Whishing you all Shanà Tovà!

The Jewish new year is not just a time to renew our resolve to lose another fifteen pounds. Rather, it’s the time when our fate stands in the balance as G‑d reviews our past year and decides whether or not to renew our lease on His planet. As such, Jewish greetings for this time of year (the Jewish New Year is in the fall) reflect our prayers for a good, sweet year up ahead.
The catch-all greeting you can use for the entire season is “Shanah tovah” (שנה טובה), which means “Good year.” The word “u’metuka” (ומתוקה), and sweet, is sometimes appended to the end.

SHANA' TOVA'

High Holidays observances reminder 

Rosh Hashanah is the birthday of the universe, the day G‑d created Adam and Eve, and it’s celebrated as the head of the Jewish year. It begins at sundown on the eve of Tishrei 1 (Sept. 20, 2017) and ends after nightfall on Tishrei 2 (Sept. 22, 2017).

http://www.aish.com/

 

Gifts for Rosh Hashana, colorful pomegranate

There is a common practice to eat a pomegranate on Rosh Hashanah, as its abundant seeds symbolize our hopes that we will come before G‑d with abundant merits.Of course, the pomegranates we have today generally have a bitter, pungent taste. It appears that in Baghdad, where the Ben Ish Chai lived, they had sweet pomegranates. In any event, in light of the custom to refrain from bitter foods on Rosh Hashanah, it would seem proper to dip the pomegranate in sugar to at least diminish its pungency

Small clay pomegranates - hand painted

 Create colorful pomegranates made with  air dry clay. 

You need:
Air dry clay
Acrylic paint
Transparent gloss spray

There are many different varieties of pomegranate. All varieties love the heat, as much as you can give them, but some varieties have a higher tolerance to cold temperatures than others. So, before you purchase and plant pomegranate plants in your landscape or garden, make sure the varieties you choose will stand up to the average low temperatures your area experiences during winter. In general, winter low temperatures should be above 7 degrees F for the cold hard varieties, and above 12 degrees F for the frost sensitive varieties.
Here's a breakdown of what you need to know...

Pomegranates: Old Age Remedy for Todays Diseases (Food and Beverage Consumption and Health)

Clay Apples festive decor

Today we are sharing how I made some easy and cute apples to be used as hanging ornaments or just gifts on Rosh haShanà. They are easy and quick to make, and can be done with a group of children. Adults will enjoy making these as well.

APPLES 

The supplies to make these are:
Air Drying Modeling Material
Acrylic Paints, Paint brush
Deco Art Glue, Sealer,Finish in Gloss
Twine
The process is fairly simple.
Model some clay into an apple, help yourself with a paper model, let it sit a few minutes then cut out the apple shape. While the clay is drying but still moist, cut the hole on the top of each apple. Let the apples dry.
Brush off any dust, and paint. Add a final coat of Sealer to give the apples some shine and protection, but that is optional.
I hope that you are inspired to go. Thanks for stopping by.

Decorative clay fish and pomegranate

There is a tradition at Rosh Hashanah to eat symbolic foods (simanim) meant to help ensure a good new year. This list blends both Ashkenazic (Eastern European) and Sephardic (Mediterranean) traditions and includes recipe suggestions for integrating symbolic foods Fish, too, can be a delicious and symbolic addition to the two-day holiday.
Fish symbolize fertility, prosperity and abundance.
The rimon, or pomegranate, is special for many reasons. It is one of the Seven Species of Israel and has traditionally been used as a "new fruit" for the Shehechiyanu blessing (celebrating new and unusual experiences) on Rosh Hashanah. But there's another link between pomegranates and the Jewish New Year just as the fruits are full of seeds, we hope we'll be similarly full of merits in the coming year.
We decided to make some hanging clay fish and pomegranate 

Air Dry Clay Fish and Pomegranate Decor 

Material:

-Air Dry Clay
-Wax paper
-Rolling pin
-Acrylic paint
-Twine
How to make air dry clay  decor:
First, line your work space with wax paper. I flattened a large chunk of air dry clay on top of it, and then covered it with an additional piece of wax paper to keep it from sticking.  After you cut out the shapes, if you have uneven areas or sharp edges, put your finger in a little bit of water and lightly smooth it over the surface of the clay. The clay must dry for 24-48 hours. It helps to flip it over halfway so that it dries all the way through.
Once dry, decor and paint your fish and pomegranate.

