By Sonja Haisma For some time there is talk on YouTubefilms about the next four total lunar eclipses , which look like blood red moons. They occur  at dates of some  Biblical Jewish High Holydays: Passover and Sukkot (Tabernacles).The last one, a total eclipse, occurred on July 22 of this year 2018. Also in 2015...
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On the fifteenth day of the seventh biblical month Tishri we celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. It is a feast of rejoicing and gratefulness to God. For seven days we live in a sukkah, a hut, which we build ourselves and decorate. The roof of the sukkah is not closed. We need to be able...
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In the Talmud it is written that the women have saved the life of Moses. The women that played a role in his life. Because of this  it was possible that Israël was being saved from the slavery in Egypt according to the rabbis.  When the oppression of Pharao towards Israël became heavier and heavier...
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Celebration of Hanukkah The biblical month of Kislev is the month in which the festival of Hanukkah is always celebrated. During the period of the Second Temple, which had been rebuilt by Ezra and Nehemiah, the Greeks, under the gründliche leadership of Antiochus IV, invaded Israel. These hostilities against Israel had begun from the time...
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In the year 1944 a group of ragged Jewish prisoners gathered for yet another very tiring work assignment in concentration camp Auschwitz. Jews were starved, tortured and murdered everywhere. The least expression of Jewish faith was strictly prohibited, reasons for execution by Nazi guards. But on that Rosh HaShanah, a group of courageous Jews managed...
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Seven weeks after the holiday called ‘Pesach’, we celebrate Shavuot, the holiday of harvesting. The time in between these two holidays is the one in which Israel harvests barley. This is the time that Israel produces vegetables and fruit. This means it is a very busy period for those who work on the land. However,...
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Heavenly present In a short, intensivce course of 50 days Israel got prepared in order to receive a heavenly present. Those 50 days started with the exodus from Egypt. A literally killing life of slavery and the ten great kicks (plagues) with which the Lord delivered Israel made a heavy impression, both on us and...
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Space to think The month of Niesan 5779 is the month in which we celebrate Passover and remove chamets from our homes in advance. Chamets, sourdough, is spiritually the symbol of our puffiness and sins: all things that keep us from a healthy, reconciled relationship with the Eternal. Passover teaches us that there is no...
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Liberation Rosh Hashana starts this year on Friday evening September 18 after sunset. The month of Tishri is the seventh month of the Jewish calendar year. Once it was the first month and that is why the first of the three autumn festivals is called: Israeli New Year, Rosh Hashanah. But since the Exodus from...
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The round loaf with ‘no beginning and no end’ symbolizes continuity of life. This challah is baked for Rosh HaShanah, the first and most important New Moon feast at the beginning of the Jewish calendar. We wish each other Shana Tovah, means “A good year”. The sweetness symbolizes the goodness that we receive from our...
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