The Jewish Holidays Video Guide

grateful acknowledgement goes to these companies who made this program possible by their contributions Hebrew national a tradition of quality kosher products Empire kosher poultry incorporated the most trusted name in kosher poultry the Seagram classics wine company sole us importers of carmel fine Israeli wines Konica USA exclusive supplier of videotape for the Jewish holidays video guide in the beginning so many many years ago that we can't count them the Bible says there was nothing but darkness and water there were no people no animals no plants and then God began to create a world God said let there be light God called the light day that was the very first day the second day God made the sky over the waters God made the dry land and called it Earth and filled it with flowers running water and trees on the third day the next day the fourth God made the Sun the moon and the stars to give warmth and light and to divide time into days months and years fish and birds were made on the fifth day and then on the sixth day God made the animals large and small and finish the work with man and woman and God saw all that had been made and found it very good there's a rhythm in the turning earth in the changing seasons and in the cycles of our lives and we feel these rhythms and the Jewish holidays will be sharing with you in this program hello I'm Simon Cohen and my family and I will be your hosts for the Jewish holidays video guide now I'll be telling you about the program in a moment but first I'd like you to meet my co-hosts hi I'm David I'm 8 years old and I'm in the third grade Shalom I'm Elizabeth and I'm 12 I've been taking some high pitches we'll be showing you I'm Dinah Weiss Cohen we'd like to thank you for bringing us into your home and we invite you all to come with us on a journey through the Jewish year Oh as we travel we'll come across some wonderful stories and visit with some families will show us their personal ways of celebrating the holidays our stories will include Jonah who tried to run away from God the exciting miracle of the Maccabees a very serious treatment of the poram story our flight to freedom from Egypt and some remarkable stories which may be new to you they were new to me too you see when I was growing up my family wasn't exactly what you would call religious or even observant but when Dinah and I became parents we started by observing the holidays for the children and I learned quite a bit so now it's for all of us now in this program you're gonna see our approach meet other families and also hear from some people you just might recognize one of the phenomenons of my childhood Seder activity were the latke eating contests between my big beefy oldest brother and my big beefy dairy deliveryman cousin both named Ben who attempted to wipe each other out in the and the consumption of as many latkes as they could nobody compared to them nobody nobody wanted to all the things we care about most as Jews come up in the holidays being decent people standing for freedom and justice loving each other and eating every holiday has something about eating Oh scuse me well since we're going on a trip through the Jewish year we're gonna need a map and our starting place is out there in the night sky the moon long long ago when our ancestors were wandering shepherds and farmers they celebrated every new moon rose right Rosh Hodesh New Moon and many of our holidays fall on either the new moon at the start of the month or the full moon in the middle of the month the Jewish calendar also follows the Sun because after 12 months we start a new year for 13 months in a leap year and the calendar works so that each holiday always comes in the right season in the fall at the time of the grape harvest the Jewish New Year starts with Rosh Hashanah usually in September the 10 days ending with yom kippur are called the days of all because there are a time for deep thought about how we acted toward God and each other during the past year just after Yom Kippur comes Sukkot the happy harvest festival which ends with SH Meany at select and Simchat Torah when we dance with the Torah in the synagogue and sometimes in the streets in the dead of winter we celebrate Hanukkah the holiday of the Maccabees toward the end of winter comes the new year of the trees to be fought and then we head into spring with our noisiest holidays okay David reported in full-blown spring we arrived at our great freedom festival Pesach which we also call Passover about three weeks after the end of Pesach we come to La Gomer when we remember the great Rabbi Akiva and the revolt against the Romans the summer brings us to vote when we celebrate God giving us the Torah and finally later into summer we arrive at T Shaba of a sad day when we remember the destruction of the two temples in Jerusalem you forgot the most important holiday well I saved the best for last Shabbat the Sabbath comes every Friday sundown to Saturday night and some people say that when the Messiah comes every day will be like shoe bottom oh just so long as I don't have to do all the cooking Wow this week I'm making for challah just like my mother's our trip through the Jewish year we'll stop at those holidays which are most important to us today Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur Sukkot Hanukkah poram Pesach shovelled and finally Shabbat we'll follow the map of the year taking each holiday in order and since our family has been known to get lost on road trips he doesn't like to ask directions we have added some markers to this program we will fade out at the end of each holiday segment and each new holiday will start with the name of that holiday over a shot of the moon well that gives you a choice you can watch the program from start to finish or you can choose a particular holiday but keep in mind that this program is about home use rather than synagogue practice incidentally some of the religious ceremonies you'll be seeing have been recreated for us and during our prayers we will refer to God as autosh M L okay new now if you see the word God in a prayer book it will look like this in Hebrew or like this in English but during this program out of respect for the name of God we will pronounce it other Shem L okay no I will begin not only at the beginning but at the very beginning a Jewish month begins with a new moon and the Jewish year begins with the first new moon of the fall in our tradition it is the birthday of the world Rosh Hashana the first 10 days of the new year begin with Rosh Hashanah and conclude with Yom Kippur it is a time of deep thought and great hopes very good well tonight would be the beginning of Rosh Hashanah and we're gonna have a special meal as we always do for the holidays with blessings over the candles and wine this begins the ten days of all leading to Yom Kippur and then you and Dad will fast for twenty-five hours that's right Elizabeth will be 13 next year the age to start fasting now there are some things on the table that are just for Rosh Hashanah and they tell us what this holiday season is all about the sweet apples and honey show our hope for a sweet and good New Year not only is the year starting over but so is each of us in order to make a fresh start our tradition says we must do three things first face and admit the things we need to change in our prayers then we must turn away from bad actions and turn towards good ones and finally we must be charitable and give to those who are needy for me prayer means searching