Warning: This has got a bit rambly but I want
to remember it for future reference! There’s a lot of religious terminology in
this post, so I’ve put a glossary at the bottom for anyone who wants to know.
Phew, the High Holydays are over and it’s time to relax
– sort of, except that Sukkot starts tomorrow evening! This is definitely the
festival month, with Rosh Hashanah, then Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) ten days
later, followed 5 days after that by Sukkot, and then Simchat Torah the
following week. After that there’s a long break until Chanukah (in mid-December
this year).
All the tidying and cleaning did get done before Rosh
Hashanah, largely due to a sterling effort by DH, who could be found defrosting
the freezer at 1am
the day before! Lest this sound like overkill, let me explain that the ice cube
trays were welded into the top drawer and this was the only way to make sure we
could do proper drinks before dinner on Wednesday. He also did various other
lengthy and unpleasant jobs and generally helped make the whole thing happen.
Our house is now more sorted than it’s been since we moved in!
The Erev Rosh Hashanah meal was lovely and the timings
for cooking all worked out well. DH teamed up with YouTube and managed to
deseed three pomegranates in about 20mins (thus gaining himself a job for
life). I did pretty much all the rest of the cooking over the two or three days
leading up to it. The apple-stuffed challahs turned out enormous and
very yummy, though could have done with being covered in foil and given an
extra 20 minutes (at least) in the oven – mental note for next year.
The lamb was fantastic, and ideal for this kind of
meal. I got a whole leg weighing something in the region of 3.4 kilos. With
this recipe I just had to throw a few ingredients in a bowl and mix them, pour
them over the lamb in a roasting tin, cover and stick it in the oven at 1.30. I
then ignored it until 6.30 when I removed the foil and ignored it for another
half an hour, got it out and left it to rest until we were ready to eat.
Simples!
All in all, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and my
mum and DH pitched into the clearing up so it was all done by the time we went
to bed. The leftovers were useful too – the salads lasted the next two nights
and the rice went well with the vegetarian ghormeh sabzi on Thursday evening.
The lamb was hugely expensive (we get locally-reared organic) BUT there was
enough left to make a really nice moussaka on Friday night and about 8 pasties
of various sizes. All together I worked out that we got about 20 portions from
it, so it doesn’t work out too badly, especially considering it was a special
occasion.
On Rosh Hashanah I stayed at home with Daniel during
the morning and we made cardboard shofars and Rosh Hashanah cards for
the people he knows best at shul. These were just apple and leaf shapes cut out
of felt and glued onto blank cards – a good way of killing half an hour and
he’s always up for a bit of glueing. We arrived at shul bang on time for the
shofar service, as planned. Daniel heard the first blast of the shofar and
instantly whipped out his cardboard version and gave a loud TOOT! The
shofar-blower didn’t miss a beat, though DH says he did let out a chuckle, but
everyone else was in stitches. At least he understood what it was for!
On Saturday we decided to have a family day out and took
off to Stonehenge.
It’s nearly 2 hours away but we have English Heritage membership so entry is
free once we get there and we took a picnic (lamb pasties featured heavily) to
eat in the field outside. The place has changed hugely since I last went as a
child, with an enormous visitors’ centre (mostly consisting of a café and a
large shop aimed mostly at Chinese tourists) and a fairly lengthy shuttle
bus/train-thing ride to get to Stonehenge
itself. For a toddler, though, this was ideal, and he enjoyed being outside in
the sun and being able to run around.
We treated ourselves to hot chocolate in the café
afterwards, where they have tried to become more efficient by avoiding using
anything that needs washing up. In real terms this means paper cups, plastic
spoons etc, all justified with the excuse that it’s all “recyclable, reusable
or compostable”. I’m not convinced that it takes less energy to recycle most of
that stuff than it does to wash up, but there you go. I was more irritated that
the staff cleaning the tables between customers were just sweeping everything
onto the floor, which was filthy. Still, the weather was nice, the
pasties were lovely, we learned some interesting things about Stonehenge
and it was good to spend time together as a family without a list of jobs that
needed doing. For a relatively inexpensive day out it was well worth it.
On Monday we had a trip to a local-ish honey farm with
some other HE families. I’ve been considering going for a while and it was the
perfect outing for the week between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur because honey is
such an important food at RH (for a sweet new year). Since we were driving
nearly an hour to get there, it made sense to see if anyone else wanted to go.
