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Post by hollygail on Sept 30, 2016 5:29:01 GMT
Welcome!!! You have entered a space where all people are invited to gather to discuss matters of Spirituality, in mutual respect and friendliness: "Considering...Spirituality." Here, the focus is on personal spirituality and not dogma. We welcome with open arms people from any, all, and no religious/faith backgrounds, and those who practice spirituality on their own, to join us for a discussion centered on a higher consciousness. Each day there will be a quote, question, or discussion prompt presented for all to ponder and respond to.
**In maintaining an atmosphere of comfort and trust, we do not allow proselytizing (the effort of trying to convert others) or the denigrating of the religions and viewpoints of others. We also avoid bringing up topics such as politics, hot button social issues, or anything that can be considered divisive**
As this was a WW board, we also discuss our personal wellness, including our weight management program. We share our struggles and our triumphs regarding such as well as discuss things like family, friends, jobs, hobbies, outside interests, etc... We strive to build each other up with loving support in a positive manner. Let us not ever tear one another down in any way, shape or form.
Regular thread starters for the time being are:
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday: Gary / Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: Holly
Yet if anyone is so inclined, please feel free to start a new thread by beginning with the title: "Considering....(topic -q/q)", post this introduction (by way of copy & paste) then follow that with a post putting forth a question and/or quote (with or without some explanation) for us to ponder today. The topic can be inspired by your personal faith, but please do remember that anyone from other spiritual paths should be able to answer it.
Shalom, Love & Light, Blessed Be, Namaste...
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Post by hollygail on Sept 30, 2016 6:06:05 GMT
I found an article that may be of interest. It's specifically about Rosh haShanah, but I thought we might use it as a jumping off place for a conversation. I need to tell whoever reads this that I will be off the computer beginning Sunday evening and continuing through Tuesday evening. Gary, I'm not ignoring you; I'll be marking the beginning of the Ten Days of Awe (Rosh haShanah starts Sunday evening and ends Tuesday evening).
Here's a copy of the article. I'm making very few editing changes.
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tinyurl.com/z9cf4wy
9 Things You Didn’t Know About Rosh haShanah
...
Rosh haShanah, the Jewish New Year, starts at sundown on Sunday, Oct. 2. It’s known for apples dipped in honey, record synagogue attendance, and as the kickoff to the Days of Awe, which culminate in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Some facts about the holiday:
1. It’s traditional to eat a “new fruit,” or fruit you haven’t eaten for a long time, on the second night of Rosh haShanah.
This tasty custom is often observed by eating a pomegranate, a fruit rich in symbolism (and nutrients). It developed as a technical solution to a legal difficulty surrounding the recitation of the sh’heh-chi-YAHnoo blessings on the second day of the holiday. Use it as an excuse to scout out the “exotic fruit” section of your grocery store’s produce department.
Q#1: Do you scout out the exotic fruit section of your local grocery store's produce department? Where I live, there are Asian markets I sometimes shop in. I look through the fresh produce sections carefully. Sometimes I ask a woman looking at the same fruit or vegetable I am how to prepare it. I get new recipes for "exotic" produce that way.
2. And speaking of fruit, apples and honey (and pomegranates) aren’t the only symbolic foods traditionally enjoyed on Rosh haShanah.
Other foods traditionally eaten to symbolize wishes for prosperity and health in the new year include dates, string beans, beets, pumpkins, leeks — and even fish heads. Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews often hold Rosh haShanah seders in which a blessing is said for each food, and they are eaten in a set order. If you want to try this but are a vegetarian or just grossed out by fish heads, consider using gummy fish or fish-shaped crackers instead
Q#2: Are there traditionally eaten foods to symbolize wishes for health or good fortune or anything like that in your spiritual path? (I'm not asking about turkey on Thanksgiving, for instance; I'm asking about foods for symbols of wishes for positive things for yourself, your family, and/or for other people)
3. Rosh haShanah liturgy has inspired at least two rock songs.
Avinu Malkeinu, the prayer that means “Our Father, Our King,” inspired Mogwai, a Scottish post-rock-trio to write a 20-minute epic song “My Father, My King.” The song, which borrows the prayer’s traditional melody, is alternately soft and beautiful and loud and raging. More famously, Leonard Cohen’s “Who By Fire” draws on the Unetanah Tokef, which many consider the most important prayer in the High Holiday liturgy.
Q#3: you can listen to these on Youtube...
4. Tens of thousands of Chasidic Jews make a pilgrimage to Ukraine for an annual Rosh haShanah gathering known as a “kibbutz.”
