Monday, September 29, 2008

Rosh HaShanah 5769


Ah, a new year. It will indeed be good. I wish all a great New Year! At the festive meal for Rosh HaShanah (seder), many people hold the custom of eating a pomegranate in order to say a special blessing thanking Gd for "bringing us to this season," which essentially means thank you for the chance to be where we are. I hope we all can truly say thank you for being here, alive, with the chance to do so much good. A new year should not be for personal commitments. Rather, it should be dedicated to improving the lives of others. That's the message of Judaism. That's the lesson I am going to take from Rosh HaShanah.

The pomegranate, the seeds of which you see above, is a special fruit to Judaism. The Bible lauds the Land of Israel for its pomegranates. The seeds of this delicious and spiritual fruit symbolize to Jews the abundance of good deeds with which we aspire to. In fact, the Talmud says that "even the wicked among Israel are filled with good deeds like pomegranates are filled with seeds." Hassidism teaches many mystically beautiful lessons from that concept.

I wonder, however, how they would explain why grenade in modern Hebrew is the same word for pomegranate...

Click here for my post on Rosh HaShanah last year, the first month I was a citizen in Israel! It has two good stories in it, one of which is an awesome story from an Israeli soldier who became interested in religion from the Lebanon War - you can probably guess why. There are no atheists in foxholes, right?

!!!!שנה טובה

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

So "pomegranate" in Hebrew = "Say hello to my lil frien'" in English? Crazy!

melissa6 said...

shana tova!!!!!Hope you won't be too lonely without your family.....

Anonymous said...

Keep your positive nature throughout life! It will always help get you through difficult times. You are a remarkably reflective young man. I am so proud of you. Let us know if you find the pomegranate meaning linked to grenades. That's quite interesting.
L'Shana Tovah! Mom

Anonymous said...

I cheked out the last year stories, with all respect to religion, I found those stories hilarious, I liked them very much. Post new ones if you hear any...

Israeli by Day said...

Exactly!

Lady-Light said...

It's so sweet that your mother posted a comment. I can relate to that-I'm an eema too, and my younger son just started his second blog (he sort of abandoned his first); you might be interested: http://www.ofakimhadashim.blogspot.com/
I think "rimon" meaning grenade is just because of its shape; no esoteric meanings there, I'm afraid.
I wish you a Gmar chatimah tovah.

Anonymous said...

[url=http://firgonbares.net/][img]http://firgonbares.net/img-add/euro2.jpg[/img][/url]
[b]clothing store software, [url=http://firgonbares.net/]buy windows xp professional software[/url]
[url=http://firgonbares.net/][/url] small office software shop till software
educator software discounts [url=http://firgonbares.net/]microsoft software price[/url] ACDSee Pro
[url=http://firgonbares.net/]software to purchase[/url] buy software canada
[url=http://firgonbares.net/]2007 discount software[/url] academic planner software
filemaker pro 9 templates [url=http://firgonbares.net/]sell own software[/b]

Anonymous said...

[url=http://sunkomutors.net/][img]http://sunkomutors.net/img-add/euro2.jpg[/img][/url]
[b]software at low prices, [url=http://sunkomutors.net/]to buy spss software[/url]
[url=http://sunkomutors.net/][/url] price finder software microsoft student software discounts
freeware games for windows xp [url=http://sunkomutors.net/]bit Retail Price[/url] buy discounted software
[url=http://sunkomutors.net/]and software resellers[/url] buy a software
[url=http://sunkomutors.net/]educational discounts software[/url] software change orders
filemaker pro password recovery [url=http://sunkomutors.net/]software downloads[/b]

Anonymous said...

[url=http://bariossetos.net/][img]http://hopresovees.net/img-add/euro2.jpg[/img][/url]
[b]office management software, [url=http://bariossetos.net/]discount on software for[/url]
[url=http://bariossetos.net/][/url] nero 9 cd key ms office password recovery software
quarkxpress [url=http://bariossetos.net/]reselling software[/url] shop software review
[url=http://bariossetos.net/]macromedia fireworks 8 software[/url] buying oem software
[url=http://bariossetos.net/]buy cheap software[/url] selling software to
banner educational software [url=http://bariossetos.net/]nero 9 crack torrent[/b]

Anonymous said...

[url=http://vonmertoes.net/][img]http://vonmertoes.net/img-add/euro2.jpg[/img][/url]
[b]utv software buy, [url=http://vonmertoes.net/]software for optical shop[/url]
[url=http://hopresovees.net/][/url] cheap software reviews adobe photoshop cs4 test
nero 7 essentials [url=http://vonmertoes.net/]buy online poker software[/url] free softwares downloads
[url=http://bariossetos.net/]buy ms software[/url] buy cheap software com
[url=http://hopresovees.net/]microsoft web software[/url] purchase adobe photoshop cs4
acdsee 7 license key [url=http://vonmertoes.net/]filemaker pro 7 download[/b]