Books on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur

[Dena]

Can anyone some basic books on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur? I've picked out several but my Rabbi thinks they may be too in depth and I need to start with something else.

 

[Zardoz]

A good basic overview of all Jewish holidays can be found in this book:

The Jewish Holidays: A Guide and Commentary by Michael Strassfeld

Amazon.com: Jewish Holidays (9780062720085): Michael Strassfeld: Books

 

[Levite]

Several!

First, in general for holidays, and invaluable:

Jewish Holidays, by Michael Strassfeld- This is a fabulous introduction to the Jewish holidays, what they are, what they mean, how to find meaning in them.

Indispensible for the HH:

Entering the High Holy Days: A Guide to Origins, Themes, and Prayers, by Reuven Hammer- This is the go-to background book on the HH, especially for in-depth understanding of the incredibly complex HH services and special prayers.

Days of Awe, by S.Y. Agnon- This is a classic. A matchless resource. Agnon (possibly the greatest Israeli author of all time) simply collects every significant classical text about RH and YK in one book. This is something not to introduce one to the how-to of the HH, but to the spirit and feel and tradition of the HH. Immerse yourself in this, and it will immediately begin to open up the nuances and resonances of the poetry of the HH services.

Celebrating the Jewish Year: The Fall Holidays-- Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, by Paul Steinberg- An excellent resource. Careful, well-ordered, easy to follow and comprehend, he fleshes out the background, history, texts...everything.

Rosh Hashanah Readings and Yom Kippur Readings, by Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins (ed.)- Both good, solid resources to help give you a deeper and wider understanding of the HH.

Preparing Your Heart for the High Holy Days, by Kerry M. Olitzky and Rachel Sabath- A nice resource, well-prepared, for one's first deep experience with the HH.

Repentance: The Meaning and Practice of Teshuvah, by Louis E. Newman and Karyn D. Kedar- This is a very fine resource for understanding and probing the concept of teshuvah (repentance), which is utterly key and foundational to the HH.

By no means necessary, but I found this both interesting and well done:

This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared: The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation, by Alan Lew- The late Rabbi Lew was known as "the Zen Rabbi," for his infusion of Zen Buddhist practice and method into Judaism. Although I personally find some of his thinking a bit too syncretistic for my taste, he does do an extremely compelling job of presenting the spiritual potential of the HH, and ways to increase one's personal meaning and depth of experience during the HH.

Also, even if you use a different machzor (HH prayer book) entirely when you daven in shul, I recommend owning and reading a copy of the Machzor Ha-Shalem or High Holy Day Prayer Book, by Philip Birnbaum. This was the absolute standard Orthodox Hebrew-English machzor prior to the days of Artscroll (which I really dislike in general). The translation is antiquated and stilted, but his footnotes are just superb, and most importantly, when the text uses quotations from Tanakh, he gives you the citation in case you want to look it up. It is incredibly worth having.

 

[Dena]

This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared: The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation, by Alan Lew- The late Rabbi Lew was known as "the Zen Rabbi," for his infusion of Zen Buddhist practice and method into Judaism. Although I personally find some of his thinking a bit too syncretistic for my taste, he does do an extremely compelling job of presenting the spiritual potential of the HH, and ways to increase one's personal meaning and depth of experience during the HH.

This is the one I wanted to read but she thought it might be "too much" for me. I have it on hold from the library I believe so I'll be getting it regardless.

I will look for those others you suggested. Thanks guys!

 

[David_2010]

I'm not sure how much help this will be, but, recently I came across this site, and in this section, he lists some books on the holidays (I'm not too sure if the books are published yet, or will be sometime in the future, I haven't gone through the whole site yet):

The first book is tentatively titled Reclaiming Rosh Hashanah; The Dance of Tears. This book revolves around a stunning, original re-reading of Rosh Hashanah which reveals that tears, primary symbols of emotional intelligence, are the key themes in all of the ritual, prayer, and biblical readings of the holy day.
The path of tears is the hidden Kabbalistic path of Rosh Hashanah. Each biblical reading, for example, revolves around a particular figure or archetype that cries in a very particular way. All in all, there are twelve major figures, men and women, whose archetypal, mythical tears stories invite us to twelve different realizations of wisdom. This book will change forever the Rosh Hashanah experience for every Jew and non-Jew who has ever attended Rosh Hashanah services.
The second book under preparation will be called Reclaiming Yom Kippur; Shadow Dancing in the Light. This book revolves around a stunning, original re-reading of Yom Kippur that reveals that identifying our unique shadow and transforming it into our unique strength is the great invitation of Yom Kippur. The book shows that the core ritual, prayer, and biblical readings of the day, all hide an esoteric teaching about integrating the shadow as the key to at–one–ment, personal transformation and healing. In this book, we will challenge the classic understanding of shadow suggested by Jung and offer a unique Kabbalistic understanding of shadow work.

I'm not sure if those sound of interest to you at all.

Hope this helps, I hope you find what you're looking for .

 

[Levite]

I'm not sure how much help this will be, but, recently I came across this site, and in this section, he lists some books on the holidays (I'm not too sure if the books are published yet, or will be sometime in the future, I haven't gone through the whole site yet):

I'm not sure if those sound of interest to you at all.

Hope this helps, I hope you find what you're looking for.

I confess I have not read these books, so perhaps I should not judge.

However I think it is worth pointing out that Marc Gafni is widely considered to be more or less a fringe leader, and both untraditional and rather careless in his neo-Kabbalistic philosophy. He has also been widely shunned in the Conservative and Reform movements for repeated occurrences of troubling sexual improprieties with his followers.

I'm not telling anyone what to read-- I would never do that. I'm just saying....

 

[David_2010]

I confess I have not read these books, so perhaps I should not judge.

However I think it is worth pointing out that Marc Gafni is widely considered to be more or less a fringe leader, and both untraditional and rather careless in his neo-Kabbalistic philosophy. He has also been widely shunned in the Conservative and Reform movements for repeated occurrences of troubling sexual improprieties with his followers.

I'm not telling anyone what to read-- I would never do that. I'm just saying....

Thanks for telling me, I only just came across his site recently, so, I don't really know who Marc Gafni is. Maybe there might be better Kabbalistic interpretations of the Holidays out there. Although, I did find this comment:

The Zohar re-reads a well-known biblical text, “Greater is the light than the darkness,” as “Greater is the light that comes from the darkness.” The essence of Yom Kippur is the realization that every person has a particular arena in their lives where they consistently fail to be the unique people they want to be, the unique people they ought to be―the unique people they already are. A unique pathology of sorts.
Paradoxically, the Kabbalists taught that it is only by entering the soul print of our darkness that we are able to tap into the light that is ours and ours alone to shine in the world. Greater is the light that comes from the darkness

quite interesting, I'm not sure if it's authentic or not (I don't know much about the Zohar), but, I'm also kind of interesting in Jungian thought, so, that may be why I found the comment about encountering the Shadow/your Darkness interesting.

Anyway, thanks for telling me about him .

 

[Dena]

Rabbi Lew's book came in today so I'll pick it up tomorrow.