inside myself for the things that I want to change I actually write them down and my prayers for the courage to be honest with myself you turn away from things you feel bad about and turn towards other people my brother and I we'd fight like crazy all year but there is this understanding that we try to make it up before Yom Kippur usually we end up looking at our shoes and mumbling but we both knew what was going on for me I guess it was the most religious part of the holiday just admitting that we loved each other I always find that a little bit goes a long way and since there are a lot of people out there who don't have much I do what I can to give to others and spread around a little happiness some of our friends in a Hvar ah a Jewish study and social group have created a personal ritual for these days prior to Rosh Hashanah they've written down the worst things they did in the past year words thoughts things they did that they wish they could make up for they asked God to help them wash away the bad things they did I won't make fun of family anymore I will stop yelling at my sister I will try to be more punctual and organized I will spend less time away from my family when I hear the Kol Nidre the night of Yom Kippur I think sometimes of Jews who were not as free as we are in Spain about 500 years ago many Jews were forced to pretend they were Christians but once a year they gathered in secret as Jews they risked their lives to save a call to Drake prayer asking God to judge them by what was in their hearts not by what they said in public even though they had no choice they felt terribly guilty about making believe they were Christians most of the sins that one commits are sins of omission rather than of comission most of the sins are I even sins that one is not aware of specifically and particularly but they are - they the lovely thing is that Orthodox Jews used to insist that one should go around and ask everybody's forgiveness whom one might have wronged in the course of the year if you have to ask their forgiveness before you begin asking gods and I think that that is an important aspect of Yom Kippur you have to learn how to be forgiving you house I have to learn how to forgive yourself there's an old story that God writes each of our names in one of three big books the book of judgment the book of death in the book of life and if each of us has done our work between russia shannon yom kippur our work of looking honestly at ourselves of turning towards good actions of being fair and forgiving then our names are written in the book of life well I guess I have no choice once upon a time there was a man named Jonah one day he heard the voice of God Jonah go right now to the big city called Nineveh tell the people I see how wicked they are and if they don't behave better I will wipe them out and you know what Jonah did he ran away no I think maybe you know this story yeah but why did he run away well he gives us a reason later in this story do you know where he ran away to nope well take a look now Jonah lived near the seashore God told him to go to Nineveh which was very far inland Jonah went to the harbor at Joppa today known as Jaffa and found a boat going across the sea to Tarshish so God told Jonah to go one way but he went in the opposite direction but God sent a powerful wind that whipped up giant waves the terrified sailors cried out to their gods and they flung bundles of cargo into the sea to make the ship Ryder only one person didn't know about this storm Jonah had gone deep down into the ship and fallen asleep wake up howl of the captain call upon your God maybe he will save us why does he say your God oh that's pretty sharp because the captain and the sailors believed in different gods as many people did in those days the sailors cast lots which is like drawing straws and decided that Jonah had caused the storm what are you doing here where do you come from or your people they demanded Jonah admitted that his God the God of the Jews was angry at him for not doing what he was told if you want the storm to stop Jonah said you must throw me into the sea now the sailors were good men and they tried to save Jonah by rowing hard but the waves heat even higher and finally they had to throw Jonah into the water the sea became calm at once and Jonah's sank but God sent a big fish perhaps a whale to swallow him for three days and nights in the belly of the whale Jonah thought hard he thanked God for saving him from drowning and he said how sorry he was and he promised to follow God's commands when God saw that Jonah meant to change God made the fish throw up Jonah onto dry land this time when God told Jonah to go to Nineveh he went right away Jonah brought a terrible message forty days from now he told the people God will wipe out you and your city the king of Nineveh realized he had to show God that he was sorry and would stop being wicked so he took off his fancy clothes and put on rough black sackcloth to prove how sorry they were the people fasted as we do at Yom Kippur they sat in ashes they even covered their farm animals with sackcloth God saw that they had changed from their evil ways and so he changed his mind about punishing them so how do you think Jonah felt happy nope he was angry angry at God why because God changed his mind that's why I ran away Jonah said to God Wow because Jonah knew that even if he went to Nineveh and did exactly what God told him to do the people of Nineveh would beg God to let them off and God would do it so God taught Jonah one more lesson how well Jonah went outside the city and sat down to see what would happen it was very hot so God made a plant grow to give Jonas and shade but the next day God sent a worm to kill the plant and Jonah almost fainted it was so hot he was very unhappy about the plant so God said Jonah you feel sorry about a plant that you didn't even work for and yet you're angry at me because I feel sorry for the thousands of people of Nineveh who are just learning right from wrong I think so that's why we read Jonah on Yom Kippur it teaches us that people can do wrong feel sorry learn and change for the better even monkeys like you shall not oh happy new year four days after Yom Kippur the moon is full it's a Harvest Moon the time to gather in grapes and other fruits and celebrate our joy in nature the time of Sukkot you know gathering fruit wasn't a lovely way to spend the day for the Jews of long ago for them it was life or death the food they lived on came from the trees and the herbs not from the supermarket Judaism helps us remember our past and how we depend on nature the Bible commands that once a year we should spend time in a Sukkah which is a shelter we build open to the sky Sukkot is one of our most joyful holidays lovely messages our dependence on nature our thanks to God for the good in our lives and hospitality which means sharing our food in homes I guess you could call me an urban cowboy did I do my harvesting at the supermarket I need something like Sukkot to help me keep in touch with the seasons it's great to look up through the pompons to the sky it's also nice to thank God that you'll have a roof over your head when the holiday is the circum reminds us how hard life was for a people before and how good it is now Sukkot means more than inviting your friends and family we collect food for hungry people in our community there was a time when Sukkot was the greatest festival of the year if you could only go to Jerusalem once in your life Sukkot was the time to do it