Yom Kippur – The Day of Atonement

The Yom Kippur fast begins at sunset and concludes approximately 40 minutes after sunset on the following day. The holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur is the Jewish day of atonement, on which are determined personal and national fates for the coming year. Synagogue services, including regular and penitential prayers, a recounting of the Holy Temple atonement service, and a public reading of the entire Book of Jonah, continue for most of the day. One shofar blast is sounded at sunset, marking the end of Yom Kippur.

Yom Kippur in Israel is a day like no other day in any other country in the world. Beginning just before Yom Kippur evening, the entire country shuts down. The buses and trains stop running. The radio and TV stations shut down and Ben-Gurion International Airport is closed.

As evening approaches, traffic virtually stops on the roads and highways. A silence decends upon the land. The only vehicles that you will see on the city roads is an occasional ambulance with lights flashing (but no siren), or a patrolling police car. In recent years however, an occassional private vehicle can be seen traveling on the roads.

The excited barking of dogs can be heard above the din. It’s almost as if even the dogs sense that there is something special and different about Yom Kippur evening. As night falls, the streets fill with people out taking a leisurely stroll. With no local television or radio stations, it has become the custom for people to take a stroll and to visit their friends who are within walking distance.

According to studies, about 75% of the Jewish population in Israel fast on Yom Kippur, even those who do not consider themselves to be religious.

There is an age-old Jewish custom sometimes referred to as “bet’n Lekach,” or “ask for honey cake” before Yom Kippur.

Honey is a physical expression of the sweetness we wish each other every moment of the new year.

In addition, in case it was decreed upon us On High to become needy of the benevolence of others during the upcoming year, we pray that we need ask for nothing more than the honey cake graciously granted us by our friends.

Yom Kippur in Tel Aviv

The Jewish new year – Rosh Ha’Shana

The Jewish New Year (Rosh Ha’Shana), is celebrated on the first and second days of the Hebrew month of Tishrie. The original Babylonian name, Tishrie, derives from a word meaning: ‘to begin.’ The ancient Semitic peoples thought of the year as beginning in the autumn, at the time of the late harvest.

During the festive holiday meals, it is customary to dip a piece of bread into honey as a token of the sweet year which it is hoped will come. In Israel particularly, it is customary to dip a piece of apple into honey before eating it, for the same reason.

In some communities, loaves of bread for the festival meal are baked in the form of ladders to symbolize the fortunes of men in the year ahead: some ascending and others descending life’s ladder.

The custom of sending greeting cards just before Rosh Ha’Shana is not supported by Jewish tradition, though it is a widespread practice outside of Israel. Within today’s Israel, many people do not send greeting cards to each other on Rosh Ha’Shana. Instead, they pick up the telephone or cellular phone, and wish their friends and relatives all the best on the coming new year. Although they also send electronic E-Mail greetings and faxes to business associates and friends, the number one popular method has over the past 30 years, gradually become the sending of flowers to close relatives and loved ones.

Welcome to the Hebrew Calendar support site

Hebrew Calendar for plam webOS is a Hebrew Calendar similar to the Calendar application built in on the Palm pre.

Main Features:
-        Jewish Holidays (in a list of the holidays and their dates)
-        Support for Diaspora or Israel Sedra schemes
-        Hebrew month view
-        Gregorian month view
-        Jewish holidays embedded in month view
-        Shows the “parsha” for the week
-        Phases of the Moon
-        Easy navigation between months/years.

Description for use

Use the left and right navigation arrows or swipe your finger quickly to scroll between the months.

Click on the month title to jump to a Hebrew or Gregorian date, or use the Holiday list to jump to the date of a holiday.

for questions and support please email:

hebrewcalendar [at] yahoo.com