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==External links==
==External links==
* [http://opensiddur.org/shared/prayers-for/special-days/new-years-day/for-domesticated-animals/ Rosh Hashanah LaBehemot resources at the Open Siddur Project)]
* [https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Rosh_Hashanah.1.1?lang=bi&with=Pesikta%20Rabbati&lang2=en Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:1 (at the Sefaria Project)]
* [http://opensiddur.org/shared/prayers-for/special-days/new-years-day/for-domesticated-animals/ Rosh Hashanah LaBehemot resources (at the Open Siddur Project)]
* [http://opensiddur.org/prayers-for/special-days/new-years-day/for-domesticated-animals/kavvanah-shofar-blowing-rosh-hodesh-elul-rosh-hashanah-labehemot/ Kavvanah on the Blowing of the Shofar on 1 Elul]
* [http://opensiddur.org/prayers-for/special-days/new-years-day/for-domesticated-animals/kavvanah-shofar-blowing-rosh-hodesh-elul-rosh-hashanah-labehemot/ Kavvanah on the Blowing of the Shofar on 1 Elul]
* [https://www.facebook.com/RoshHashanaLaBehemot/ Rosh Hashanah LaBehemot Facebook Page]
* [https://www.facebook.com/RoshHashanaLaBehemot/ Rosh Hashanah LaBehemot Facebook Page]

Revision as of 06:57, 21 July 2017

Rosh Hashanah LaBehemot
Official nameTemplate:Lang-he-n
English: New Year for (Domesticated) Animals
Observed byJews in Judaism
TypeJewish
SignificanceTithing domestic animals
ObservancesReflecting on domestic animals and their treatment
Date1st of Elul
Frequencyannual
Related toFour New Years

The Rosh Hashanah LaBehemot (Template:Lang-he-n "New Year for (Domesticated) Animals") or Rosh Hashanah L'Maaser Behemah (Template:Lang-he-n "New Year for Tithing Animals") is one of the four New Year's day festivals (Rosh Hashanot) in the Jewish calendar as indicated in the Mishnah. During the time of the Temple, this was a day on which shepherds determined which of their mature animals were to be tithed. Beginning in 2009, the festival began to be revived by religious Jewish animal protection advocates and environmental educators to raise awareness of the mitsvah of tsar baalei chayim, Jewish ethical relationships with domesticated animals, and the lived experience of animals impacted by human needs, especially in the industrial meat industry.[1]


Origin

The Mishnah in Seder Moed Rosh Hashanah 1:1 indicates there are four New Year's Day festivals (Rosh Hashanot) that take place over the course of the year: "The first of Elul is the Rosh HaShanah for tithing behemah (domesticated animals)."[2] A minority opinion holds that the festival occurs on the first of the month of Tishrei.[3] This disagreement is explained in the Babylonian Talmud Rosh Hashanah 8a as a difference of opinion between Rabbi Meir, who holds that the animals conceive in the month of Adar, and Rabbi Elazar & Rabbi Shimon, who hold that the animals conceive in the month of Nissan and give birth in Elul.[4]


Ritual

In the Temple era, the tithing of the animals on Rosh Hashanah L'Maaser Behemah occurred by means of passing animals through a gate where every tenth animal was marked.[5]

In the post-Temple period, since Rosh Hashanah LaBehemot coincides with Rosh Chodesh Elul, a shofar is blown marking the beginning the traditional month long period of cheshbon ha-nefesh (spiritual accounting) that occurs over the course of Elul, known as Elul Zman. This period of self-reflection and relationship repair is set aside for Jews to resolve conflicts, debts, and any other disagreements or transgressions made bein adam l'adam (between man and man) so as to be able to focus on repentance for transgressions bein adam l'maqom (between man and God) on the upcoming holidays. Elul Zman culminates in the holidays of repentance: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur occurring in the following month of Tishrei.

For the revived Rosh Hashanah LaBehemot, Rabbi Arthur L. Segal (Jewish Spiritual Renewal, Hilton Head) explains how this process continues and is initiated : "The Talmud tells us just as the shepherd counts and appraises his farm animals, we are to take stock of ourselves doing a cheshbon ha-nefesh (an accounting of our souls), do teshuvah [repentance], do spiritual growth (aka Jewish spiritual renewal), mussar, and ready our selves for selichot and Yom Kippur."[6] Aharon Varady (director, the Open Siddur Project) explains, "Before we ask Hashem to take compassion on us as the Shepherd of their flock on Rosh Hashanah, we must prove the we are behaving responsibly and with compassion to our own "flocks" -- those animals that reply upon us entirely for their welfare due to our use of them for our lifestyle and diet."[7] [8]

Modern Revival

A poster advertising a communal seder for Rosh Hashanah LaBehemot in Jerusalem at Ginger House in 2012.

