 Assalamu alaikum, shalom alaikum, greetings of peace and blessings to all, I'm honored to be here before you and in the presence of the esteemed rabbi to fill in and just begin to shed a little bit of light on the few of the beautiful, significant Islamic holidays that mark important moments in the lives of Muslims around the world. The joyous occasions provide an opportunity for us to come together, reflect on our faith, and strengthen the bonds of our communities. Islam encompasses a rich tapestry of traditions and observances, and while there are numerous Islamic holidays for the sake of time and brevity, I would like to focus on two major celebrations, being Id al-Fitr and Id al-Adha, and one of the major events connected to Id al-Fitr, which is the Ramadan. Firstly, I'll briefly discuss the Islamic calendar. The calendar is a lunar calendar. It follows the monthly cycles of the moon and its phases. It contains 12 months, made about 354 or 355 days. The years in the Islamic calendar begin with the year 622 of the common area on the Gregorian calendar. This marks the year in which the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, emigrated from Mecca to Medina and established the first official Muslim community in an event known as the Hijrah. So for example, today, June 14th, 2023 of the common era would be the 25th of the Qada in the year 1444, which is the year of the Hijrah. The Islamic calendar uses the phases of the sun to determine the start date, the phase of the moon, to determine the start date of the months and the dates of some of the seminal events of the Muslim year. Some of which we will see next. The first holiday we're looking at here is Eid al-Fitr, which translated from the Arabic means the festival or celebration of the breaking of the fast. This is because Eid al-Fitr follows the holy month of Ramadan, which is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and the practices of Ramadan run out through the entirety of the month. And I'm sure many of us know someone who has partaken in or have partaken ourselves in the festivities of Ramadan. I'll briefly go over it and its practices and significances. Again, the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, so it determines the beginnings of each month by the sighting of the crescent moon. As such, Ramadan falls on a different Qigurian date each year, typically shifting between 10 and 12 days, and subsequently lasting between 29 and 30 days. So the question then becomes, what exactly is it that Muslims do during Ramadan? Perhaps most famously, during the month of Ramadan Muslims are instructed to fast, and that fast would be from food, beverage, sexual relations, and general sinfulness between sunrise and sunset, rather devoting themselves to prayer, recitation of the Qur'an, the remembrance of God, and reflection. And I know we're all kind of dying to ask the question, does that also mean water? And indeed, it does mean water. No water done fasting as well. Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam, alongside the shahada, or the statement of belief in Allah's Messenger, observance of the five daily obligatory prayers, zakat, or the donation of one's wealth annually, a fraction of one's wealth, and the performance of the hedge pilgrimage. And I know what many may be thinking now. That's got to be some holiday, right? Slogging through the day, deprived of bodily sustenance, quite joyous. But indeed, for Muslims, it's the most joyous of occasions, because of what Ramadan represents. It's the commemoration of the first revelation of the Qur'an to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, by the angel Jibril, or Gabriel, in the cave of Hira near Mecca. Briefly, this occurred during the year 610 of the common era, and according to a narration in Sahih al-Bukhari, one of the largest collections of sayings and practices of the Prophet, peace be upon him. While in the cave, Jibril came before the Prophet and said to him, Iqra, read. To which the Prophet said, he did not know how. Now, following a tight embrace from Jibril, the cycle repeated twice more until the Prophet began to receive and repeat the first revelations of the Qur'an, which are the first five ayahs or the verses of Surah number 96, al-Alaq, the quat. This revelation is narrated to have occurred during a very sacred night known as leilat al-qadr, the night of power. This was the night in which the Prophet received his revelation, the night where the Qur'an was sent from the heaven to the earth and then dispersed peace milked the Prophet over the course of 23 years. But more on leilat al-qadr later on. Now, Allah describes the month of Ramadan in Surah Al-Baqarah, the second Surah of the Qur'an, verse number 185 when he says, an old scope of the English for time sake, Ramadan is the month in which the Qur'an was revealed as a guide for humanity with clear proofs of guidance and the standard to distinguish between right and wrong. So whoever is present this month, let him fast. But whoever is ill or on a journey, let them fast. An equal number of days after Ramadan. Allah intends ease for you, not hardship, so that you may complete the prescribed period and proclaim the greatness of Allah for guiding you, and perhaps you will be grateful. As we can see here, fasting is prescribed upon all Muslims, but there are some exceptions for specific individuals to delay their fast due to hardship to be made up for later on. Some of these examples would be included the traveler, the elderly, the ill, the diabetic, the breastfeeding mother, or the menstruating woman. For those that are required to fast during the month, there are a few Q things to note. Firstly, prior to the fast, generally Muslims will begin with a pre-dawn meal known as khur, which is conducted before the dawn prayer of Fajr. That's the final meal that is had, prior to the sunset meal that breaks the fast, and that's