Jews came from all over the Roman world to celebrate we called Sukkot simply vide festival in the city we followed the biblical command to build booths and dwelled in them we praised God sang and danced for eight days but the high moment of the festival came at night the great torch dance celebrated the drawing of water and the joys of youth and have grown up years as well the dance began in the evening and continued all night until the following dawn people said you haven't seen the torch means you haven't seen a real celebration well the party's not as wild as it used to be but Sukkot is still a party the first step is picking a place to put your suka the rules are pretty simple you can go any place except where you can't see the sky for example you can't put it under a tree or under a roof but you can put it out in your yard or next to your house or on a balcony if you live in an apartment you can use wood pipes plastic fabric bamboo curtains just about anything in some cities you can even buy prefabricated kits the most important part is the time it's supposed to be made of vegetation and to give some shade the Bible says it reminds us of the time when we wandered in the desert after leaving Egypt we're also supposed to leave opening so we can see the sky the rules say the roof should provide more shade than sunlight I'm not the most handy guy in the world and we're like The Three Stooges build a Sukkah every year where I'll take a 2x4 and as I'm picking it up I'll swing it back and pick Fran in the back of her head or I'll be drilling a new hole for one of the poles and be accidentally drilling into a friend's arm but in any event one way or the other we get that thing put up every year and miraculously manages to stay up our basic building block are the 2 inch by 2 inch by 8 foot pieces of wood we have them in the corners of the sukkah and also for extra bracing in the middle of the sukkah we bolt them together using about 4 or 5 inch bolt and then securing it with a wing nut we just insert each of the 2 by 2 by 8 pieces into a couple of cinder blocks which hold them in place now what we've done four walls of the sukkah is we have this bamboo like curtain material and this is just like curtains that you'd put up in a living room all sorts of decorations are used rosh hashanah cards printed fabric fruit arts and crafts projects it was a soothing present to my childhood I liked it and I guess like any kid is oh we're playing house appreciated the departure from severity there we called it circus and I like that I mean I like the beauty of fall I like the participation the agrarian symbolism that that love the smell of the citroen and I love the circus it's really one of the few times I'm not saying that just stumbling on with it that I found that that blending of Judaism with the soil for plants are used during Sukkot three are bound together and called a lulav a palm a willow and a myrtle the yet rogue is a fruit called a Citroen and it's chosen very carefully one of the goals and the holidays to have all the things that you use for it as beautiful as possible that's particularly true with the edgehog or the citron one of the things that makes a net rug beautiful is its bumps you want to get it a bumpy as a truck as possible not a scarred a truck but a bumpy a truck there are many ideas about what the for plants mean they could remind us of for ancestors or the four letters in the Hebrew name of God my favorite says they're like a human body the palm is like a strong backbone the myrtle like clear eyes and the willow is like lips which speak kindly and the Citroen is like a loving heart on the to that roulade we weighed the lulav a net rogue in all directions just as God is everywhere everyone has his own style of waving a bit of chance for personal expression I think Circus is a wonderful opportunity for children to participate and get a lot out of it on the lowest level I think it's just a lot of fun it's fun to decorate the Soka it's fun to sit outside and eat outside just like a family barbecue is fun in the backyard on a little higher level I think the children get a lot out of the sukkah holiday religiously circus represents feeling sheltered by God the circle is a temporary Hut that you build and you really feel closer to God I think you feel especially close to the Jews of Soviet Russia on the day which comes at the end of Sukkot on this day which is called Simchat Torah thousands of Jews come together outside the synagogue even though the government tries to stop them from acting like jeans this day they stand up in public and show that they are still with us Simchat Torah means joy in the Torah and we dance to show our joy we used to dance inside but now we come out on the streets to send a message that we are brothers and sisters to the Jews in Russia visit your friends and see what they do or maybe you can get one that's prefabricated the most important thing is to get together with your family and go outside and allow this holiday to put you in touch with nature in our roots the two months following Sukkot move us into the dead of winter it's the coldest darkest moment of the year and just at the blackest moment comes Hanukkah the festival of lights one fire feels great on a cold night and Chanukah is kind of like that it brings us warmth and light from a time that was very dark and cold for our people Chanukah is more than an exciting story it has important things to say to us today with maybe even a few surprises Chanukah is first of all a celebration of freedom freedom of religion it shows us that a few brave people who believe in themselves can beat a much larger number and even if they are defeated they can still come back to win finally it tells us to stand up and be proud to be Jews I think Chanukah really is about religious freedom and that it's it's significant that we think about it that way and that we study the story and what it what is trying to convey rather than putting the emphasis on the commercial aspect in presence I think about Israel during Hanukkah almost always they're outnumbered so badly you can't see how they'll win but somehow they do I'm a single parent and sometimes I get down on myself feeling I haven't done enough for my son Hanukkah tells me I can fail and feel wiped out and still pick myself up and come back on top sometimes it's hard to be different you know kids want to be like their friends Hanukkah reminds us that it's great to be a Jew even if you're the only one on the block you know Hanukkah is the only one of our holidays whose date in the past is clearly known it takes us back about two thousand one hundred and fifty years to a time in the whole Western world admired and imitated the brilliant Greek culture in fact Judaism might well have died out about that and it wasn't because it's a mean King there's something like that we were doing it all by ourselves we people didn't want to be Jewish anymore well let me ask you something to a young person what's more interesting something new and exciting and a little outside the rules or something old and kind of dull are you kidding well if you lived at the time of our story you'd be fascinated by the new styles and clothes the new ideas the new shows and the new gymnasium in Jerusalem even young priests from the temple were working out inside Joshua what are you doing dressed like a Greek an angry father might say oh you don't know anything about it the son might say all the young people want to be like this I'm going in there as soon as I'm