 

Seder Moed: Rosh Hashana/Yoma/Succah: 003

 





Pébéo air dry clay- 1,5 kg

Pinecone apple craft for Rosh HaShanà

I know that a pinecone craft may sound more of a winter activity but there is so much more you can turn a pinecone into: owls or…apples.It’s just a matter of color and leaf  and you can easily have an apple instead of a pinecone. If you want a yellow apple the only thing to change is the color.
                              Pinecone Apple Craft

Materials: pinecones, paint, hot glue, green felt pieces.
1: Gather a few pinecones. If you can’t find any pine trees near your house.
2: Paint your pinecones. We used red paint but yellow or green will also work.
3: Cut out tiny leaves from green felt or paper.
5: Glue the leaves to the sticks.

Wood Decorative Apple for Rosh haShanà

Apples and honey: For Ash­kenazic Jews, these words are an inseparable pairing. We dip a slice of apple in honey to express our hopes for a sweet and fruitful year.
Why were apples and honey chosen for this custom?
It’s not because of what Adam and Eve did in eating from the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden; the Bible never identifies the forbidden fruit. More likely, apples were selected because in ancient times they became a symbol of the Jewish people in relationship to G.d. In Song of Songs, we read, “As the apple is rare and unique among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved amongst the maidens of the world.” In medieval times apples were considered so special that individuals would use a sharp utensil or their nails to hand-carve their personal hopes and prayers into the apple skins before they were eaten.
Neither the Bible nor the Talmud dictates the minhag, or custom, of dipping apples in honey. Traditionally, as early as the 7th century, it was customary to wish someone, “Shana Tova Umetukah” (A Good and Sweet Year), and honey ,whether from dates, figs, or apiaries , being the most prevalent sweetener in the Jewish world, was the most available “sweet” for dipping purposes. And as for the biblical description of Israel as a land flowing with “milk and honey,” the Torah is alluding to a paste made from overripe dates, not honey from beehives.
May your year be sweet, fruitful, and filled with contentment and promise.

WOOD DECORATIVE APPLE

 An apple turned from holly wood. It's a pretty simple project for the home Rosh ha Shanà decor in between simple, easy and creative projects.
Making decorations for your home doesn’t need to be difficult, take up a lot of your time or money. Many times the best decorations are the ones you find right under your nose, or behind the garage. That’s where this Wooden Apple started.
The woodscrew chuck is a most useful piece of equipment and can be used to good effect to make wooden fruit.
We prefer the stalks of both apple and pear to leave the fruit at an angle, and this factor influences the chucking techniques. This method means that slightly longer stock than normal is required, but I am quite happy to waste a little wood to make the fruit more natural-looking.
Choice of wood
Exotic hardwoods can produce stunning grain patterns, but  the cost of such species can be prohibitive, particularly in the early learning stage, when mistakes are not unusual. Native hedgerow and garden trees or shrubs can also produce dramatic grain. Yew wood,pine, cherry and holly are eminently suitable, as are spalted woods, particularly beech.

photos from "Woodcraft"

Method
Taking light cuts with the roughing-out gouge, reduce the stock to the suggested 70mm diameter. The profiling can now commence at the open end (the stalk end), using a 10mm spindle gouge. A rolling action is required to form the rounded-over section, merging into a swinging, scooping action to form the undercut profile. At a distance of 70mm from the open end, size in with a parting tool to a diameter of approximately 19mm. The remainder of the profiling down to the depth of the sizing cut can now be completed with the same tool. Before reverse-chucking it is necessary to sand and polish the completed section, and also to drill the 3mm hole to accommodate the stalk.




Koren Sacks Rosh HaShana Mahzor UK Edition: Standard Size by Jonathan Sacks (2011-08-11)

Shanà' Tova' 5777

Shanà Tovà!

Rosh HaShanà honey gifts

Rosh Hashanah ,the Jewish New Year 5777 begins the evening of Sunday, October 2nd, 2016 and ends the evening of Tuesday, October 4th.  It is a long-held Jewish practice to send Shana Tova greetings to friends and family, wishing them a sweet and successful year.
A Little Round Honey Jar ike this would bei perfect for any jewish new year gift, or to enhance your Rosh Hashanah table. 

Felt apples decorations for Rosh haShanà

The custom of the eating of the apple dipped into the honey on the night of Rosh Hashana does have a special traditional significance over and above the ready availability of the fruit at this season of the year. And it is this special significance of memory that enhances the beauty and even the sweetness of the custom.

Fruit of Affection

One of the fruits to which the Jewish people are compared to in Solomon's Song of Songs is the apple. "As the apple is rare and unique among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved ,Israel,amongst the maidens (nations) of the world."

