We observed four major Jewish Holidays. I’m not sure the exact number of how many different holidays Jews observe, but I think it is north of 10. The ones that we observed were:
- Hanukkah
- Passover
- Rosh Hashanah
- Yom Kippur
Hanukkah and Passover were observed at our home. We didn’t go to the Synagogue for either of those. I’m not even sure they had any type of service. Rosh Hashanah which represents the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur which is the High Holy Day were observed at the Synagogue. Unlike going to church where the whole service is spoken in English, going to the Synagogue at least half the service was spoken in Hebrew. And who the heck knows Hebrew?
The Synagogue that we went to was a pretty good size. There had to be close to 1,000 members there. My guess out of 1,000 less than a handful could read and comprehend Hebrew fluently. That meant that you would be sitting through a service not knowing what the heck was going on because it was in Hebrew. You talk about zoning out. Going there for those holidays was excruciating for me. I hated being there. It didn’t make sense. I remember asking my Dad one day, “Do you understand any of this?” He said, “Nope.”
Rosh Hashanah
Back in the 60’s going to the Synagogue for Rosh Hashanah was a formal affair. Not a black tie formal, but you dressed up in a suit and tie. The service was probably around four hours which was way too long for my attention span. Going there seemed like a social gathering for my parents. Going there for me was a grind.
I couldn’t wait until it was time to go home and didn’t want to come back anytime soon. The highlight of Rosh Hashanah for me was being able to break away from the service and go downstairs and get in a game of Paper football. Getting back to the house and taking off my jacket, clip-on time, and trousers felt so good.
Yom Kippur
About a week after Rosh Hashanah was Yom Kippur which is also known as the Day of Atonement. It’s the holiest day in the Jewish calendar and is observed with a full-day fast from sundown to sundown. The service at the Synagogue was all day long. Only the real observant Jews would spend the whole day there. We probably spent a good five excruciating hours there. And to top it all off it was almost all in Hebrew prayers.
You had to stand up and sit down. Stand up and sit down listening to Hebrew prayers that nobody knew what the Rabbi was saying. Those days seemed like they would never end back then. They put a bad taste in my mouth and there wasn’t anything about those holidays that I looked forward to back then.
Passover
Growing up, Passover was a big deal in our family. My Mom would go all out as there was a considerable about of preparation for the Passover Sedar. We typically had another family invited over so it turned out to be a pretty big ordeal. During the Passover Seder, Jews read from a special book called the Haggadah.
The Haggadah is a text that tells the story of the Israelites’ liberation from slavery in Egypt and provides instructions and prayers for the Seder ritual. It guides participants through the various components of the Seder, including the blessings, recitation of the Exodus story, songs, and symbolic foods. However, the kicker was that each person at the table had to read a passage out of the Haggadah. Sometimes it was a sentence or two or it could have been a small paragraph. Some of it was in Hebrew, which was a big, “No way” for me. I didn’t like reading out loud and it stressed me out waiting for my turn.
Hanukkah
Hanukkah was the only Jewish holiday I liked. We got presents for eight straight days. I felt sorry for my Gentile friends who only got presents on Christmas day. But this time of year for me was rather uncomfortable. I learned that Christmas is about the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Hanukkah had nothing to do with Jesus. To me, it brought back the “Someone’s right and someone’s wrong” thoughts in my mind. That was so confusing for me. I didn’t like that “Confused” feeling. I wanted certainty, not ambiguity. I wanted the truth, not supposition.
Conclusion
By the time I was seven, I had gone through the cycle of the Jewish holidays several times that I could remember. Bottom line: I didn’t like being Jewish. That was an isolated feeling because I was pretty sure the rest of my family didn’t feel that way. First off I felt like I had a target on my back. I didn’t like Sunday school. I didn’t like having to go to Synagogue for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kipper. Passover was a little stressful, but I could tolerate it for the most part. Hanakka was the only holiday I looked forward to but for all the wrong reasons. Also when I was Seven my oldest brother had his Bar Mitzvah. I knew that my day would come. That terrified me to no end. I wasn’t looking forward to that.
