This is the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the new Jewish year 5770.
I should tell you that I am not Jewish. My husband, Ira, is. Through him and his family, over the years I have come to appreciate the spirit of this holiday–its joyousness and its call for reflection. So whether you are a believer or not—and I’m not, except sometimes, when I am, but usually not for too long—I wish all of my Jewish blog readers, Twitter followers, and everyone else, L’Shana Tova, a good year.
I am grateful. Since I both posted my first blog entry and began tweeting in April I’ve made many new friends and have learned so much. For example, just yesterday Debbie Jacobs aka @fearfuldogs tweeted that it is a mitzvah (a good deed in Judaism) to feed your animals before you feed yourself! I love that. (I am at this very moment, in honor of the occasion, biting my tongue and otherwise forcibly restraining myself from going all sarcastic about how such a kindness would undermine your dominant alpha status in your pack.)
Furthermore, according to Jewish teaching, we should make arrangements for feeding our pets BEFORE we bring them into hour homes for the first time. Is that cool or what? I found that little bit of wisdom here.
Two things I love about Rosh Hashanah are eating apples and honey and hearing the blowing of the shofar, a ram’s horn. Apples and honey represent our heartfelt wishes for a sweet year.
So as I dip this sweet golden apple into honey—and try not to drip it all over my keyboard while keeping Sadie from snatching it out of my hand—here’s hoping that you and all your loved ones enjoy a very sweet year.
In my unscientific polling of Ira (n=1) and browsing a few websites, I couldn’t find firm agreement as to what it means for a Rabbi to blow the shofar. (Nor should I have expected to, really. You know the affectionate story, ask three Jews a question and you’ll get at least six different answers.) So, I’ll share with you the one I especially liked: The call of the shofar reminds us each of our own calling, the calling to live beautiful lives. I found that here.
And, because many of you might not know what blowing the shofar sounds like, and because this is, after all, a dog blog, and, well, just watch this video. You’ll see:
May you and all the beings you love be inscribed in the Book of Life for another year. 🙂
Blessings.
Deborah and Sadie
Love this! I forgot about Talk Like a Pirate Day AND Rosh Hashanah 🙁 My two best friends were brought up Jewish and we used to have Challah, apples and honey on Rosh Hashanah 🙂
Ha! I love how you snuck in what you would have said about dominance if you were disposed to be sarcastic… And that is the funniest video I’ve seen in a long time. I’m sending it to all my Jewish dog loving friends!
Oh, dear! That made me laugh.
I just finished reading Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union. Interesting read … once you overcome the long Alaskan words and yiddish “slang.”
Very sweet blog. In case you missed my Talk like a Pirate Day tweet “Ahoy Vey!” I think you got it a bit off though. Ask 3 jews a questions and get three questions back. “Why would ask such a question?” lol