Felt beehive for wood bees

Rosh HaShanah (ראש השנה) is the Jewish New Year. Over the centuries it has become associated with many food customs, for instance, eating sweet food to symbolize our hopes for a "Sweet New Year."
Biblical texts often mention "honey" as the sweetener of choice though some historians believe that the honey referenced in the Bible was actually a sort of fruit paste. Real honey was, of course, available but much more difficult to acquire! Honey represented good living and wealth. The Land of Israel is often called the land of "milk and honey" in the Bible.

Rosh haShanà felt decoration for a sweet new year

Honey Cake

A tad bit fishy for Rosh ha shanà

The Jewish New Year should be about spirituality, about Jews’ aspirations to be better people than they were the year before, about their hopes to find and stick to the righteous path. But like most other Jewish holidays, Rosh Hashanah is really about a little bit of theology and a whole lot of food. On this holiday there’s a custom to serve up a dish that sounds more than a tad bit fishy: fish heads.
The practice comes from a combination of a pun and the desire for a good omen, pointing to a passage in Deuteronomy that reads, “G.d shall place you as a head and not as a tail.”
Since ‘Rosh Hashanah’ translates literally as ‘Head of the Year,’ eating a fish head on the holiday became a little joke about the verse. You should start out your year as the head ,or leader,and not the tail or follower.” The head’s presence on the table serves as both a reminder to be in the lead and a sign that the ensuing 365 days will be filled with good fortune.
While the very idea of a good luck charm might leave some less than superstitious Jews with bad tastes in their mouths ,even before they’ve bitten into the fish head, that is that being a head and not a tail is simply a maxim that Jews “should strive to internalize in order to shape the rest of the year.
Additional rationales for dishing up fish heads include the fact that fish are symbols of fertility and that the New Year is a great time to remind Jews to be fruitful and multiply. And since fish never close their eyes, their stalwart eyelid-lacking presences can ward off the evil eye.

HANDMADE CLAY FISH PLATES FOR ROSH HASHANA' TABLE

 WHISHING WELL FELT FISHES 

Bee medallion decoration for Rosh haShanà

Another favorite food staple in the Jewish home during the High Holy Day season is honey. Traditionally, from Rosh Hashana until after Sukkot, honey is served with every major meal. It is smeared on the bread over which we recite the "Hamotzi" blessing, the sweet apple is dipped into honey on the night of Rosh Hashana, sweet baked goods are baked with honey, and honey is used in the preparation of foods such as glazed carrots and sweet desserts.
Aside from the caloric disaster that this custom entails, one is really hard pressed to find a negative thing to say about honey.
The custom of honey on the Jewish table during the High Holiday period is an ancient and universal Jewish custom. It is already recorded in the works of the Babylonian Geonim in the 7th century, and probably dates back to even much earlier times. It is no exaggeration to say that Jews always seemed to possess a sweet tooth.
                                     HANDMADE CLAY BEE MEDALLION

Rosh ha shanà greeting card

Rosh Hashana / ראש השנה

Rosh Hashanah , (literally "head of the year"), is the Jewish New Year. It is the first of the High Holidays or Yamim Noraim ("Days of Awe"), celebrated ten days before Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashanah is observed on the first two days of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. It is described in the Torah as יום תרועה (Yom Teru'ah, a day of sounding [the Shofar]).

Rosh Hashana begins at sundown on Sun, 02 October 2016.

High Holydays ... going looking around

Fishes to color

Fishes drawings to color during summer, will be ready for being a beautifull Rosh ha Shana craft and decoration.

Shanà tovà!!

Wishing You All Dear Readers And Friends A Shanà Tovà!!

May the new year bring  to you all many blessings and good health, be sweet to you and your families.

Wherever you are, near and far or virtual.

Apples placemats for Rosh ha shanà

Honey jars for Rosh ha shanà

Tashlich children reminder

On the first day of Rosh Hashanah after the afternoon prayer, we go to a lake, river or sea (preferably a body of water that has fish), and recite the Tashlich prayers, wherein we symbolically cast our sins into the water and leave our old shortcomings behind us, thus starting the new year with a clean slate.
If the first day of Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat, Tashlich is done on the second day of Rosh Hashanah. If one is unable to perform this ceremony on Rosh Hashanah, one may do so until the last day of Sukkot (this year, October 4, 2015).
Click here for more about Tashlich, including many reasons for this ancient ritual.

 

To create fishes take a Styrofoam ball, choose the size of your choice (I chose balls of 5 cm in diameter). Cover the ball with a crochet: use a crochet n2 and cotton yarn thin, white and blue. Create two hemispheres, one white and one blue, enter the Styrofoam ball between the two and sew them together with the blue yarn creating, while sewing, fins and tail.

Use two small button for the eyes. 

On the top of the fish crochet some chain to make a hole to hold the metal ring.