Holidays - Kol Rinah

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Observe and Celebrate with Kol Rinah

Learn About the Holidays

Rosh Hashanah
The Jewish New Year. A time of rejoicing as well as the beginning of the Ten Days of Awe/Repentance, an introspective time concluding with Yom Kippur.

Yom Kippur
The Day of Atonement is a full, twenty-five hour fast day of self–examination and prayer devoted to individual and communal repentance.

Sukkot
Eight-day fall holiday celebrating the harvest as well as the sukkot (booths) the Israelites dwelt in while in the wilderness. Lulav and etrog are shaken to begin the season of praying for rain.

Shemini Atzeret & Simchat Torah
Shemini Atzeret (the "eighth day of assembly") marks the end of Sukkot. The next day, Simchat Torah, we finish reading the Torah and begin it anew, and to celebrate, dance with the Torah!

Hanukkah
Eight-day winter solstice holiday commemorating the Maccabees' victory over the Greeks in 164 BCE and their rededication of the Temple. We light the menorah, adding a candle each night.

Tu BiShvat
The fifteenth of Shevat is the “New Year of the Trees” with customs that connect us to our environment and the natural world.

Purim
Celebrates the saving of the Jews from the evil Haman, as we read in Megillat (the scroll of) Esther. We dress up in costumes, and give gifts of food to friends and money to the needy.

Passover (Pesach)

Eight-day festival that commemorates the exodus from Egypt. We clean our homes of leaven, and have two seders where we read from the Haggadah and eat matzah.

Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day)
Jews all over the world light memorial candles and mourn the six million Jews killed during the Shoah (Holocaust).

Yom HaZikaron (Israel's Memorial Day)
Remembers soldiers who fell during Israel’s War of Independence and in subsequent active duty defending the State of Israel.

Yom HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence Day)
Celebrates the freedom and formation of the Modern State of Israel.

Lag Ba’Omer
Celebrated with picnics, bonfires and fun, it marks the 33rd day in the forty-nine-day counting of the “Omer,” the time between Passover and Shavuot.

Shavuot
Two-day festival celebrating the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people as well as the harvest of the first fruits. We read the book of Ruth and stay up late studying Torah at a "Tikkun Leil Shavuot."

Tisha B’Av
The ninth of Av is a summertime full-day fast commemorating the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE & 70 CE.

Minor Fast Days
There are four minor fast days, where one fasts only from sunup to sundown. They are Tzom Gedaliah, the Tenth of Tevet, Taanit Esther, and the 17th of Tammuz.

Thu, May 1 2025
3 Iyyar 5785

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