This lively gathering, which dates back to the early 19th century, takes place in Uman, the town where Nachman (rabbi, poet, leader) of Breslov, founder of the Breslover sect and great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov (Rabbi Yisroel ben Eliezer, 1698-1760, developer of a more joyful way to celebrate Judaism rather than only a studious way), was buried. Breslov believed Rosh haShanah was the most important holiday, hence the timing of the pilgrimage.
Q#4: any pilgrimmages along your spiritual path?
5. It is traditional to fast on the day after Rosh haShanah.
The Fast of Gedaliah is not a cleanse for those who overindulged at holiday meals, but a day set aside to commemorate the assassination of Gedaliah, the Babylonian-appointed official charged with administering the Jewish population remaining in Judea following the destruction of the Temple in 586 B.C.E. Unlike Yom Kippur, which comes just a few days later, this fast lasts only from sunrise to sundown.
Q#5: Gedaliah is not someone whose name is known to many Hebrew school students, so people consider him one of the less important historical figures. Along your spiritual path, are there historical figures may be considered "not so important" but still known?
6. If Rosh haShanah feels "late" this year, that’s because it is.
The latest date that Rosh haShanah can fall on the Gregorian calendar is October 5 (as happened in 1967 and will happen again in 2043). This year isn’t quite that late, but it’s on the later end because we are in a Jewish leap year — which is more complicated than the Gregorian leap year of adding a day to February every four years. To coordinate the traditional lunar year with the solar year and ensure that the season in which a holiday falls remains consistent, Judaism worked out a system of 19-year cycles, during which there are seven leap years. Instead of adding a day, the Jewish calendar adds a full month — a second Adar — to the year.
Q#6: I decided once not to memorize how to figure out the 19-year cycle of when it's going to be a leap year; I just look at a Jewish calendar for the spring months to see if Adar is followed by Adar 2... Does your spiritual path have its own "calendar"? If so, tell us something about it.
7. American Jews used to exchange telegrams for Rosh haShanah. A LOT of them.
In 1927, the Western Union Telegraph Company reported that Jewish people send telegrams of congratulations and well-wishing much more frequently than members of any other group. In particular, they exchanged thousands of messages for Rosh haShanah. “So great has the volume of this traffic become that the Western Union has instituted a special service similar to those for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter,” JTA wrote. “This special service, started in 1925, showed a 30 percent increase in 1926.”
Q#7: Okay, this one was new to me. I'm aware that many people send a snail mail greeting card (and in recent years, email greeting cards) for Rosh haShanah. Are there any "religious" holidays (other than, for instance, Christmas or Easter) for which people send greetings?
8. Rosh haShanah was not always the Jewish New Year.
In the Torah, the beginning of the year was clearly set at the beginning of the month of Nisan, in the spring (Passover is the 15th of Nisan). However, sometime between the Torah and the codification of the Mishnah (round numbers, between approximately 300 BCE and 200CE), Rosh haShanah became the primary new year. The reasons are unclear, although some scholars theorize that it was because neighboring peoples in the ancient Near East celebrated their new years at this time.
Q#8: Any "new" years (other than January 1) along your spiritual path?
9. The shofar, the traditional ram’s horn blown on Rosh haShanah, is, well, stinky.
You have to get close to one to notice, but a common complaint is that these horns smell bad. According to online vendor The Shofar Man, all kosher shofars have a bit of a scent because they come from a dead animal. To mitigate the odor, he suggests applying a sealant to the inside of the shofar. Believe it or not, several competing products are marketed exclusively for the purpose of removing or neutralizing shofar smells. We can’t vouch for any of them, but perhaps if they don’t work for your shofar, you could use them for your shoes, bathroom or car.
[okay, that ending is quirky...]
I don't have a q/q for this one... Feel free to fill in the blank yourself...
