Every year, thousands of men abandon their families on the High Holidays to prostrate the grave of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov in the Ukrainian town of Uman. Is there a moral or Halakhic problem with this practice? (Ynetnews)
Israeli acute paralysis virus take aims at Rosh Hashanah observance. (Haaretz)
A talk with Maurice Kamins, who “estimates that he has crafted between 150 and 200 shofars since he began making them in the late 1980s.� The sound that the shofar gives when blown is triggered, for the first time, by a belt sander.(Jewish SF)
A collection of Rosh Hashanah links for kids. (NJ Jewish News)
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has sent out Rosh Hashanah cards and now there’s a small stink. (Haaretz)
Rabbi Benjamin Lau sets forth two elements of the holiday which “may seem to be contradictory, but together they give Rosh Hashanah its unique character.� (Haaretz)
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Rosh Hashanah
Pronounced: roshe hah-SHAH-nah, also roshe ha-shah-NAH, Origin: Hebrew, the Jewish new year.
shofar
Pronounced: sho-FAR or SHO-far, Origin: Hebrew, a ram’s horn that is sounded during the month of Elul, on Rosh Hashanah, and on Yom Kippur. It is mentioned numerous times in the Bible, in reference to its ceremonial use in the Temple and to its function as a signal-horn of war.
