Foods of Rosh Hashanah and Breaking the Yom Kippur Fast the Healthy Way

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is a holiday of celebration, yet it also is the beginning of a process of self-examination and internal reflection and contemplation, which ends ten days later with Yom Kippur.

The traditional foods that are eaten on Rosh Hashanah hold a great deal of symbolism (and, if you are not careful, many calories). Apples and honey are perhaps the most well known traditional new year’s foods; they represent a sweet new year ahead. It is also a tradition for Jews to eat a slow-cooked stew, which may be made from the head of an animal, like fish heads, or cooked cows’ tongue. This symbolizes the “head,” or start, of the year.

Pomegranates are eaten during this holiday because of their many seeds, which symbolize fruitfulness. Not only do pomegranates symbolize good things, they are full of goodness. They are high in vitamin A and potassium, and a good source of fiber. They are also rich in polyphenols, a potent class of anti-aging and heart-healthy antioxidants.

Challah, a typical Jewish bread, is baked in a round shape on Rosh Hashanah. This is then dipped in honey. The roundness symbolizes wholeness and continuity, and again, the honey represents wishes for a sweet year ahead. It’s particularly important to keep challah and honey to symbolic portions — enough to respect your tradition, but not so much as to upset the balance of your diet.

Ten days after Rosh Hashanah, which begins at sundown on Wednesday, September 28, comes Yom Kippur. This is the holiest day of the year in the Jewish faith. It is otherwise known as “the Day of Atonement.” Jews will fast for a period of 25 hours (from sundown to sundown) on Yom Kippur. This is thought to help one focus on well being, asking forgiveness, and praying for a better year ahead.

Traditional foods eaten to break the fast on Yom Kippur are eggs, cheese and bread. Many times, a family will prepare the break-fast meal a day ahead, so they don’t have to deal with any food the actual day of fasting. Other families will only break the fast with cold foods, such as boiled eggs, cheese, bread, and cold meats. Again, the traditional foods might not exactly be up to your usual low-fat and low-carb standards. Boiled eggs, in moderation, are, of course, a wholesome food (you may even want to prepare my “deviled” eggs, where the yolk is scooped and replaced with hummus, a day in advance). Try to eat whole wheat bread and or bread made with other whole grains instead of their white-flour counterparts.

Keeping healthy foods on hand is important, as the urge to over-indulge and make the wrong food choices is always a danger when you are very hungry (as you might be at the end of a fast).

Find the recipe for my “deviled” eggs and five other quick, prepare-ahead snacks that would be ideal for breaking your fast here.

View the original article here

Yom Kippur.

(Sure it’s kind of irreverent–but the closest thing I possess to a pious photo)

Tonight at sundown starts the one of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar            

It’s also a day (or more aptly put a process) to which I look forward all year.

I readily admit Im not the most religious of misfits. 

I tend to claim Im a cultural Jew (you know, as opposed to the JewJews who actually attend religious services weekly)—but even that  claim can be a stretch.

I fully intend to celebrate all the holidays “culturally”–but I lack much cooking prowess & REALLY what’s more part of the Jewish culture (or any for that matter) than the food & the process of creating it with LOVE.

Let’s just say I frequent the local bakery a lot for Shabbat and my last foray into hamantashen making was a mess.

Kitchen skills lacking aside, the Sabbath is very important to my family.

Ren Man comes home early, we unplug en masses, recite the traditional Shabbat prayers and remain present & family-focused for the remainder of the night.

I look forward to Shabbat starting Monday morning in the same way I begin to long for Yom Kippur pretty much right after the day’s fast is broken.

Yom Kippur means day of atonement and, for those unfamiliar, that’s what I’ll be doing from sundown tonight until sundown Saturday.

We go to synagogue.

We pray and murmur offerings of apology for wrong doings the previous 365 days.

We are forgiven.

(indeed that’s the short version–but it gives you the gist)

There is, however, a catch.

Tonight and tomorrow we are offered a last opportunity to make amends to G-d but Yom Kippur prayers dont “cover” sins or wrong doings against other people.

