Rosh Hashana….Happy New Year 5771

Elena

L’Shana Tova, translated in English……for a good year

My hope for this new year is that people will recognize, in each other, their common humanity.

For me, the 10 days are an opportunity to simply reflect upon what I would like to do better. At dinner tonight, which by the way, my 8 year old son made (it was fabulous), we shared at least one personal flaw that we would like to change within ourselves. We listened to the horn of the Shofar on the internet, gotta love Google search, said our prayers, and then for desert, had apples dipped in honey.

Why the apples and honey you may ask? They symobolize the hope for a sweet year.

Why the blowing of Shofar (rams horn)? In a nutshell, the sound of the horn brings in the New Year and gets people workin’ on redemption and the end of the new year, Yom Kippur, it is blown again, to signal the end of the 10 days of Awe.

Rosh Hashanah is one of two High Holidays in the Jewish religion, the other being Yom Kippur, which occurs 10 days after Rosh Hashanah begins. These two holidays form the High Holiday period, arguably the most significant time in the Jewish year, as it marks the chance for repentance and forgiveness in the eyes of God. During the High Holidays, Jews cleanse their soul and get the chance to start fresh with an unburdened conscience and the intention of doing better in the coming year.

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Mr. Family Values: Newt Gingrich on 9-11

MoonHowler
Fromo Gringrichs website
Fromo Gringrich's website

To recognize the tragedy of 9-11, that class act, Mr. Family Values himself, Newt Gingrich, plans to show a film entitled America at Risk: The War With No Name.

The trailer:

It appears that this endeavor is really a war on President Obama. From Newt’s website:

Together with Dave Bossie, Kevin Knoblock and the team at Citizens United, we made this movie because we believe America IS at risk. We believe the dangers facing our country ARE real and growing.

In fact, we believe that if our enemies acquire nuclear, chemical or biological weapons from Iran or North Korea, they will attempt to kill millions of Americans and destroy entire cities.

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Reflections from the Council Meeting….

MoonHowler

Guest Post by Cindy Brookshire.

Cindy was one of the speakers at citizen time last night in the City of Manassas. She shares her reflections.

Disclaimer: All guest posts are the opinion of the poster and do not necessarily represent the views of moonhowlings.net administration. M-H

I was there for the full time of citizen comment. I was in the minority – only four of us spoke in defense of this shop owner: the attorney for KK Temptations, a patron of the MVC store near Kindercare on Mathis Ave, the owner of the Manassas Junction Bed & Breakfast and me, another woman-owned small business owner in the City of Manassas. I was the only one of the four who stayed for the whole 3+ hours.

And despite that, it didn’t have the feel of a pitchfork and torches event. I knew a good many people in the room – longtime residents of the City, parishioners of local churches, parents involved in their schools. There were counselors and doctors and those with careers in law enforcement. There were business owners in Old Town. There were people from my neighborhood watch, and the Chief of Police, Doug Keen.

I found many of the comments very eloquent – one elderly man spoke so beautifully about the love between a man and a woman, and he addressed the gathering more than to the council, that when Mayor Parrish had to interrupt him to tell him he was going over time, we didn’t want him to stop. Another young man got up and spoke and anyone would have been proud of him.

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