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Rosh Hashanah, celebrated on the first and second days of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, is the Jewish New Year. It commemorates the creation of the world and marks the beginning of the Ten Days of Repentance leading up to Yom Kippur.
It is called "a day of shofar blasting" (Numbers 29:1). Hence it is the day when, every year, G-d "takes stock" of Creation, judging our actions. Rosh Hashanah is a two-day festival which we honour and enjoy with special (new) clothing and festive meals. There is a prohibition against certain types of work. We light holiday candles and recite kiddush over wine. We eat sweet apples dipped in honey, in prayer that we merit a good, sweet year. The highlight of the daily prayer service is the sounding of the shofar, the ram's horn. For the synagogue service, we use a special prayer book called a machzor.There are a number of food customs associated with Rosh Hashana: the dipping of apples in honey, coupled with a prayer for a sweet year, round challahs, eating the heads of fish, not eating nuts, and eating an new-season fruit.
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Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is celebrated on the tenth day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei. It is the most important fast day of the year, known as the Sabbath of Sabbaths, and is marked by fasting and a full day of prayer. Yom Kippur begins with the Kol Nidrei service on the evening of Yom Kippur, continues the next morning with a special day-long liturgy and culminates in the Neilah service the following afternoon.
The shofar blast by which Yom Kippur closes symbolizes the end of the Judgment period and a new beginning for the year ahead.
The prayer service for the day is found in the traditional machzor.
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Sukkot, which is one of the most joyous and festive holidays in the Jewish year, marks a drastic transition from the "days of awe," the ten days from Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur, that are so very solemn and serious. Hence, Sukkot is often referred to as Zeman Simchateinu - "The Season of Our Rejoicing."
Sukkot, literally means booths or temporary dwellings, in which we are commanded to live in during the seven days of the holiday. This commandment is meant to remind us of the forty year period in which the Children of Israel wandered in the desert.
Sukkot begins on the 15th day of Tishrei. The seventh day of Sukkot is called Hoshanah Rabbah.
Immediately following Sukkot is the holiday of Shemini Atzeret, "the Eighth day of Solemn Assembly," and Simchat Torah, the Day of Celebrating the Torah. As the name of the holiday implies, Atzeret ("Assembly"), was the time during the historic days of the Temples in Jerusalem, the populace gathered, once in seven years, for a public reading of the Law.
On Simchat Torah, the annual reading of the Torah in the synagogue is concluded, to begin again with Bereishit the following week.
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Also known as the Festival of Lights, Chanukah commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple after the successful struggle for religious freedom in the 2nd Century B.C.E. Chanukah is celebrated for eight days, from the 25th of Kislev to the 2nd of Tevet (usually during the month of December). During Chanukah, we light candles each night, recalling the miracle by which the oil in the menorah continued to burn during the rededication of the Temple.
Two objects have come to symbolize Chanukah: the Menora and the Dreidel. A Chanukiya (or menora) holds eight candles, representing one for each day of the festival and a separate candle holder called the Shamash, which holds the candle by which the other eight candles are lit. One candle is lit on the first night, and an additional candle is added each night until we light all eight candles on the last night of the holiday.
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Purim, which is celebrated on the fourteenth day of the Hebrew month of Adar (usually during March or April), is a joy-filled holiday that commemorates the story of Esther, a story of the endangerment and rescue of the Jewish people in ancient Persia. As we read in Megillat Esther (the Scroll of Esther), the heroics of Esther and her uncle, Mordechai, foil the plot of the evil Haman against the Jews of ancient Persia. We celebrate the retelling of this story with gifts, dressing up in costumes, and other expressions of joy.
The central traditions associated with Purim are: (1) the reading of the Megillah, the Scroll of Esther, which retells the story of the rescue of the Jewish people from disaster in Ancient Persia and is accompanied by noisemaking every time the name of the villain, Haman, is recited; (2) the sending of gifts to friends and to the poor (Mishloach Manot and Matonot L'Evyonim); and (3) the festive Purim meal (Seudat mitzvah). Other Purim traditions include drinking liquor in celebration of the day, performing comic skits known as Purim spiels, and dressing in costumes. The food most associated with Purim is hamentashen, triangular cookies with filling supposedly reminiscent of Haman's hat, or in some traditions, his ear. It is also traditional to eat kreplach, which are also triangular.
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Passover, known in Hebrew as Pesach, is the festival that commemorates the Exodus of the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. Running for eight days in the Diaspora (only seven in Israel) from the 15th through the 22nd of the Hebrew month of Nissan (usually coinciding with the end of March or the beginning of April), Passover is one of the three major Biblical pilgrimage festivals along with Shavuot and Sukkot.
The major observances associated with the holiday are the Seder, a ceremonial meal on the first and second nights of Passover (only the first night in Israel), the eating of Matzah (unleavened bread), and the prohibition on eating Chametz ("leavened" foods containing fermented grain products).
The Seder, which takes place on the first two nights of Passover (only the first in Israel) is the central event in celebrating Passover. Over the course of the night, we retell the story of the Exodus from slavery in Egypt through the Haggadah.
Even the table itself is different from the dinner table of the rest of the year, set with special Passover dishes and silverware. In addition to the three pieces of Matzah on the table, the special Seder Plate displays the items that remind us of the Exodus story as we retell it over the course of the evening.
Over the course of the Seder, we explain the symbols and retell the story of the Exodus as contained in the Haggadah. We also drink four glasses of wine, symbolizing, among other things, the four stages of the Exodus. We pour a fifth cup of wine, the Cup of Elijah, as an offering for the Prophet Elijah, for whom we open the door to invite in during the Seder.
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Shavuot is the two-day festival celebrating the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Together with Passover and Sukkot, Shavuot is one of the three Biblical pilgrimage festivals. It is celebrated on the 6th and 7th of the Hebrew month of Sivan.
The name Shavuot means "weeks," referring to the fact that Shavuot occurs seven full weeks after the festival of Pesach, commemorating the Exodus from Egypt. Shavuot is unique in that it is the only festival for which no fixed date is mentioned. Instead, the date of Shavuot is 49 days after the second day of Pesach. The 49 days, by which time the wheat harvest was to have started in ancient Israel, is known as Sefirat HaOmer, the counting of the Omer. (An Omer is a measure of barley that was offered in the Temple).
Shavuot is also known as Z'man Matan Torateinu -- "the time of the giving of the Torah," referring to the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Seven weeks after departing Egypt, the Israelites assembled at Mount Sinai to receive Torah.
Other names for Shavuot include Chag Ha'Katzir -- "the festival of the wheat harvest," and Chag Ha'Bikurim -- "the feast of the first fruits" (referring to the offerings in the Temple of the first fruits of the seven species associated to the Land of Israel (wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates).
Shavuot is sometimes referred to as Atzeret, meaning "conclusion". This name refers to the view that Shavuot brings to conclusion the uninterrupted period that begins with Pesach as the purpose of the Exodus was realized with the giving of the Torah. Finally, the Greek name for Shavuot is Pentecost, meaning "fifty," referring to the fifty days between Pesach and Shavuot.
We read the book of Ruth on the morning of the second day of Shavuot. The Book of Ruth, one of the five Megillot (scrolls), tells the story of Ruth, a young Moabite woman, who after various trials and hardships, accepts the Jewish faith and becomes instrumental in the founding of the Davidic dynasty.