This, because I am nothing if not a misfit, is my favorite part of Yom Kippur.

We are told in order to be ‘written in the book of life’ we need to seek reconciliation with the people we’ve wronged and right these offenses if at all possible.

All this straightening up & flying right must be done before Yom Kippur/sundown tonight.

This year Im less busy atoning than I have been in years past.

That said, I still take today to reflect on who I am, think long, hard and honestly about whom Ive slighted, wronged or even gossiped about, and I reach out, apologize and ask for forgiveness.

While it’s hard (and at times embarrassing) it serves as a yearly reminder we all have the choice of what kind of person we wish to be.

I may make mistakes and wander off my path (as with fitness. GO ME bringing these religious mumblings all back to FITNESS!) but Im never as far away as my very next action.

On Yom Kippur Im never as far away as my ability to recognize my mistake, (wo)man up & ask for forgiveness.

For the religious Jew Yom Kippur represents a sort of spiritual rebirth.

For this misfit cultural Jew it represents an overall opportunity for cleansing and rebirth.

On this Yom Kippur I am grateful.

On this Yom Kippur I am reflecting.

On this Yom Kippur, almost more than any other, I am ready and eager for repentance and rebirth.

To my Jewish readers may you be written in the book of life.

To my non-Jewish readers THANK YOU for indulging my religious ramblings and have a fantastic friday.

View the original article here

Foods of Rosh Hashanah and Breaking the Yom Kippur Fast the Healthy Way

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is a holiday of celebration, yet it also is the beginning of a process of self-examination and internal reflection and contemplation, which ends ten days later with Yom Kippur.

The traditional foods that are eaten on Rosh Hashanah hold a great deal of symbolism (and, if you are not careful, many calories). Apples and honey are perhaps the most well known traditional new year’s foods; they represent a sweet new year ahead. It is also a tradition for Jews to eat a slow-cooked stew, which may be made from the head of an animal, like fish heads, or cooked cows’ tongue. This symbolizes the “head,” or start, of the year.

Pomegranates are eaten during this holiday because of their many seeds, which symbolize fruitfulness. Not only do pomegranates symbolize good things, they are full of goodness. They are high in vitamin A and potassium, and a good source of fiber. They are also rich in polyphenols, a potent class of anti-aging and heart-healthy antioxidants.

Challah, a typical Jewish bread, is baked in a round shape on Rosh Hashanah. This is then dipped in honey. The roundness symbolizes wholeness and continuity, and again, the honey represents wishes for a sweet year ahead. It’s particularly important to keep challah and honey to symbolic portions — enough to respect your tradition, but not so much as to upset the balance of your diet.

Ten days after Rosh Hashanah, which begins at sundown on Wednesday, September 28, comes Yom Kippur. This is the holiest day of the year in the Jewish faith. It is otherwise known as “the Day of Atonement.” Jews will fast for a period of 25 hours (from sundown to sundown) on Yom Kippur. This is thought to help one focus on well being, asking forgiveness, and praying for a better year ahead.

Traditional foods eaten to break the fast on Yom Kippur are eggs, cheese and bread. Many times, a family will prepare the break-fast meal a day ahead, so they don’t have to deal with any food the actual day of fasting. Other families will only break the fast with cold foods, such as boiled eggs, cheese, bread, and cold meats. Again, the traditional foods might not exactly be up to your usual low-fat and low-carb standards. Boiled eggs, in moderation, are, of course, a wholesome food (you may even want to prepare my “deviled” eggs, where the yolk is scooped and replaced with hummus, a day in advance). Try to eat whole wheat bread and or bread made with other whole grains instead of their white-flour counterparts.

Keeping healthy foods on hand is important, as the urge to over-indulge and make the wrong food choices is always a danger when you are very hungry (as you might be at the end of a fast).

Find the recipe for my “deviled” eggs and five other quick, prepare-ahead snacks that would be ideal for breaking your fast here.

View the original article here