Jewish Holidays - An Assorted Group

The Jewish people's lives are action-packed; we celebrate Bar Mitzvahs, circumcising babies and more. So, we Jews are always up to something, whether is it physical like having a major meal on the Shabbat, or spiritual, like performing the havdalah ceremony every Saturday night. And, of course, there are the Jewish holidays. Every holiday revolves around a different theme; some Jewish holidays are about celebrating triumphs, while others are about celebrating joyous occasions like the receiving of the Holy Torah. They are so diverse that one needs quite a bit of thorough learning to truly wrap their head around the various customs and laws pertaining to each one.

Indeed, the holidays are such an assorted group that it is hard not to wonder who and why decided things should be the way they are. For example, take the month of Tishrei, which means "Head of the year" and is the first month of the civil year on the Jewish calendar. On the first of this month, meaning the first day of the civil year, we celebrate Rosh Hashana. Rosh Hashana marks the day Man was first created, and our Sages of blessed memory taught us that Rosh Hashana is an essential time, because on this holiday we stand before God like sheep and accept his judgment. This is the optimal time for us to reflect on our bad deeds and how we can improve as human beings and go on His path.

A few days after Rosh Hashana, on the tenth of Tishrei, we celebrate the second Jewish holiday: Yom Kippur, Hebrew for "Day of Atonement." The time-period between the first and second holidays gives us an additional time to repent for our sins. Then, on Yom Kippur, we take a break from our daily life and try to behave more like angels: for instance, we fast and pray extensively. While The Jewish holidays include more fast days, Yom Kippur is, by and large, the most well-known and celebrated even by non-observers.

Then, you also have Sukkot, which is the third Jewish holiday. Sukkot is very dissimilar to Yom Kippur, which took place less than a week prior. During Sukkot we eat in the Sukkah, a type of hut, to commemorate our ancestors' journey in the desert and the temporary dwellings in which they had to reside for forty years. People who truly observe the holiday also sleep in the Sukkah. For children, out of all the holidays, Sukkot often marks the happiest time of year. This holiday enables them to actually partake in building and decorating their family's Sukkah. The decorating of Sukkah, for many children over the world, makes Sukkot the most magical Jewish holiday of them all.

The fact that some Jewish holidays are so different in their nature and motivations yet are celebrated within days from each other, may strike an outsider as odd. However, one needs to remember that everything in Judaism has an exact reason.