old enough and don't call me Joshua my name is Jason you see many Jews changed their names and style of dress some even stopped keeping Shabbat than living his Jews in those days to be modern was to be like the Greeks and also if you wanted to get rich or be powerful you had to get along with the powerful Greeks who controlled the country and the most powerful of them was Antiochus who ruled a huge Kingdom which his grandfather had helped conquer he not only ruled Judea but Syria and Babylon as well the Jews were very different from the Syrians in the Babylonians this gave Antiochus a tough problem Egypt was at war with him they might invade Judea at any moment my own subjects will help the Egyptians Antiochus feared they're all different from us Greeks the Babylonians have one God the Syrians another the Jews will they have some invisible God in the sky so he gave an order to his generals all these different people must be made to worship our God's think like us even eat like us then they will fight with us against the Egyptians now remember many Jews admired the Greeks so much that they already wanted to be just like them only some Jews held on to the old traditions but even if most of the Jews were on his side Antiochus was still not satisfied he wanted everybody to be just like him he was the first of what we now call totalitarian rulers rulers who want total control they can't stand for anybody to be different Antiochus put up an idol a statue of the Greek god Zeus in our holy temple and while he was at it he stole all our precious gold and silver to help pay for his war soldiers went to every village to make Jews into Greeks they would make an example of the village leader now in the village of Modena the leader was called Mattathias Mattathias said the officer come and offer a sacrifice to our great god Zeus prove you are loyal to your king and we will give you rich gold and silver and the king will remember you until this day the different peoples in the kingdom had all been allowed to follow their own religions so Mattathias answered but even if all the others give up the religions of their fathers my sons and I will do only what God has told us the promise of gold and silver was too much for one villager I'll do it he offered with a mighty cry mattify has killed a traitor and smashed the altar whoever is for the Lord follow me he called and he led a few loyal Jews into the mountains antiochus's army came to wipe us out but we fought back with stones and farm tools we were in our own mountains and our banner said me Homolka by Ali mother Shem which means who is like you among the gods O Lord the first letters of the Hebrew words are men cough bet and you'd which when put together spell out the word Maccabee and so our army came to be called the Maccabees also Maccabee comes for the word for hammer in Hebrew now the Maccabees lost some early battles because they wouldn't fight on Shabbat but mattifies decided that protecting their lives came first even before Shabbat so then they won some battles but then Antiochus sent this huge army to crush them forever Judah the son of Mattathias became our leader after his father died we fight for our lives and for our Torah he fries the elephants to trample our men to death Eleazar Judas brother killed the fiercest elephant Eleazar gave up his own life and his bravery inspired the Maccabees to their greatest victory and taya kisses army wanted no part of the fierce Jews they ran away and didn't come back again after they drove the enemy army away Judah and his men destroyed the Greek idol planted new trees and fixed up the temple finally Judah was ready for a very special ceremony called a dedication a ceremony showing that the temple was once again clean holy the Hebrew word for dedication is Hanukkah you know the Hanukkah the Maccabees went on for eight days what about the miracle of oil well why don't you tell us about it well we don't know if that really happened but the rabbi's told us that story to remind us of the real miracle of Hanukkah what do you think that was well the Maccabees were not soldiers they were farmers and yet they defeated a tough army with many more men how could they do that the miracle was their faith and courage and we should remember that whenever we feel hopeless what's like the corn dogs any candle holder is a menorah but the Hanukkah menorah has a name of its own it's called aha new Kia the candles are put in from the right like Hebrews we try to keep the present business under control one night we give a big present and then the others we give little presents we let them pick which night they get the big one and it's okay if you don't make too big a deal out of it well Hanukkah is as a child all I remember was my grandfather giving me Hanukkah gelt and it usually consisted of a silver dollar of Hanukkah and we lit the candles but that's that's that was it today it seems to me that Hanukkah has been overly commercialized we put some money in our charity or sadaqa box before every Shabbat this year we saved $35 then one night during Hanukkah instead of doing presents when you count the money and decide who to give it to every year our kids right on the dreidel box anything they want to say that way we emphasize our family and our life together instead of just the presents gibble I get it all the games really easy you take turns spinning and before you spin each person puts a piece of candy or a coin or whatever you're using into the pot if you get a nun nothing happens if you get a gamble you win the whole pile if you get a hey you get half if you get a sheen you put in half of what you got the letters go noon game oh hey Sheen my Hebrew school teacher says that they stand for Hebrew words nasca dong hai yah chomp which means a great miracle happened there Chanukah has become a very important holiday in our country and I think we all know why it's because of the overwhelming presence of a certain Christian holiday at this time of year you know we found that celebrating all of the Jewish holidays takes a lot of the emphasis off of Hanukkah coming from an orthodox family it was the whole aspect of Christmas was very tough for me to take very definitely that identify with not being able to learn so that any of the the glow ending delight and the beauty of Hanukkah were vastly pleasing to me and we tell Elizabeth and David that we understand how they feel about Christian holidays many of the Jews at the time of the first Konica admired Greek customs just as we admire the customs of other people but the Maccabees knew they would use and we're proud of it and they chose to live and die that way we try to follow their example how about a song gather round the table we'll give you a tree to play with the latkes to eat the candles are burning one form each ninth day yes we'd like to remind us of days long ago one for each night they shed a sweet light to remind us of days long ago winter is over and the first moon of spring brings our next holiday this thirty days will you please super the title already sorry about that the holiday is poram P you are I am come on David please isn't that great Bravo maestro Bravo okay David yeah David it's great but I think you played a b-flat instead of a c-sharp oh I found it hallelujah take a look at this I made this when I was 15 you know it still shows the main ideas of poram poram celebrates heroic women not only Esther who saved her people but Vashti who stood up for her own dignity we're told to celebrate the defeat of a wicked enemy