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Post by glrogers67 on Sept 30, 2016 16:01:58 GMT
Holly, I am wondering if maybe we need another reset? For the past several weeks you and I have been the only participants on this thread and now you will be offline for a few days. In fact, we have been the only thread here for a few weeks. I am wondering if we need to move to another ProBoard to see if we can generate some interest in our group? Other than this one, the Weight Watchers message boards have been split into the following two ProBoards: us-gdt-ex-pats.freeforums.net/wwmessageboards.freeforums.net/Do you think we should repost our thread on one or both of these other ProBoards to see what kind of response we get? On to the q/qs: Q#1: Do you scout out the exotic fruit section of your local grocery store's produce department? Actually, no. When I first came back to WW I tried a few different fruits and buy grapes almost exclusively now, probably because they are a finger food not requiring any preparation. Q#2: Are there traditionally eaten foods to symbolize wishes for health or good fortune or anything like that in your spiritual path? In my family there is a superstition that if we eat black eyed peas on New Year's day we will have good luck throughout the year. Since I have been on my own I haven't even done that. Not sure that qualifies. Can't really think of any symbolic foods we eat other than the sacramental bread and water (communion) in our Sunday meeting. Q#3: you can listen to these on Youtube... I am not familiar with these songs. Q#4: any pilgrimmages along your spiritual path? Not really other than our semi-annual general conference some make an effort to travel to Salt Lake City for (which, by the way is this weekend and will be broadcast on BYU TV and in church buildings and radio stations and the internet all over the world). Q#5: Gedaliah is not someone whose name is known to many Hebrew school students, so people consider him one of the less important historical figures. Along your spiritual path, are there historical figures may be considered "not so important" but still known? Oh, I hear stories about historical figures in our church all the time that were not known to me. LDS church history is full of such stories of hardship and miracles. Much of it is available online. Q#6: I decided once not to memorize how to figure out the 19-year cycle of when it's going to be a leap year; I just look at a Jewish calendar for the spring months to see if Adar is followed by Adar 2... Does your spiritual path have its own "calendar"? If so, tell us something about it. Not really, although in the Book of Mormon their method of measuring time got reset a couple of times. First they measured time from when Lehi left Jerusalem (about 600 BC), then time was measured from the beginning of the reign of the judges (instead of kings), and then when Christ visited the Americas after His crucifixion time was measured from there. Q#7: Okay, this one was new to me. I'm aware that many people send a snail mail greeting card (and in recent years, email greeting cards) for Rosh haShanah. Are there any "religious" holidays (other than, for instance, Christmas or Easter) for which people send greetings? Again, not really. We send greetings for most of the traditional holidays. We do commemorate Pioneer Day on or around July 24 each year commemorating when Brigham Young first arrived in the Salt Lake valley. Individually we remember certain dates - for example the anniversary of my gf's baptism happens to fall on my granddaughter's birthday and she commemorates anniversaries of her parent's deaths and the like. Facebook is now sending out memories of posts from prior years for reposting, etc. Q#8: Any "new" years (other than January 1) along your spiritual path? We generally recommit ourselves to living gospel principles after each general conference (October and April). I generally take notes of things I need to work on after hearing conference talks. No comment on the shofar. |
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Post by hollygail on Sept 30, 2016 16:58:21 GMT
Gary, the first URL includes a board called Lifestyle where Jewish Musings resides (I go there daily). The second URL includes a board called Simply Filling (which is the program I follow) and I'm there daily as well. So I'm perfectly willing to go two places instead of three, which is what I'm doing now by coming here for our Considering... thread. If you think it's a good idea to try either/both of those URLs, feel free to start one on Sunday, with a caveat thread on this URL please so people who may lurk here will know where to find us...
Do you mind if I comment on your comments on today's q/qs?
1. Aren't most fruits "finger foods"?
4. If various Jewish conferences were broadcast, I suspect I'd be tuning in too...
I found myself crying this morning (for a very short time) when someone asked me how I was doing... I thought I was making progress in my own mourning for my friend, but I guess I'm not done yet... I'm going easy on myself, not taking on anything new right now. I'll be back to my old self pretty soon (at least I think so and I hope so).
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Post by Casey Bryant on Oct 12, 2016 8:21:56 GMT
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Post by Casey Bryant on Oct 12, 2016 8:22:59 GMT
Elite Glass Cards, originally an exclusive glass wedding invitation producer, now has an additional product line for any special, memorable events for which a unique gift is required, and has launched a website for the service. With so much of experience done with Hershel Clark. And she awarded winning designing and creating of glass cards. Elite Glass Cards has now extended its product offer to become the only company completely dedicated to designing, developing and providing high quality glass and crystal specialty cards to customers around the world that have an appreciation for the finer things. For more information about Elite Glass Cards and to view the product options, visit the website. eliteglasscards.com
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Post by glrogers67 on Oct 12, 2016 17:42:41 GMT
This forum is not for free commercial advertising. You can take out an ad with ProBoards if you want to advertise.
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Post by Elizabeth Mata on Oct 13, 2016 2:42:45 GMT
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