There were 6 families, some we knew already and some we were meeting for the
first time, and a range of ages. The exhibition bit of the place was
underwhelming but it was a good springboard for further investigation into bees
etc and they had a fantastic jungle gym in the café.
I have absolutely no recollection of what we ate for
the rest of the week but I do know that pasties came up more than once,
accompanied by mashed swede, cabbage and gravy, which worked surprisingy well.
I’d forgotten how much I like straightforward cabbage – must get it more often.
On Yom Kippur
we all went to shul for Kol Nidrei because I play Bruch’s version on my violin
to start the service. I’ve been doing it for more years than I can remember but
this year had managed to squeeze in some proper practise time in the week
leading up. I think this was the best I’ve ever played it :-) We were hoping to
stay for the whole service but Dan was tired and didn’t understand why, in a
packed shul, he couldn’t run around like he usually does, so I took him home
early while DH waited to bring the cantor back to ours. Daniel cried ALL
the way home!
When we got back I got out a mini yad I recently got
from eBay for about £8. I’d been planning to save it until nearer Simchat Torah,
but this seemed like a good time. He helped me unwrap it and instantly
recognised what it was, so I got out my miniature replica Torah scroll (had it
for years to use during school visits) and he spent nearly an hour processing
around the living room with it and practising gelilah. He seemed to feel this
made up for having to leave shul early!
To put this into context, the Shabbat before Rosh
Hashanah we went to shul in the evening for a Selichot service, during which
they planned to change the Torah mantles to the High Holyday white ones. It was
the first time we’d done this in Exeter
(at least for a very long time) and there were only a handful of people there,
most of whom we know well. They were lovely with Daniel, making sure he was
completely involved and standing him on the table so he could very solemnly
lift the yad and rimmonim off each Sefer. He even got to help carry the
smallest one from the Ark
and he looked so proud! It was beautiful watching all the adult men with our
tiny little boy in the middle, taking his part in the community and looking fit
to burst with pride. One of those times you wish it was even vaguely ok to take
a photo, but it really wasn’t!
On the day itself (Saturday) Daniel and I pottered
around at home doing painting and making decorations for our sukkah – not
really right for Yom Kippur but it was raining and I couldn’t think of anything
else. The afternoon service was planned especially for kids and we went in for
that, with the children all helping to get the Torah out, and the aliyot were
given to various parents with their children – e.g. “Avraham ben Yosef, Abba
shel Daniel.” (Hebrew name used when being called up, followed by “Daddy of
Daniel”). Daniel had brought the mini Torah from home and carried in the procession.
Fortunately, although he put it in the Ark with the others, he took
it out again before the doors were shut, otherwise he’d have spent the next hour
asking to get it back! Afterwards we all went upstairs with the cantor and
another member of the congregation and had songs and stories for a bit. I
really hope this is done again at the High Holydays because it was great,
really family-friendly in a way that a lot of those services just aren’t.
The next festival, Sukkot, starts tomorrow evening and
we’ll be going to the synagogue celebration (in someone’s garden) to help
decorate the sukkah and generally do all the things you do at Sukkot. We have
our own Arba Minim this year so Daniel will get to investigate it properly over
the week, and our sukkah will go up on Saturday (a few days late) when we have
the Jewish toddler group and various friends and family coming round for a
Sukkah party. There are two large cheesecakes in the freezer already and my
head is buzzing with all the other things I want to make for it! Now that
Daniel is more aware of the festivals and understands a bit more I’m trying to
really build on it, and also involve other people so it becomes something he
can share in the same way that other people have Christmas parties.
So there we are!
Glossary
aliyah (pl. aliyot) – being called up to read the
Torah
arba minim – four species of plants used at Sukkot
ark
– cupboard in a synagogue where the Torah scrolls are kept
gelilah – dressing and undressing the Torah scroll
Kol Nidrei – service on the evening beginning Yom
Kippur
rimmonim – finials on top of the Torah scroll
Rosh Hashanah – Jewish New Year
Sefer Torah – Torah scroll
shofar – ram’s horn blown at the New Year
shul – synagogue
Simchat Torah – festival when we finish the annual
cycle of Torah readings and start again at the beginning
Sukkah – shelter built for Sukkot and decorated with
foliage, crafts etc
Sukkot – Feast of Tabernacles
yad – Torah pointer
Yom Kippur – Day of Atonement