Informal celebrations of Rosh Hashanah LaBehemot began in 2009 at the goat barn of Adamah Farm on the campus of the Isabella Freedman Retreat Center. Rabbi Jill Hammer (Director of Spiritual Education, Academy for Jewish Religion (New York)), Sarah Chandler (Director of Earth Based Spiritual Practice at the retreat center), and Aharon Varady (director of the Open Siddur Project), collaborated on preparing ceremonies for the day. The ceremony included the following 1) decorating and blessing of assembled farm and pet animals, 2) a solemn meditation on beginning the period of cheshbon ha-nefesh with a personal census of all the behemot (domesticated animals relying entirely upon human beings for their welfare) that participants relied upon for their lifestyle and diet, 3) blowing of the shofar, 4) release of the goats from their pen, and 5) roleplaying the lives of domesticated animals in a "Council of All Beings."[9] Comparisons to the Catholic Blessing of the Animals of St. Francis of Assissi followed to which Jill Hammer remarked: "Rosh Chodesh Elul, the Talmudic new year for animals, is a wonderful time to reclaim our connection to our brothers and sisters of all species, examine our ethics around treatment of animals, and celebrate the ways humans are and can be in partnership with all life. I, for one, look forward to blessing the animals in a Jewish context!"[10]

Following an Open Session at the Siach Gathering in Tiberias, Israel, in May 2012,[11] Aharon Varady, Yossi Wolfson and Inbal Cohen (Ginger House Jerusalem, Anonymous for Animals Israel), Jeffrey Cohan and Richard H. Schwartz (Jewish Veg),[12] [13] [14] and Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz (co-founder of Uri L’Tzedek and director of the Shamayim v'Aretz Institute), began reaching out to synagogues and Jewish food, environment, and animal protection organizations, in order to raise the profile of the festival and raise awareness for the conditions of domesticated animals in contemporary society in Jewish communities. In 2012, the first guided ritual communal meals for Rosh Hashanah LaBehemot were held in Jerusalem (at Ginger House), and in major cities across the United States.[15]

Influential rabbis lent their support for reviving the festival. Rabbi David Wolpe (Sinai Temple (Los Angeles)), offered his support explaining: "The Jewish tradition mandates that we are stewards of all God's creation. In our day, we are increasingly sensitized to suffering of those living creatures in our care. This initiative [Rosh Hashanah LaBehemot] helps us to recognize our obligation to animals and so helps us be more fully human.”[16][17] Rabbi Yitz Greenberg stated that “it is a beautiful idea to renew/revive a classic day, [Rosh Hashanah LaBehemot] … Your contemporary application … in the form of addressing humanity’s relationship to animal life and the widespread mistreatment of food animals and environmental abuse in today’s economy, marked by industrial farming and animal husbandry, is inspired.”[18] In 2015, Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg (Senior rabbi of Masorti Judaism UK) wrote, "What might a New Year for Animals look like? Alef Elul is when we first blow the shofar, whose raw call awakens an awareness of a world deeper and more extensive than human society alone. This cry should be accompanied by two modes of liturgy: penitence, "For the sins we've committed in cruelty to lives with no political voice or economic power"; and praise, "Praise God, wild and domestic animals, creeping creatures and birds on the wing" (Psalm 148). If I was brave, I would add a Council of All Being, developed by Rainforest to help us recognise, not just intellectually but experientially, our bond with nature. Participants choose an animal, and through quiet reflection, try to imagine how life feels from inside its skin."[19] In 2016 and 2017, the Jewish Initiative for Animals and Hazon began to publicly support programming for the festival.[20]

References

  1. ^ Varady, Aharon. "Rosh Chodesh Elul: Jewish New Year for Animals". Hazon. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  2. ^ Seder Moed, Rosh Hashanah 1:1.
  3. ^ Seder Moed, Rosh Hashanah 1:1.
  4. ^ Babylonian Talmud Rosh Hashanah 8a.
  5. ^ Babylonian Talmud Bekhorot 57b.
  6. ^ Varady, Aharon. "Rosh Chodesh Elul: Jewish New Year for Animals". Hazon. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  7. ^ Varady, Aharon. "Rosh haShanah la'Behemot: A New Year's Day for Domesticated Animals". Aharon's Omphalos. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  8. ^ Varady, Aharon. "Rosh Chodesh Elul: Jewish New Year for Animals". Hazon. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  9. ^ Varady, Aharon. "Rosh Chodesh Elul: Jewish New Year for Animals". Hazon. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  10. ^ Schwartz, Richard (1 August 2012). "Animal Rights and Jewish Law: Restoring and Transforming an Ancient Holiday". Haaretz. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  11. ^ "Spotlight on a Siach Partnership: Rosh Hashanah LaBehema". Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  12. ^ Cohan, Jeffrey. "New Year for Animals: The Time Has Come". Tikkun. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  13. ^ Schwartz, Richard (1 August 2012). "Animal Rights and Jewish Law: Restoring and Transforming an Ancient Holiday". Haaretz. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  14. ^ Schwartz, Richard. "AN OVERLOOKED MITZVA: 'TSA'AR BA'ALEI CHAIM'". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  15. ^ Dubkin Yearwood, Pauline. "Op-Ed: At the New Year, let's give animals a new Jewish chance". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  16. ^ Dubkin Yearwood, Pauline. "Op-Ed: At the New Year, let's give animals a new Jewish chance". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  17. ^ Wolpe, David. "Tending Your Sheep". The New York Jewish Week. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  18. ^ Dubkin Yearwood, Pauline. "Op-Ed: At the New Year, let's give animals a new Jewish chance". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  19. ^ Wittenberg, Jonathan. "Why Animals Need Their Own New Year". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  20. ^ "New Year of the Animals". Hazon. Retrieved 20 July 2017.


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