Jonathan: Hey John, how are you?
John: Hello Jonathan, I’m great. What’s new?
Jonathan: What’s new? It’s the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. That’s new.
John: Huh? Rashah Shanni?
Jonathan: No. Rosh Hashanah. You said, Rashah Shanni, meaning, Shani is wicked.
John: Oh sorry. How do you say it, “Rosh Hashanah.”
Jonathan: Yeah, you got it.
John: So what are your plans for the new year. Are you going to get together with your friends, have a party, have some drinks, eat some chips and dips, listen to good music, dance…
Jonathan: Wow. Take it easy. This is the Jewish New Year John. It’s a holiday, meaning a “holy day.” We do things a little bit different than your new year.
John: Oh yeah, tell me about it.
Jonathan: Okay. Well we also get together, but we meet in the synagogue. But we don’t party together, we pray together.
John: Pray? That doesn’t sound like fun.
Jonathan: You’re right. It’s not fun. It’s more like powerful. We get connected with God.
John: Okay. So what no drinks, no food, no music?
Jonathan: Actually, we do all that stuff but just a little bit differently. We don’t just drink, we make kiddush over a glass of red wine. We don’t have chips and dips, but do dip apples in honey and bless one another for a sweet, new year.
John: Oh, that sounds pretty cool.
Jonathan: Yes it is.
John: Do you listen to music?
Jonathan: Not exactly. We sound a shofar though. It’s a horn of a ram.
John: Now that sounds really cool. Why do you do that?
Jonathan: Yes it is. When the rabbi sounds the shofar, we think about how we can better ourselves. We set new goals for the new year. You know, to put more meaning to our lives.
John: Sounds like a bit of “soul searching.”
Jonathan: I guess so. We also ask ourselves how we can better overcome all those animalistic forces in our soul.
John: Wow. You really try to raise the bar in your lives.
Jonathan: And you don’t?
John: No. The only bar that we set our sights on is the local bar down the street 😩 LOL