninth of Av (in the summer), the anniversary of the destructions of the first and secone Temples. It is a full 24+-hour fast with mourning customs.
  The date is associated with several catastrophes throughout history.
• The three weeks between the 17^th of Tammuz and the Ninth of Av are observed as a time of quasi-mourning, especially the last nine days.

Modern Days of Commemoration

• Yom Hashoah: on the 27^th day of Nissan the Holocaust is remembered. It is the anniversary of the Jewish uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto.
• Yom Ha'azma'ut: Israel's Independence Day is celebrated on the 5^th of Iyar.
• Yom Yerushalayim: Jerusalem Day. The 28^th of Iyar, is the anniversary of the re-unification of Jerusalem in 1967, celebrated largely by politically right-wing religious groups in Israel.