Is Rosh Hashana The Start Of The Jewish Year?

Magazine

That Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the Jewish year should be a truism. Its very name translates as the head of the year. Yet the Bible never directly connects Rosh Hashanah to the start of the year. In Vayikra (23;24) when it is first mentioned, the Torah describes a nameless holiday on the first of the seventh month that contains a mitzvah to listen to the sounds of the shofar. In contrast to the three festivals of Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot, which are related to both specific Jewish experiences during the beginning of our national existence and the agricultural cycle of the year, this holiday does not have a particular context.

AMIT Top Tech Initiative

Magazine

AMIT is a leading catalyst and collaborator for dynamic, innovative change in education in Israel and is committed to provide opportunities to all its students, regardless of background or income level. This year AMIT has embarked on a new initiative which aims to prepare students to graduate from high school equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary for success in post-secondary education and in the 21st century global economy.

Early Zionist Education

Magazine

Berl Katznelson, who arrived in Eretz Yisrael at the age of twenty-two was typical of the many young halutzim (pioneers) who worked on the fledgling Jewish farms in the Galil. Like many of them, Katznelson was inspired by the venerated philosopher/farmer Aharon David Gordon. Gordon initiated the development of a unique Zionist ethos of mentoring and youth education. Katznelson took up the challenge: “a world of virtue must be created within our spirit,” and emerged from among the halutzim to become the cherished theoretical and moral guide to Labor Zionism. Like the educators who followed in his footsteps Katznelson instilled the national character of the reborn State of Israel in countless young men and women. That national character would come from a blending of religious tradition with modernity, a philosophy that integrated personal self-realization with community responsibility.