Rabbi Claude's Scribbles

 In the 1960s, the late Harry Nilsson wrote a very sad song entitled: ‘One’. Its first stanza read: ‘One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do’ We can survive as single entities but for many of us, it is the company of others that helps to brighten our lives, be it with fellow humans or even pets.   On the surface, at least, having a ‘me party’ isn’t as much fun as spending the evening with two or more friends, is it? Given the choice of an odd or even quantity, which would you prefer? Keeping this idea in mind, how about celebrating Yom Kippur not for one, but instead two days? The Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 21a) tells us that: Rava would regularly sit in observance of the fast of Yom Kippur for two days in case Elul had been declared a thirty-day month and Yom Kippur should be observed on what was observed in Babylonia as the eleventh of Tishrei.   It once happened in accordance with his opinion.   Elul had been declared a thirty-day month, and he was the only one wh

Rabbi Saadia Gaon (892 – 942 CE) was one of the most important and significant philosophers of his age and the Head (which is a translation of the word ‘Gaon’) of the great and influential Yeshiva of Sura in Baghdad.  It was one of the most respected academies in Babylon and throughout the Jewish World. He lists ten reasons for blowing the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah: 1.     Rosh Hashanah is the anniversary of the creation of the world (through his forming Adam and Eve on this day, which was why the Earth was created) and so we are crowning Gd as the creator of the Universe on this day and the Shofar proclaims Him as sovereign of the Universe. 2.     Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the Aseret Yemei Teshuvah, the Ten Days of Repentance.   The Shofar is therefore the means by which Gd wants us to hear a last warning to repent before we are finally judged on Yom Kippur, which is the culmination of these days. 3.     A Shofar was sounded on Mount Sinai at Gd’s revelation when He gave