ROSH HASHANAH (NEW YEAR)
The Jewish New Year occurs in the autumn as the year’s harvest comes to an end. This two-day holiday is most specifically a time for reflection and self-assessment for the community and for individuals. The process of self-assessment is directed at attaining a greater awareness of how to be a truly good person, doing the best for one’s self and forhumanity. It is a time forpromoting universal peace and well-being. It is, as well, a period of joyous celebration of creation. As such, the New Year period has both solemn and joyous aspects.

YOM KIPPUR (DAY OF ATONEMENT)
This process of self-assessment and reflection, which begins at the New Year, culminates in the Day of Atonement. Marked by fasting and an extended synagogue service, this is a day of special holiness on which severe limitations on the normal daily routine apply. The general restrictions on work, as described for the Sabbath, apply on the New Year and Day of Atonement as well.

SUKKOT (FEAST OF BOOTHS)
Sukkot is a joyous festival celebrating G-d’s bountiful harvest. At the same time, we pray for productive harvests in the year to come and for God?s bounty being shared with all humanity. Various colourful rituals mark this nine-day festival. During the first two days and the last two days, Sabbath-like restrictions on work apply. The final day of the festival, Simchat Torah, is a particularly joyous occasion which marks the conclusion of the synagogue reading of the Torah (Pentateuch) and the immediate recommencement of its reading, completed through the reading of portions throughout the year.

CHANUKAH (FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS)
This early-winter celebration commemorates the victory of the Maccabees over Hellenistic Greek oppressors in the 2nd century before the Common Era. The Maccabean battles were fought to establish the principles of religious pluralism and the acceptance of the rights of religious and ethnic minorities to live according to their traditional ways in the context of a larger and dominant culture. This eight-day festival is marked by special home and synagogue observances, and no restrictions on the normal work routine apply.

PURIM (LOTS)
Celebrated at winter’s end, Purim commemorates the salvation of the Jewish community, as described in the Biblical Book of Esther. The story is one of a small Jewish community involved fully and positively in the life of the realm, and the machinations of an evil individual who sees this positive involvement as a threat to his own position. In the end, he suffers the consequences of his evil plot to destroy the Jewish community. The Jewish community is spared, and its contribution to society is noted. The story teaches that differences of religion and cultural ways do not, and should not, preclude full involvement in civic affairs by members of minority groups. Indeed, such involvement is encouraged. Purim is an occasion for joyous celebration. Traditional observance of Purim may require some adjustments to the normal work routine but does not require absence from work.

PASSOVER (PESACH)
Passover is a festival of the early spring; it is perhaps the best known of the Jewish festivals. In the home and in the synagogue, special rituals and prayers celebrate the fertility of the land in anticipation of a new harvest and the Biblical exodus from Egyptian bondage. The latter event is the preeminent factor in the creation of the Jewish people some 3,500 years ago.

Sabbath-like restrictions apply on the first two and last two days of this eight-day festival, while a restriction on the eating of any food containing leaven applies throughout this period. The festival commences with an elaborate feast, the Seder, replete with foods of special symbolic importance, at which the family relives the experience of redemption and focuses on what Jewish peoplehood involves. On a broader level, this is a time to consider the plight of all people who suffer a variety of enslavements. We note that with human efforts and divine assistance, all humanity may look forward to the joys and responsibilities of freedom.





YOM HASHOAH (HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY)
This day, established to remember the Holocaust and the six million Jews who perished, is the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.






YOM HA ATZMAUT (INDEPENDENCE DAY)
The fifth day of the Hebrew month of Iyar is Israel’s Independence Day, recognizing the establishment of the Jewish State in 1948. The chief rabbinate of Israel recognizes this day as a minor festival, a thanksgiving to be celebrated in the home and the synagogue.








SHAVUOT (FEAST OF WEEKS)

Seven weeks after Passover, in the early summer, comes the festival of Shavuot. Here is celebrated the arrival of the first fruits of the new harvest and, as well, the giving of the Torah (Mosaic Law) at Mount Sinai. As the new grain and new produce nourish and sustain our bodies, so G-d’s word nourishes and sustains our spirits. Body and spirit as a unit, the individual then takes up the challenge to do G-d’s will. We dedicate ourselves to making this world a more godly place, with all humanity living in harmony and experiencing well-being. Sabbath-like restrictions apply during this two-day festival.

TISHA B AV (FAST OF NINTH DAY OF AV)
In mid-summer, Jews observe the anniversary of the destruction of the ancient Temple which stood in Jerusalem as the focus for ancient Jewish ritual experience. Still today, Jews turn towards the direction of Jerusalem when in prayer. Traditional Jews mark the day with a fast of 25 hours, from sunset to the following day’s nightfall, with prayers of mourning and with limitations on usual work-day involvements.