So it's the end of another teaching week and it's been pretty good. My proficiency students have come to terms with the schedule they've set themselves (I only had to say "You set the timetable" twice before the complaints stopped), the rest of my exam classes are beginning to see the light and actually get down to some work and I'm starting to feel a little inspired again - but only a little.
A couple of my teenagers have recently turned 18 and they think it gives them license to leave early without their parent's permission (they have to bring a note if they are under 18). I've told them not to make a habit of it because I will, still, contact their parents to check that it's kosher.
Talking of kosher, I believe that it was recently the Jewish New Year, that next weekend is Yom Kippur and that, in between, there have been some days of special significance. Unfortunately I can't make head nor tail of my students' explanations so if anyone out there could do a 'Judaism for Dummys' (which is probably copyrighted) crash course for me, I'd appreciate it.
Tomorrow we have a semi-annual open meeting for teachers and I've been asked to chair it. Sounds like all those years of experience will come in handy - wonder if I was first choice?
Friday, September 29, 2006
Round up
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3 comments:
always you're first choice!! why doubts?
mgd966
Hi Shiralee,
Finally I think I see how to respond to your blogs - I couldn't work it out in the past. I know its Yom Kippur on Monday but don't know anything except that they fast for 25 hours (can't even drink water) until sunset on Monday. David may know more so will ask him and may try and respond more later.
BFN Jayne
Hi again,
Asked David about Yom Kippur, he said he thought it was a day of thanksgiving relating to the time when Moses helped all the Jews escape from ?Egypt. He also said to look it up on Wikipedia which I did and there are thousands of definitions - here is the first one:
Yom Kippur (Hebrew:??? ????? yom kippu¯r) is the Jewish holiday of the Day of Atonement. It falls on the tenth day of the Hebrew month of Tishri. The Bible calls the day Yom HaKippurim (Hebrew, "Day of the Atonements"). It is one of the Yamim Noraim (Hebrew, "Days of Awe"). The day is commemorated with a 25-hour fast and intensive prayer. It is the most holy day of the Jewish year.
General observances
Yom Kippur is the Jewish day of repentance, considered to be the holiest and most solemn day of the year. Its central theme is atonement and reconciliation. Eating, washing, cosmetics, wearing leather shoes, and conjugal relations are prohibited (Mishnah tractate Yoma 8:1). Total abstention from food and drink usually begins half-an-hour before sundown (called "tosefet Yom Kippur," the "addition" of fasting part of the day before is required by Jewish law), and ends after nightfall the following day. Although the fast is required of all healthy adults, fasting is specifically forbidden for anyone who might be harmed by it.
Yom Kippur is observed in different ways in different Jewish communities. Sephardic Jews (Jews of Spanish, Portuguese and North African descent) refer to this holiday as "the White Fast." Consequently, many Jews have the custom of wearing only white clothing on this day, to symbolize their "white" (pure) desire to free themselves from sin. Ashkenazic Jews, while acknowledging the origins of the holiday as a day of rejoicing, tend to take a more somber, solemn attitude to the day.
Jayne
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