Hi Friends, normally I would have a separate blog from Zsiporah in her own corner, but as we are approaching the High Holy Days, I wanted to ensure that you heard our hearts about this special time of the year. Here are her thoughts and, at the bottom of the page, a link to the video of our blowing of the shofar at the National House of Prayer in our nation’s capital, Ottawa, Canada.

Rosh Hashanah?
When I was a very little girl, half a century ago, the only people who cared about Rosh Ha’Shanah were my relatives, we were Jewish. We lived in a big city, and all our community gathered at one of the three Synagogues, and we ‘Davened’ all day, reading the Torah in a chant like fashion. Men had competitions with each other to see who could read it the quickest.I don’t remember the rabbi teaching or sharing, perhaps he did, but we children were given ridiculous amounts of freedom to run around the synagogue and to visit and play with each other. I didn’t understand that in post war America, this freedom was not typical of how the Jewish peopled celebrated or honoured