not just Haman but all the evil enemies we've beaten Queen Esther told us to celebrate by giving gifts to the poor and to each other and we're supposed to break all the rules and get really crazy many people get so tipsy that you can't tell the difference between the good guys or the bad guys this is the one day that we make fun of everything the theater company of our Jewish Community Center now brings you a true and historical presentation of the story of Purim the story begins long ago in the country of Persia King Ahasuerus hashed to his friends loves to play go fish with his pals the palace wives used to be very quiet and very obedient but not lately the King's advisors told him that Queen Vashti was the one putting all the independent ideas in their heads determined to prove to his pals that he really is the boss King Ahasuerus sent Vashti in order he was sure she wouldn't refuse but Vashti had ideas of her own about how to spend her time and it didn't include dancing for the King and his buddies the messenger performed the thankless task of delivering the Kings message but Queen Vashti was a strong-willed woman if you don't like it you can get yourself a new queen now get out of here meanwhile back in the throne room when the King heard Vashti's answer he didn't waste any time looking for a new queen but mortified a wise old Jew had just the girl for the king Mordecai's nice Esther but Samaras got the brains of a pigeon actually he's a sweetheart brains I admit well that's not a stroke point which is exactly why we need someone smart like you right next to him not everybody around here loves us Jews okay for you my people I'll do it but I don't like it Mordecai arranged for Esther to meet the king and once he laid eyes on Esther the contest was over not everyone loved the king in fact some wanted to murder him but Mordecai seemed to find out everything that was going on his problem was getting word to the king here the names of the murders make sure my morning is written down in the big book of records the king won't remember for two minutes that I saved his life the man who really ran the kingdom the power behind the throne was Haman he expected everyone to bow down to it very nice for such a man man what I'll stand up now bow down sorry that I cannot do what's the matter you got an aching back old-timer Mordecai explained to Haman that Jews would never bow down to a man only to their God I've heard of using an invisible God in the sky who ordered took all right donkey you are neither bad anymore you'll be fighting back permanently Haman had a plan an evil one to get rid of the Jews he told the king that there were some troublemakers in the kingdom and he asked very innocently what should be done about them the king whose mind was someplace else told Haman to do what he pleased Haman's plan was to send soldiers to kill every Jew in the kingdom but when to pick the date they threw stones which landed on the 12th and 13th squares and so it was decided that in the 12th month on the 13th day all the Jews would be murdered the news of Haman's horrible plan got out and the cries of the terrified Jews filled the night Esther sent her trusted servant Hitoshi to Mordecai to find out what was going on Esther was afraid to go see the king anybody who popped in and surprised him could be instantly killed by the King's guards tell her I know she'll be risking your life if the King fell - well - co-receptor the guards looking for the axe but if she tries to save herself the Jews will all be killed Queen Esther was very nervous about seeing the King but she was determined to do what she could for her people I thought I'd give a little dinner Friday noon Haman Esther knew that the best way to a man's heart was through his stomach and the king was no exception she had a big favor to ask of him but she decided to give one more dinner party before popping the question only one thing could you learn hey me come again tomorrow night then I promise I have a very special recipe for Lord Haman the King eats so much that he couldn't sleep he called for his secretary I thought I told you not to call me in the middle of the night I the secretary read the whole story of the two men who tried to murder the king and how Mordecai saved the King's life ah hush whereas asked Haman the best way to give someone a very special thank you guess who Haman thought the king wanted to thank Haman said that 'his Waris should give the man the King's Own best clothes to wear put him on the King's best horse and parade him through the street you won't be on the wards here you'll do all the hollering the one of the best parts on the best suit will be where a client huh when I'm doing therapy Jew the only thing you're helping running is a hangman's noose but Mordecai did ride in the Kings parade and Haman was forced to my life seeing order has been given to tell me what who dare do that I am a Jew and so does my uncle more to hide the man you honor he wants to kill us and Oliver this was the first time that the King really understood the evil nature of Haman's plan the King had Haman executed he appointed Mordechai as his new main man Queen Esther had saved the Jews of Persia and we've celebrated I do recall when I was young that we had poram festivals I remember several of them we always were had the little knockers and we were going to beat the heck out of office Ferris and so on Oh Haman rather office Farris wasn't so bad was Haman was the bad guy because Queen Esther she manipulated aha sure is pretty good but the hero of the whole story for me was more to hide even though everybody says it's Queen Esther it was mortified because my Hebrew name is Mona hi and I remember one poram play where they let me play mortified playing myself was like playing Rhett Butler and Gone with the Wind poram shows how comfortable we are with our freedom we can let loose make fun of ourselves we throw off our shackles on poram and have chaos it's nice that the Jewish calendar specifically provides for us to have chaos some rabbis have said that after the Messiah comes only one holiday will still be celebrated poram because we'll always need to have a good laugh look I am in the fullness of spring the time of new life we come to our most ancient and greatest holiday Pesach or Passover the festival of liberation six months ago in the fall we celebrated the birth of the world on Rosh Hashanah now in the spring we celebrate another birth the birth of the Jewish people we became a people after God set us free these are the great lessons of Pesach we were slaves in Egypt until God reached out and set us free but because we had been slaved so long we had to learn how to be free and we had to learn that other people even those who hate us also should be free in this modern world people sometimes feel uncomfortable talking about God and miracles but that's the message of Pesach God performs some extraordinary feats we had to do our part but without God it wouldn't have happened my students at the University are supposed to be grown-up men annoyin but many of them still want me to tell them just what to do because it's easier if somebody tells you what to think and how to act but when we came out of Egypt we had to learn to decide for ourselves in other words we had to grow up I always got a tingle when we're told that Pesach to reach out to strangers and to feel compassion for Pharaoh and the Egyptians and I'm proud you know good Jew means caring for people even though they're not Jewish when we fled from Egypt