As you probably already know, due to our previous post, our first night of Rosh Hashanah went very wonderfully, thanks to Bracha and her family. We had decided that on Thursday, September 29 (the first actual "day" or daylight hours of Rosh Hashanah) we would go to the beach in Tel Aviv. We had heard that many other Israelis do this on Rosh Hashanah and since we could not locate a shul (synagogue) to our liking, we decided that we could spend the day at the Mediterranean. We walked the entire way to the beach and back because no buses run during the chag days (or holidays). The full walk was a little more than five miles. Anyway, it was a good enough excuse to get some exercise after lazing about and reading so much. The walk to the beach was hot, as usual, but the thought of the nice salty and sparkling waves soothed our sweaty brows. On the way to the beach, we passed a large billboard carrying a Rosh Hashanah message on it inside of a pomegranate. It was really nice to see this as we walked on this New Year's Day. Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year. It technically means, "the head of the year" in Hebrew ("rosh" means "head", "ha" means "the" and "shanah" means "year"). Rosh Hashanah is the first of the High Holy Days in Judaism and it marks the beginning of the new year in the Jewish calendar (just to be clear, we are now in the year 5772). The Holy Day is also looked at as being the "Day of Judgement" when all the deeds a person did the previous year are examined (by G-d).
Rafi and I made it to the beach in less time than we usually take to walk because there were not as many cars on the road (many Jews do not drive on this holyday) and we were able to walk through intersections without having to stop and wait for our light to turn green. Now I know that I say that many Jews do not drive on this holyday, but that does not mean that there are not many Jews that do. As we know from the previous night, there are many, MANY drivers on the road during this holyday, it just depends on what time it is. When we arrived at the beach we immediately noticed that there were more people there than we have ever seen since our trip began. There were people everywhere, in every direction. They were in the water, they were lying on plush towels in the sand, they were naked (children) and running around, they were lying straight on the sand, and they lined the area where the water laps up the sand, playing frisbee or matkot. We saw people leaving the beach, but also floods of people continuing to make their way to enjoy the sandy and sunny Rosh Hashanah day.
Rafi and I found a place to stash our bag soon enough and made our way to the water's edge. Finally! The water seemed cooler than usual, but it may have been that we were just too hot from walking so long from our apartment. We quickly became acclimated to the temperature and realized that it was actually perfect and warm, with a cooling effect. Bathing in the Mediterranean is a perfect way to spend an afternoon, if I do say so myself. We watched as Jews dressed for services made their way to the water without touching it. They carried siddurim (prayer books) with them and began davening (praying). It was beautiful. I could not hear them, and I doubt they were making audible noise anyway, but it was wonderful to have them there davening when we were just playing with the rest of secular Israel enjoying their time off from work. They reminded us that today was indeed a Holy Day, not that we needed much reminding - Rafi and I had a Rosh Hashanah conversation about what Rosh Hashanah means to us on the way to the beach so as not to leave the holy out of the holiday.
When we returned home, we got ready for our second Rosh Hashanah dinner. We washed off the salt from the sea and I began cooking for the feast. I made chicken breast with seasoning, rice, and beets with onions. We also had a round challah for the holiday, honey, apples, pomegranate, guava, cucumber, dates, hummus, juice and wine. Wow, was it ever a feast! We definitely had leftovers after this meal. All in all, it was a great day.
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