Hello and welcome to the scriptures or real podcast.

This is the podcast where we talk about elements of the scriptures that have become real to us

so that we can draw more power out of them because we need that power in our lives. I'm your host, Kerry Mealstein, and this is a shortcast, especially designed for this week,

because, and actually for today, the Jewish holiday, Roche-Hanah, which literally translated means

head of the new year or beginning of the new year, or head of the year, so that's head of the new year or beginning of the new year or head

of the year. So that's beginning of the new year. It begins or began Sunday night at sundown and

will last until Tuesday night at sundown. It's a two-day holiday. And that's worth noting

because there are a number of reasons, but it does tie into our reading

for this week, and we'll see that it ties into another holiday that ties into another

reading for next week. So let's talk about both of those. Roche Hashanah is like for just

kind of typical Western culture New Year's. It's a time where you're supposed to think

about the things that you have done well, but especially about the things that you could do better

and resolve to do better. And this is especially in terms of your relationship with God.

It's about recognizing your sins and trying to be forgiven of those sins and trying to draw closer to God

so that you can sin less or be made a more holy person. That's really the idea behind it.

And so the key is that there are nine days in between that and Yom Kippur. So Yom Kippur will do next week, which is this idea of being forgiven and atonement.

So we'll talk about that next week.

But on the days in between, often called the days of awe, the high holy days that these are the days where you often, there's fasting and different things that you do to try to emphasize,

or not emphasize, to try to self-reflect on what is separating you from God and how you can

draw closer to God. And that's beautiful and powerful stuff. So there are different readings that you do for each of these holidays, and there

aren't any Isaiah readings for the actual days of Rosh Hashanah, but for the days in

between.

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