we didn't have time to bake bread all we took with us was matzah a flatbread that could be baked in a hurry so part of our preparation for Pesach is to get rid of all bread and bread like products we call them ho mates we look for it all over the house and then lock it in a cabinet some people give it to the non-jewish poor or even sell it and then buy it back after Pesach the night before pays off starts lots of families perform a special ceremony called the search for hobbits you usually use a feather a wooden spoon and a candle or flashlight we know mom and dad high bahamut's for us but we pretend to be surprised anyway you burn the last of the car mates on the morning before the first Seder I get a feeling of completion from this ceremony it seems to tie the seasons together Pesach is no liberation for a woman unless the whole family helps to get ready you can tell a great deal about the Seder just by looking at the table setting we have a full play setting for each person including a wine cup salt water and the Haggadah the book we will use for the service there are over 3000 versions of the Haggadah some for children's some modern some traditional the important thing is to choose one which will hold the interest of everyone at the Seder we set a special wine cup for the Prophet Elisha whom we invite to join us Pesach was once called the festival of matzah and the matzah is its most important symbol and we also use five special foods to help take us back to the days of our slavery Muro are bitter herbs charoset mixed apples nuts cinnamon and wine so on the shank born of a lamb asa roasted egg and Karpis parsley and finally we put a pillow on the leaders chair to show that a free person can do something that a slave can't relax we'll show you our Seder but please remember that there are many other approaches the one crucial goal of any Seder is to find a way to bring the experience alive for everyone especially the children look at our other Shem ok new melech ha'olam the kiddush is the first of the four cups of wine we drink some say we wash our hands to make us feel like the priests of the temple who did lots of hand washing others think we do it so the children will ask about it this custom is at least 2,000 years old incidentally some families eat potatoes celery or carrots I'm not really supposed to like it why not uh how's it taste softly never noticed how your tears taste when you cry salty young well we cried a lot when we were slaves in Egypt why was that keep listening I'm sure you'll find out this is matzah the bread of the poor and homeless which was all we had to eat when we escaped from Egypt that's the piece we have to find later the afikomen keep an eye on it all who are hungry come and eat all who are in need come and celebrate Pesach with us my guests wonder sometimes if anyone ever came in alright yet no Jew should be alone on Passover and it is a mitzvah it's a marvelous deed to be able to invite somebody to your home who hasn't got family for me as I did later on for others sometimes we have the youngest child do all the questions and sometimes we have them share we try to keep them all involved occasionally we go to an adult say to where each of us must bring a new question and then we talk about them in a way the questions are more important than the answers on all the other night sweet bread but on the night of Pesach we eat only matzah I need your help to begin answering the questions David I need for you and everyone to use your imagination because we are commanded not to think of this story is happening to somebody else even our ancestors we're to feel that it's happening to us you might like it if you close your eyes because we are gonna take a trip into other places and other times places and times when we're gonna share the troubles of other Jews well we come back soon well this is the story about how God brings us back we go first across the ocean to a faraway country Ethiopia you know how it feels to miss a meal to get real hungry in Ethiopia we feel that way every day but they will not let us leave from here we travel to Soviet Russia where the police arrest us if they find us studying Hebrew but they will not let us leave from here we go back in time to Nazi Germany where they murder us simply for being Jews but we have much further to go hundreds of years back to Spain where we can only be Jews in secret so we hide the Shabbat candles in a box and whisper the blessings and now we go back to our most faraway time to ancient Egypt where we are slaves remember it's not only our ancestors who are slaves it is us I work from the moment the Sun comes up until it goes down making bricks from mud and straw I cannot rest if I do the boss will use his whip on my back and my children Allah Sheba and David do not go to school or play with their friends they must work too why don't we run away we can't the king who is called Pharaoh has a powerful army he keeps us to work but he is terribly worried about us these Israelites have too many children he says they might grow up to fight against us then he gets an evil idea he orders that all our baby boys be killed so we hide them and do whatever we can to save them a friend of mine left her beautiful baby boy in a basket just hoping that some good-hearted woman would find him the boy's sister Miriam told me that he was found by a royal Egyptian princess the princess knew he was supposed to be murdered because she said this must be a Hebrew child but she decided to save him and raise him as her son she named him Moses which means I drew him out of the water this part always gets to me I can't imagine how brave those midwives are to hide babies from the soldiers and how much it hurts to give up a child did Moses get to see his mom again you know I think so David because he always remembered that he was an Israelite even though he was raised as an Egyptian Prince now let's go back to Egypt again your dad is still making bricks for a pyramid even when the bosses are cruel no one dares say anything you might be the next one to get whipped I can hardly believe my eyes when one of the Egyptians a prince an Egyptian fighting for one of us slaves but later I'm here that the prince is Moses and he's secretly in Israelite but now his secret is out right and he knows Pharaoh will try to kill him so he flees to a nearby country where he becomes a shepherd gets married and has a son in many years pets know but what can you do until one amazing day Moses sees a bush blazing with fire he watches a moment and thinks why doesn't the bush burn up and he hears a voice call Moses Moses the voice says I am the God of your father the God of Abraham the god of Isaac and the God of Jacob and loses hides his face because he is afraid to look at God God says I have heard my people crying out and I know they are suffering I have come down to rescue them and bring them out of Egypt to a wonderful new land of milk and honey I will send you to Pharaoh and you shall free my people I was afraid we would not believe that he came from God besides he says I am slow of speech well he had trouble speaking maybe he stuttered but God said I will be with you as you speak and will tell you what to say please O Lord send someone else Moses pleaded now the Lord became angry there is your brother Aaron you shall speak to him and he shall speak for you then God told Moses to take a rod with which he could perform miracles how do you think we felt when Moses and Aaron showed up happy to see them all right imagine again