Sukkot, Simchat Torah, and Hurricanes

 This is my favorite time of the year, Gail-Friends.  I love Sukkot and I love preparing and decorating our sukkah.  We are doing it on our backyard patio again this year.  It's a lot easier on us this way.  

I love having our meals and quiet times there in the mornings and the evenings.  We've been having cooler days this week. Morning lows in the seventies and days in the mid-eighties are a welcome respite from the scorching nineties.  We hope it continues in the week ahead.  

Since closing the synagogue, we've been attending a synagogue online.  We went there in person during Sukkot and had a wonderful celebration with our mishpocha.  Here's a photo of us in their sukkah:

Something happened during Sukkot that made me so sad.  In the past years, our golden rain trees have thousands of tiny blossoms on them and the flowers always fall during Sukkot.  I've always loved having the golden rain falling on me in the sukkah.  But, due to the rain and wind of the hurricanes, we didn't have the golden rain.  Oh, how I missed it.  You can see it in this post:  Reflections on Sukkot 

After Sukkot, we celebrated Simchat Torah. We joined the synagogue's online observance and really enjoyed it.  We even paraded the Torah in our living room. We danced, sang, waved flags, and rejoiced in the amazing gift of Adonai's Word.  

So, our High Holy Days were filled with JOY!  That word is all over our house because it's what I feel when I reflect on the blessings He has poured out on us.  I can't thank Him enough for preserving the Scriptures for thousands of years.  I can't imagine what my life would be like without His Word.  

I haven't posted much lately due to the hurricanes Helene and Milton.  We didn't have any flooding for bad damage, but we did have tree limbs and debris to deal with.  We lost power in both storms, but only for short periods. (Only fourteen hours with Milton.)  Our daughter who lives nearby lost power and internet for four days. 

We feel blessed, especially as we see the devastation on the west coast of Florida and the horrible damage and deaths in Florida, North Carolina, and other states.  Unlike us, the Appalachians were not prepared for a hurricane.  We are always prepared, having been through at least a dozen hurricanes here in my home state. (Four of them were back to back in 2004, and I've done blog posts on five of them since 2009.)  Please pray for all who are going through such horrible devastation.  

What's amazing is that these good people are helping each other through the pain and distress.  They're not waiting on the government to come and help.  They're clearing roads and bridges and beginning to rebuild.  That's the American way.    

The mainstream media has already moved on, but just go on YouTube and you'll see many videos of people and communities that have lost everything.  It's heart breaking.  We hope you will join us in supporting these groups that are providing help to the victims:

https://reverencefarms.com/

https://cajunnavyrelief.com/

https://www.samaritanspurse.org/disaster/hurricane-helene/

For a long time, we've been following a vlog on YouTube by Justin Rhodes who lives near Ashville, North Carolina.  The videos he posted will give you an eye-opening view of what people are going through. Many people and businesses have been without power and/or internet for weeks.  Hats off to Elon Musk who is giving people free Starlink service in those affected areas.  Here's another vlog we follow that is documenting what's going on there:  The Appalachian Channel

I've been busy working on Jem's next book.  It's called Shenanigans and is a hilarious memoir of his Navy days.  we hope to have it published very soon. Pray that we don't have any more hurricanes to set us back.

We've been doing volunteer work related to the election, and I will be posting some things about praying for America in my next post.  Please stop back by and join in the prayers.

I'm thankful to be back online.  I was unable to get into my blog for weeks due to some kind of browser glitch with Google.  Hopefully, I'll be posting regularly again now that the wrinkle is ironed out.

Blessings to you all, dear Gail-Friends.

Rosh Hashanah and 5785

     This holiday, Rosh Hashanah, is also called Feast of Trumpets because the blowing of the shofar is the focus.  We also make the challah round on this holiday as a reminder that the time has come around once again for us to refocus our lives on ADONAI.  The cycle begins and we rejoice that we have lived another year and look forward to the year ahead, which is 5785.

During the service at the synagogue, there are 100 notes blown on the shofar. Below is a video so that you can hear how it sounds.  The chanting by the rabbi tells the musician how many times to blow the shofar. The last note is very long.  I am amazed at how long the one in the video continued, because blowing the shofar is not easy, and blowing  it for 100 notes is even harder.  To have the breath to end like that is great. Thank you to Youtube for this:

 Shofar on Rosh Hashanah

The shofar blasts are a call to repentance and prayer and a reminder to be in awe of our Holy G-d.  Thus, the time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is known as The Ten Days of Awe. 

For the ten days, we take time to reflect on our lives and ask G-d to reveal any hidden sins.  We also ask Him to show us if any relationships need to be mended.  If so, we go to that person and ask forgiveness.  It is a solemn time of humbling ourselves before Him. 

After the service, we eat lots of apples dipped in honey and other desserts containing apples, and wish each other a sweet year ahead. 

 

 You can learn more about the Feast of Trumpets HERE

 

The sound of the shofar is so beautiful and I enjoy this video of shofar blowing all year long. 

multiple shofars blowing