Jewish High Holy Days

Happy new year!

L'shanah tovah.  Rachelvk, thanks for starting this thread, and I hope this evening's service is beautiful and meaningful for you.  Best wishes for your surgery.

I'm not religious at all - and wasn't raised Jewish, though my partner was - but I do find a lot of meaning in the high holidays . . . more so since my diagnosis.  Being diagnosed in January and starting chemo the week after Passover, I was celebrating the end of treatment right around the new year.  

Time to head home to put the (mostly cooked) brisket in the oven and slice up some apples for dipping!

Linda

L'Shana Tovah ... may this year bring blessings, peace and protection to Israel.

L'Shana Tova. Health and happiness to all.

I hope everyone had a peaceful and healthy start to the new year.  Since most of you ladies are Jewish I thought I would share a suggestion made by a friend this evening.  She asked me if I had considered going to the mikvah after radiation, to mark the end of that treatment (and the beginning of the next.)  I thought it was a lovely idea, and I do think I will. 

On Yom Kippur, may you all be inscribed....

With Hugs,

Susan 

Hi Ladies,

I am SO glad I found this thread--Rachel, thank you so much for starting it.  Last year I went into the Chagim very cocky--I felt like I had the world by the balls (sorry) and it was mine for the taking.  I didn't spend much time in services, mostly in the hall talking with my girlfriends.  Then I got sick--we didn't know what it was and I was sick from Oct 15- Jan.  I developed angioedema, meaning my face and throat would swell for no reason.  It would swell to the point of anaphylaxis.  I almost died in the back of an ambulance, but B"H, I didn't.  Then I got breast cancer.  They were, of course, related, but no one thought to look when I was having the swelling, even though I had HORRIBLE pain in my chest.

This year has been different.  My DS is old enough now to stay in 'groups' so I can daven.  Sometimes I can't follow the liturgy due to ADHD, but my tusy is in the seat, and I'm not in the hallway.  I also started covering my hair when I go out.  I try and make it something that 'fits' the outfit and some of my hair does show, but I figured if that is one type of tshuvah I can do, it is easy, especiall with my gross hair.  Since everyone knows I had BC, I think they assume it is just from chemo (but I didn't have to have chemo).  Last year I didn't hear all the shofar blows I was supposed to (my rebbitzen says halacha is 30), but this year I did.  I didn't go to Yom Kippur services last year as I didn't feel well, but this year I will make the 2.2 mile walk there and back.  I wont be able to fast though, so I'm going to just eat and drink what I need to in order to stay upright, and no 'happy foods' like cookies, etc.  

I was raised Conservative, then my parents joined a Reform temple and I married my Sephardi husband.  I tell everyone it was because of the popcorn and rice on Passover, but that's just a benefit.  When the MO asked me if I was Ashkenazi, I told her no,I'm Sephardi now... she is also Jewish and her son goes to the same Jewish day school as mine, so she looked at me with my red/blonde hair and pale skin and told me she doesn't care how I daven, she wants to know my heritage.  Yes, that is most definatley Ashkenaz, and cancer is rampant in my grandmother's family.  I had melanoma when I was 17, BC at 45, but I am BRCA negative!  The genetic doc says I have another sort of cancer mutation that hasn't been identified yet.  Lovely.

This year, I plan on making the hike to shul.  I don't think I'll do Kol Nidre, even though I love that service, because now my family (husband and son) are observant and it is dangerous for me to walk in the dark.  I could fall and pop a boob!  I hope my davening reaches His ears.

My rabbi gave a great sermon (d'var) on Shabbat Tchuvah last week.  He said that we need to figure out our purpose in life and gave the example of one woman who decided to make cupcakes for a school of differently abled children.  Now her efforts have spread to other schools, and more women are makin cupcakes for other children.  She has a web site and really is doing something good, a lovely mitzvah, by just doing what she loves to do.  It spoke to me deeply.  I realized that I need to be a voice for Jewish women in my observant community who feel voiceless.  Since I had that moment of inspiration, two women I don't know have sought me out for support.  In fact, one wrote me right after that sermon!  And I didn't know her from Adam.  

May 5772 be a year of health, happiness, and stregnth for us all!

What a lovely, lovely thread.  So glad I found you on the Active List.  I was brought up in a very secular Jewish family, but have many friends who are religious, and generously share their wisdom, and kind words. I can't speak Hebrew, so everyone translates for me

I just learned: Shana tov u'metuka   It should be a good and sweet year.

Eema, G-d will hear your davening wherever you are (but I think you knew that...). What a journey you've had! I, too, was raised in a Reform family but when I was in my late teens I started to keep more and more. It's so deep within me now that I sometimes look back at how I was growing up and wonder, "Did I really do that? How?"

Yom Kippur is starting in less than 12 hours. The soup for our pre-fast meal is cooking, the honey cake for breaking the fast is baked, and my mind is tumbling. Will my davening be the best it can? Will my teshuva do what it needs to do?

I have to learn to accept that I cannot fast on Yom Kippur (onc says not eating is OK but I must drink). For me, the one thing that is harder than fasting on Yom Kippur is - not fasting on Yom Kippur. What makes it harder is knowing that it's unlikely that I'll ever be permitted to fast again.

BC has turned my world around physically and spiritually.

Eema has started a thread in the "Prayers and Spiritual Inspiration" forum called "Jewish Warrior Sisters". This thread has had some wonderful discussions so I hope we can have more on all kinds of topics on this new thread.

G'mar Chatima Tova.

Leah

Amen Rachelvk.  

Eema, my daughter calls me Eema. She said it is mother in Hebrew.

So, on the subject of Hebrew names,I will be a grandmother for the first time in March. Lots of debate on what to be called. DD and SIL are not religious at all. Younger DD is and thinks we should go with Safta or old style Yiddish Bubbie. I kind of lie Bibi, which is common in Afghanistan, or Mimi.

Caryn

My kids called my Mom "Bubbe."  It was very dear, and it suited her.  My DH's Mom was a bit, um, crabby sometimes and she said "Just Grandma, Grandma." And that's what my kids called her!  "Grandma Grandma!" I only knew one grandparent due to the war, and I called her "Oomah" as she was German. Congrats to you Caryn!

Caryn, B'sha'ah Tova! Well, I have to admit to a partiality for Savta since that's what all my grandchildren call me. I'm glad I'm not Bubby since I had a unimast and that would make me uniboob bubby. And, by the way, all my kids/in-law kids call me Eema, as does my son's friend.

I didn't fast though technically I had a halachic fast. I drank a very small measured amount every 9 minutes, which is what a person does if they are not permitted to fast (if their health permits this). On the one hand I'm glad I was able to do this and partially fast though it was weird being in shul on Yom Kippur and drinking. I live on a small moshav, though, and just about everyone knows my situation so I didn't feel too self-conscious.

I hope everyone had an easy fast. Shana Tova.

Leah