we are working in the hot Sun the Egyptians have made me a foreman a boss over other slaves but this day I am furious Pharaoh has suddenly stopped giving a straw and yet he orders us to make just as many bricks as before that's impossible and when we can't produce enough bricks the Egyptians beat the foreman but that's unfair why are they doing that because Moses told Pharaoh to let us go a barrel got mad Moses talks to Pharaoh and dad takes a beating why does it Moses just leave us alone God told Moses and Aaron to explain that God would punish Pharaoh and make him set us free and then God would give us a wonderful land of our own but what if Moses and Aaron were wrong or crazy how could we know when you're a slave the beating you got this morning is what matters not some faraway dream it's hard to be a prophet when nobody wants to listen but God told Moses to have Aaron cast on his rod before Pharaoh and the rod turned into a snake but the Pharaoh called on his magicians and what do you think happened when they cast down their rods they also turned into snakes can you imagine how Moses felt pretty bad everyone was mad at him the Pharaoh the Egyptians and the Israelites exactly he was a big troublemaker and he needed something a lot more impressive than a magic trick to make anybody believe that God was really behind him so God gave him something a lot more impressive the ten plagues right why ten why so many well let's see what they were looking at gotta the first plague was when God told Moses and Aaron to turn the Nile River into blood right in front of Pharaoh's eyes but Pharaoh's magicians were able to do the same thing but then Moses brought forth even worse plagues we pour a drop of wine for each of the ten plagues how come because God said we should feel other people's pain even our enemies here we go frogs lice wild beasts the livestock died boils a terrible hailstorm locust ate all the plants and a black fog covered the land for three days but still Pharaoh wouldn't let us go he started to a couple of times when he got scared but each time broke his promise why was Pharaoh so bad well what reasons can you think of he wanted to keep us to slave for him oh he sure did anything else he didn't like Moses telling him what to do uh-huh anything else the Torah says several times that God hardened Pharaoh's heart God made ferrell act the way that he did why would he do it don't thing like that I don't think it was dumb you wouldn't wait a minute remember how we treated Moses when he said we were gonna escape we were so beaten down we didn't even want to try maybe God wanted us to get so mad would stand up for ourselves so tell what happened let's use our imaginations again and go back so we can feel for ourselves the end of the story God sent the tenth plague in the middle of the night every home in Egypt from the Pharaoh's Palace - lowly Hut's was visited by the destroyer who killed the firstborn child but Moses had warned the Israelites to mark their houses with lambs blood and so the destroyer passed over them in the middle of the night Pharaoh has called Moses and Aaron leave he says you and the Israelites with you now all the Egyptians want is to get rid of us before any more of them die we leave so fast that we don't have time to bake any bread we carry with us the dough for making bread and because of the heat and lack of time for the dough to rise it became matzah unleavened bread how do you think Pharaoh feels now sad that he's been so mad that he leads his fiercest soldiers to recapture us our people who terrified they must flee again what have you done to us they cried in Moses we told you before let us be and we will serve the Egyptians for it is better to serve the Egyptians than to die have no fear Moses says the Lord will battle for you then God puts a pillar of cloud in front of the Egyptian army and when Moses holds out his arm God sends a strong wind which splits the sea and makes a pin but Pharaoh charges after us with his fierce soldiers if they catch us they'll show no mercy but when Moses raises his rod and holds his arm out all of Pharaohs army drown and finally the slaves dare to hope the Torah says they had faith in the Lord and in his servant Moses oh it's time for Diana my father had a great sense of humor and from the time that I crewmembers a little kid he always had one line that he always used when they were doing the recitation of the ten plagues here we take the wine and you take a drop of wine and recite the frogs and Furman and all these other places visited and when we finished reciting them the tenth plague my father would always chime in with and those were just the good things and every year we waited for him to say it and every year he said it and we all laughed and he loved it after this story we drink the second cup of wine when we do the second hand washing the kids have their chance to find the afikoman eating matzah is one of our oldest traditions the more or reminds us of the bitterness of slavery we dip it in the sweet heresit but it still feels as though you're swallowing fire a great rabbi named Hillel said we should eat matzah and more or two remember there is danger of slavery even in a time of freedom but there is hope for freedom even in times of slavery okay who's got it how about a hug no way two bucks Oh what are you his agent okay I'm gonna give you $1 for your savings account okay and dog now yes okay we opened the door to welcome the Prophet Elisha the messenger of the Messiah the shun na ha the Arusha I am next year in Jerusalem my favorite holiday is Pizza Passover and I the reason I think it's my favorite is because it's based upon freedom and Thanksgiving and it's child oriented and so this is this gives an opportunity to educate the young people and freedom is a concept that I believe in and so it's it's it's a nice way that you get together with the family and talk about the concepts of freedom and what it means to our people what it means to all people throughout the world we can only skim the richness of Pesach in this program Jews from other parts of the world have different traditions that are part of their Seder in any event the basic theme of paisa is searching searching for chametz searching for the off common and most important searching for the meaning of Pesach in our lives today you know we find new aspects every year and we hope that you will to seven weeks after Pesach we arrive at the fullness of summer the time of the wheat harvest with it comes the last of our major festivals Shavuot the holiday of Revelation to celebrate cheveux out in ancient times Jews bake two loaves of bread from the first wheat of the summer and brought them to the temple it was a way of thanking God for a good harvest and it said something else see a loaf of bread comes from a kind of a partnership God provides the fields but the people must work them and make the bread Shavuot has grown to be more than a harvest festival it's the time when we celebrate God giving us the Torah at Mount Sinai and that we promised again to live by it atchoo volt we remember the day when Moses led us to the foot of Mount Sinai and God called to him and Thunder to come to the top of the mountain and we remember the day when despite our hesitation in fear God gave us the Ten Commandments and we agreed to obey them that's why some reform and conservative although not Orthodox congregations hold confirmation services on Shavuot in which their young people confirm their commitment to Torah this gentle holiday