Apples in honey and a guilty conscience

Slowly, unnoticeably, the Jewish New Year ritual has become just like those of Passover. The preparations, the ceremonial atmosphere, the event – suddenly we have another date on the calendar that we can circle in red; an event that should not be missed, one that requires preparation, shopping, and coordination.

Granted, the Jewish New Year has always been a holiday, an important one even. But in the not so distant past, it was just another holiday. On the 33rd day of the Omer (Jewish counting of days between Passover and the day the Torah was received on Mount Sinai) we light bonfires, on Hanukah we light candles, on the Feast of Tabernacles we build a tabernacle (temporary dwelling), and on the Jewish New Year we eat an apple dipped in honey. That's it. We didn't have the great festival we have today, and we certainly didn't attribute to the New Year evening the same importance as the Passover evening.

We can see how the New Year has grown in importance by the way workplaces distribute gifts to employees before the holiday. It's been a while since employees were satisfied with the simple fondue set they were given as a gift for Passover. Today, employees expect a gift basket for the New Year holiday as well, filled with a bottle of olive oil and no less than five types of honey. We in the media also contribute our part by providing hundreds of printed pages in holiday editions and tons of special holiday programs, mostly filled with our favorite New Year topic - "The year in summary" (despite the fact that the secular year ends soon after the Jewish one, and the same annual summary programs will be aired once again).

The clearest sign of the growing status of the Jewish New Year holiday is our collective guilty conscience. In the past, we believed that only the Passover eve was set aside for intensive debates in the form of "but last year we were by your parents, this year we should go to mine." Suddenly, the Jewish New Year has also become a time when moms are offended, grandfathers are infuriated, and aunts settle scores.

We didn't finish singing "Who knows the number one-" and already pressure associated with the next holiday begins - "Who are we staying with next holiday-," "What are we cooking-," "But she is vegetarian!," and "He has celiac." Once upon a time, the New Year meant nothing more than an upgraded Sabbath evening meal. Today, there is no choice but to rent plastic furniture and invite the aunt from Holon, whose name nobody quite knows for sure.

To all that you can add the headache of New Year greetings, which is truly a national plague. The modern wonders of SMS, email, and Facebook can sometimes make us yearn for the stone age. A group SMS New Year greeting to members of NATO usually receives in return a message saying "Go find your friends, pest!" No one comes out on top from all this, especially not this year.

To understand this process, all you need to do is glance at the calendar and watch the commercials on TV. This year, as every year, there is a supermarket conspiracy. They liked the Passover shopping hysteria, but to preserve a healthy balance, they needed another Passover. The Jewish New Year occurs exactly half a year after Passover, and completes the fiscal year nicely.

To get us to fill many shopping carts each year, sales prior to the Jewish New Year have slowly rivaled those for Passover, and the hegemony of the Passover eve meal, which has always been considered the peak family event of the year, has in recent years been upstaged by the New Year's eve family meal.

But this may only be the beginning. Don't be surprised if in a year or two we will be set upon by Tu Bishavt (15th day of the Jewish month of Shevat) enthusiasts. That holiday lies comfortably in the calendar in a "dead zone" between Hanukah and Passover. They will yet invent a great reason for having a special meal on that day as well, perhaps one based on chicken or turkey, which they will generously put on sale for a change. A prophet of some sort will also be expected to arrive at that time, one who likes dry fruit, perhaps even Ezekiel!

Prepare the holiday gifts for your employees ...