Our Jewish Calendar

“Time on earth is a pattern of wheels within wheels – the day, the week, the seasons, the year – and on each of the wheels Judaism has set its stamp.”

 These are the words of famous author and Pulitzer prizewinner, Herman Wouk. The Jewish holidays, our Torah, and Israel connect us to our Jewish past, present, and future providing a sense of stability and continuity.

The Jewish calendar provides us with many opportunities to look to the future and come together as a Jewish community. As an Innovative School Community, we travel through the year and celebrate the cycle of Jewish holidays and festivals. Each and every week we are immersed in the sacredness and sweetness of Shabbat prep. We make our challah dough, braid it, bake it, and it never makes it home! Then we are off to our joyful Kabbalat Shabbat experiences where the Rabbi tells meaningful stories and the Cantor leads us in a soulful celebration.

 In the fall, during Rosh HaShanah, we rejoice in the tradition of blowing the shofar, sharing our good wishes through verbal and written greetings while enjoying sweet round challah and apples dipped in honey. Also during the fall holiday celebrations, we have our meals in the sukkah during Sukkot in recognition of the Feast of Tabernacles and the Harvest Festival, dance with the Torah in celebration of the completion of the reading of the Torah at Simchat Torah, and celebrate our freedom to live as Jews by kindling the Chanukah lights and rededicating ourselves to living Jewishly. The chanukiah’s physical lights burn out but the light that they bring to our spirits, along with the light from our weekly Shabbat candles, are stored in our hearts and help to brighten the way each and every day. 

The world continues its journey around the sun and our Jewish calendar moves us forward on its annual cycle. We return to school after winter break and Tu B’shvat moves into our viewing lens. This nature focused holiday helps us to rekindle a spiritual awakening within us as we look with awe to the beautiful trees that nurture and enhance the planet and our very lives. The planet and its environment have been a “constant” in our lives. We recognize the importance of valuing and caring for our planet earth. As teachers, we want to prepare our children to ultimately assume responsibility as caregivers of the earth.

Our year continues with welcoming in the month of Adar on the Jewish calendar. This is a time of joy! Our learners engage in learning the Purim Story within M’Gillat Ester. Our younger learners dress up, make groggers, give mishlo-ah manot, and celebrate within a joyful community. Our older learners dive into putting on Purim plays depicting how the Jews were vulnerable to Haaman’s plot, how they came together to overcome an enemy, and how Esther risked her life to save the Jews! What a joyous time we all have all day long in our costumes for our “hidden identity”.

Passover marks the start of our spring season, the season of renewal. It is the perfect time to pause and look ahead to the many possibilities beyond the global crisis we have been living in. We celebrate as a school and temple wide community as our clergy and senior staff present a live Haggadah experience. We recognize that it is the first of the three agricultural and pilgrimage festivals and weave in the values of hospitality, Am Yisrael, freedom, and T’zedakah. 

During the counting of the Omer, we find ourselves joyfully celebrating Israel’s birthday and Yom Ha’atzmaut is filled with Israeli and Middle Eastern food, flag making, dancing and celebration! Then we move into Shavuot when the counting of the omer is complete and this solidifies our opportunity to see the beauty in the new life around us and helps us to renew our trust in the goodness of life as we celebrated the Jewish people coming one step closer to reaching the “Promise Land”, the Land of milk and honey, Israel!. 

 Our vision and dreams are nourished by the miracles of creation and our Jewish holiday calendar. As teachers our ears are open to the voices, ideas, wonders, and joys that come from our children. They have the power to teach us, the adults in their world, how to live through even the most challenging times and come out stronger. Our children’s innocence and open hearts guide us and we are all blessed daily.

B’Shalom,

Margie Zeskind