rounds out our year with the key event in our history our covenant with God to follow and cherish the Torah you know we visited every major holiday except one the most important one this is the first Jewish holiday commanded by God the one about which it's been said that if the Jewish people keep this holiday it will keep the Jewish people on the seventh day God finished making the world then God blessed the seventh day and called it holy because on it all the work of creation stopped Shabbat is a kind of a birthday really a birthday for the world and all of us in it we have a party every week we celebrate the most important themes of Jewish life our commitment to God and Judaism our love for our family freedom from everyday duties and work a peaceful time to renew ourselves each Friday night as I light the candles I think about Jews the world over who are also lighting candles that same Shabbat I also think of all the people like my grandparents who lit candles before me and I'm also thinking about my children and their children who will be lighting candles long after we're gone all of us working together to keep Judaism alive best part for me is I get to be at my mom and dad really did nice dogs together Shabbat is a chance to separate my workday world from my spiritual self I started to think about Shabbat when I get hassled at work the earlier I get hassled the sooner I start thinking about it I think this week I was thinking about it on Monday when I look over the week's Torah portion I find that it takes me away from the everyday world into a more serene place I look for more than just rest on Shabbat when I do it right I feel a kind of harmony a balance with myself and my life Shabbat is the only holiday mentioned in the Ten Commandments and Jews have been observing it in different ways all through the ages now the name may have changed a little my grandmother called it Shabbos whereas today we use the Sephardic pronunciation Shabbat but it has always been our special day in the days of King Solomon's Temple people waited all week for Shabbat it was the only day which had a name even the animals in the fields stopped working special loaves of bread were offered to God and eaten by the priests five hundred years ago in the Judean town of Safin a beautiful custom began men dressed themselves in wedding light and went out to the fields to greet the shabbat as a bride we still sing their song the hadou d come my love within the last hundred years our tradition has become much as we know it this Friday night scene is from Vienna in Austria here Saturday afternoon with a German family you can see what each person enjoys most now let's see how we celebrate today the Torah says we shouldn't light a fire on Shabbat so we light the candles at least 18 minutes before Shabbat starts usually we say a blessing before doing something but on Shabbat we light the candles first you make three circles some people say to gather the light but each of us sort of finds a personal style there's no rule that men can't light the candles even though women usually do it you cover your eyes as if to make believe that the candles are not yet lit now you recite the blessing that actually starts Shabbat best part of Shabbat for me is when I get to bless my children you see mayor Elohim kisara rifki raquel pelea de la ilahe KF Rafi Menasha of you I with your singing does everybody have one yes I do sure Carmel Sauvignon Blanc baahir every vocare yamaha shi shi via hulu hashamayim the kiddush starts by reminding us of how god finished creating the world and then blessed the seventh day because that was when the work stopped we praise God for creating the world for leading us to freedom from Egypt and forgiving us Shabbat salting the first piece of kala reminds us of what the priest did when they made offerings in the temple yeah let's do well I the guest starts and Judy well you know I've been trying to get a part in this musical on campus and uh they had the auditions this week and I got the lead many families make Shabbat dinner a time for sharing happy moments in their lives other families talk about the weekly Torah portion or someone I helped or they tell good stories some people feel a bit awkward singing together at first so only do a song or two until you get comfortable the point is to have a good time together the meal ends with the beer kafka Mazzone a series of blessings leading to a prayer for peace Shalom what I love is when the kids have gone to sleep and the house is dark and the candles are still burning you just let them glow until they go out on Saturday afternoon people enjoy going to visit friends or reading stories or studying together we leave Shabbat on Saturday night after the Sun sets when the first three stars appear in a ceremony we call Havdalah which means separation some say the twisted half-dollar candle is like a coming together of the two Shabbat candles showing how Shabbat brings us all together one explanation for looking at the light on our nails is that the difference between light and dark is like the difference between Shabbat and the rest of the week the Sabbath is almost like a 19th century experience where everything is slowed down and the family becomes the most important thing my extended family is very close now and I think one of the reasons is that we always had Shabbat is our personal loving time together my mother used to say that when we were young it was very cute we've come home Friday afternoon smell the freshly baked Holland say it must be Shabbat if you haven't celebrated Shabbat before the main thing is just to start start with anything with something light candles say the blessing if you don't know it in Hebrew then try it in English bless your children be together it's a time for family celebration the important thing is your own decision to make something special of Shabbat you pull your family together make a small island and time when you feel how good it is to be alive and to be Jewish and so we've traveled from one end of the Jewish year to the other we thank you for voyaging with us not only through the year but through our common past for the holidays have taken us back to the days when we tended flocks of sheep and growing fields to our battles against enemies and our search for freedom they have taken us back to the day we stood at Sinai and received God's Torah to the people with a family a growing family to people who wish to identify with each other and knit themselves and an ever nicer finer bond as a family nothing could be finer and more eloquent than the Jewish holidays we Jews have always found new meanings in our holidays as modern people our journey with God and Torah goes on and as we travel we say to each other the word which means peace hello and goodbye Shalom Shalom Shalom Shalom grateful acknowledgement goes to these companies who made this program possible by their contributions Hebrew National a tradition quality kosher products Empire kosher poultry incorporated the most trusted name in kosher poultry the secret classics wine company sole us importers of caramel fine Israeli wines Konica USA exclusive supplier of video tape for the Jewish holidays video guy

Channel: Everyone Has a Story

Views: 18,814

Rating: 4.8417268 out of 5

Keywords: Rosh Hashanah (Holiday), yom kippur, sukkot, chanuka, passover, purim, shabbat, ed asner, judge wapner, theodore bikel, master digital, monte hall

Id: pEajtUlq70Q

Length: 88min 51sec (5331 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 10 2015