Introduction

Jewish holidays1 offer apageantry of ritual, symbolism, and meaning that enriches our lives. They gather us together to feast on meaning and connection. They bond us to our families, our communities, and the Jewish people across the globe and throughout history. Each holiday is adeep well, asource of joy and meaning both ancient and modern. With food and drink, stories and song, Jewish holidays are annual pauses in time; invitations to connect with our inner core, experiment with new recipes, and dig deeper into the stories and values that have defined the Jewish people for millennia. We turn again to the words of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel: “People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is apassive state… Celebration is aconfrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one’s actions.”2

Indeed, the confrontation with transcendent meaning is encoded into the Jewish holidays. We hope that the prayers in this chapter will help deepen your connection to the holidays and the timeless riches they hold.

1 Jewish holidays do not perfectly align with Gregorian dates because the Hebrew calendar is lunisolar, while the Western calendar is solar. Our months follow the cycle of the moon, and are adjusted with periodic “leap months.” (Ifyou have ever thought, “Rosh HaShanah is late this year!” that’s why.) 2 Abraham Joshua Heschel, Wisdom of Heschel (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).