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| Rashashanna: A Holiday for Us All? |  |
| Location: Blogs Leanne's Blog |
 | | Posted by: Leanne | 9/11/2007 6:20 PM | Rashashanna begins tomorrow (September 12th) and lasts for ten days. It is the High Holy Holiday time for the Jewish community and as a Christian I plan to celebrate it as well. Why, you ask? Because of two reasons. First, because Jesus would have most certainly celebrated this holiday and if he found it a valuable part of his spiritual formation, I want to make it part of mine as well. And second, because I find it to be a beautiful reminder to all of us to practice repentance, prayer and charity--three of the things we could all use improvement on!
The scriptural basis for Rashashanna is found in Leviticus 23:24-25 and in this scripture God commands that a day be set apart and followed by ten days where thought and attention are given towards self reflection and acknowledging those parts of ourselves that need changed (Repentance or Tshuva), and discovering ways to be kinder and more giving and caring towards others in our lives (Charity or Tzedaka). This self reflection can only come through setting aside sacred time for prayer and mediation (Prayer or Tefilla).
Because the commandment for this is found in such an ancient text, we can be assured that Jesus must have celebrated this holiday. For those of us who are Christian, we can remember as we are doing this that Jesus did it was well. He made this holiday part of his yearly quest for spiritual purity and strength and if Jesus saw value in it, perhaps we should also look for it's meaning and importance.
For ten days Jesus observed this holiday and so will our Jewish friends and neighbors. I plan to set aside time each day for a time where I will ask myself:
Where have a failed at being the best person I can be for God this year? What changes do I need to make in my life to become the person God calls me to be?
Where can I make room and where does my heart need softened so that I can love those around me and serve them better and with greater love?
Then I plan to simply be in silent and prayer and listen to whatever God might say to me.
I invite you to join me in making the next ten days a holy time of prayer and reflection. And I want to thank my Jewish friends for sharing their faith tradition with me so that I can, along side them, find my way closer to God.
For those of you with kids: I found a wonderful website called Torahkids.com that has all kinds of beautiful coloring pages, stories and games to help children understand and celebrate this sacred holiday.
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