Jewish celebration brings women together
A monthly dinner lets Jewish women hold their own celebration.
Published March 11, 2008
-
Students gather at Hillel for an informal dinner and discussion celebrating Rosh Chodesh on Sunday night. Rosh Chodesh is celebrated at the start of every Jewish month and has grown in importance among women. This was the second gathering at Hillel to celebrate the holiday.
Every month, Jewish women celebrate a holiday of their own.
On Sunday, students gathered at Hillel to observe Rosh Chodesh, the “head of the month” in Hebrew.
The women gathered over sandwiches, hummus and salad from Kaldi’s Coffee Roasting Co. to celebrate the new month, marked not by the Gregorian 12-month calendar but the Jewish lunar calendar.
Celebrating the new month began in ancient times when the moon marked the passage of the days, Jewish Student Organization president Shira Berkowitz said.
“There was no way to keep time other than by the moon, so there would be people whose job it was to watch the moon and report when it was full,” she said. “They would blow the shofar, a ram’s horn, to symbolize a month had passed.”
In the past century, Rosh Chodesh became a holiday for women, Berkowitz said.
Jewish women have always gathered at their synagogues for fellowship and to plan for the upcoming month, she added. Now, Rosh Chodesh gives women a chance to meet regularly.
Rosh Chodesh dinners are a new program at JSO, Berkowitz said.
“It’s a really cool way, I think, to get new women students together,” she added.
MU freshman Rachel Rubin said the dinners give her a chance to get to know other girls from JSO.
“I’m friends with a lot of the girls here, and they’re really nice people,” she said. “I admire what they have to say. They make me proud to be a Jewish woman.”
Berkowitz said the monthly Rosh Chodesh dinners provide an opportunity to prepare for the upcoming holidays and study the corresponding lessons in the Torah.
This month, JSO will celebrate Purim, the celebration of Esther, the Jewish queen of Persia in the Megillah, a Jewish holy text.
In the Megillah, Esther risks her life to plead for her people, who had been sentenced to death by the king’s adviser Haman.
Later this month, JSO will play host to Purim festivities, Berkowtiz said.
JSO will celebrate Purim with Congregation Beth Shalom, a local Jewish congregation, at a costume party.
The costumes emphasize mistaken identities, a theme in the story of Esther, Berkowitz said. In the text, Esther hides her Jewish heritage from her husband, the Persian king.
Berkowitz said some people have suggested that a person celebrating purim is “supposed to lose (their) mind” during the holiday so that people can’t tell the difference between Jews and others, Berkowitz said.
“Everyone dresses up in costumes and parades around,” she said. “It’s a big celebration.”
Berkowitz said the Purim celebration will also include a reading from the scroll of Esther.
During the reading, congregants use traditional noisemakers called graggers to drown out the name of Haman, JSO Social/Social Action chairwoman Emily Israeli said.
“Haman was the evil helper man, the king’s Jafar,” she explained. “We want to drown out his name because he’s so evil, and you don’t want to hear about him. It’s kind of like saying Voldemort.”
Guests at Purim celebrations traditionally enjoy hamantashcen, jelly-filled cookies shaped in a triangle like Haman’s three-pointed hat, Israeli added.
JSO will sponsor a hamantaschen bake-off later in the month, Berkowitz said.
Comments (0)
Post a comment