known as ifthaw, which is eaten after the sunset prayer of madhrib. During the fasting hours whilst abstaining from the prohibited acts previously mentioned, extra emphasis is given towards prayer, remembrance of Allah, providing acts of charity, strengthening one's discipline, listening to and reciting the Qur'an, and finding time for reflection. And this is from one of the hadith of the sayings of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, which was recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari. And when he says, regarding the fasting person, Allah says, he has left his food, drink, and desires for my sake, the fastest for me, so I will reward the fasting person for it, and the reward of good deeds is multiplied 10 times. The incentive here, if you will, is for amplifying one's fasts with positive actions and good deeds, is quite literally 10-fold during Ramadan. As such, there are two additional components that are also incorporated into daily Muslim life during Ramadan, one being the tarawih prayer, and the other being completing the reading of the Qur'an. Tarawih means rest or relaxation. And as we know quite well, there's nothing more relaxing after a long day of fasting than standing still for two hours. I'm just joking, of course. The tarawih prayer is rest and relaxation for one's mind and one's soul. It's a way of furthering one's connection with God through the recitation of his word and steadfastness in his worship. And the tarawih prayer itself consists of 20 cycles of raka'ahs in sets of two, following the isha or nightly prayer. Each night, the Imam will typically recite one chapter or juzh of the Qur'an, so that once Ramadan is complete, the entire Qur'an will have been recited. While they're not compulsory like the five daily prayers, they are strongly encouraged as a confirmed practice or sunnah of the Prophet peace be upon him. Similarly, another non-compulsory practice is to read the entirety of the Qur'an throughout the month of Ramadan, similar to the tarawih, but just reading a chapter each day as you are able to do so. And the last thing I'll talk about regarding Ramadan is the laylatul qadr, the night of power. Again, it was the night in which the Prophet received his first revelation from God through his intermediary, the Angel of Gabriel. The exact date of laylatul qadr is unknown, but it is known to follow one of the odd-numbered nights in the final 10 days of Ramadan. So it would be the 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th, or 29th night. Many do pay special attention to the 27th night and believe it to be the most probable. And the blessings of laylatul qadr are incomparable. And in Surah number 97 in the Qur'an, Al-Qadr, verse number 3 Allah says, The night of power is better than a thousand months. So therefore the rewards of actual worship on laylatul qadr cannot really be replicated on another night. And as such, Muslims around the world will gather on these nights, standing in congregational prayers, performing extra optional prayers, reading the Qur'an, supplicating to God and reflecting on and remembering him and worshiping God throughout the entirety of the night. And I know that was a lot, but believe it or not, that was just a very brief and basic overview of Ramadan. And we'll look at the culmination now of Ramadan, which is Idul-Fitr, the celebration of the breaking of the fast. Idul-Fitr falls immediately after the month of Ramadan on the first day of the 10th month, known as Shawwal. Idul-Fitr is commemorated with a special prayer that is performed in a large congregation and slightly different than the daily prayer since it includes additional takbirs, which is the raising of the hands accompanied by saying the words Allahu Akbar. The Eid prayer is conducted in two cycles, or rakhaz, and is then accompanied by a sermon from the Imam, which is distinct from the routine Friday or Juma prayers, which include a sermon, but it's concluded, it's conducted prior to the cycles of the prayer. There are some sunnas or confirmed practices of the Prophet regarding the Eid prayer, such as taking a full body purification bath prior to attending, dressing in the finest clothes, eating an odd number of dates prior to attending the prayer, and taking a different path home from the prayer that one took to the prayer. Now, prior to the Eid prayer, it's incumbent on the Muslim to pay an additional charity known as the fitr. It can be paid prior to the required period, but it must be paid prior to the prayer. It can be paid zakat, conversely, it can be paid anytime, but the payment of the fitr is the way for the fasting Muslim to show thanks to Allah for enabling them to complete their observance of the fast and a way to assist the poor and the needy. Upon completion of the Eid prayer, Muslims will then embrace one another with greetings of Eid Mubarak, blessed Eid, happy Eid, not really married Eid, but, you know, similar. During Eid, it's a time for forgiveness, a time where Muslims repair any broken bonds they have with one another, asking for forgiveness, forgiving one another for past transgressions, and removing the enmity between one another if there is any. Of course, Eid is accompanied with copious quantities of delicious foods and sweets, which after a month of fasting is quite the welcome side, trust me. The remainder of the Eid celebration then will vary between cultures, but commonly includes spending the day with the presence of family, eating delicious, sometimes special foods. If you haven't had kabbali pilau, try it on Eid. It's very good. Enjoying the company of one another, decorating one's home or neighborhood, giving gifts and sweets to children and partaking in festivals or group activities that the community puts on. Many Muslim-majority countries will also shut down schools and businesses in observance of Eid so that the families can be together and celebrate the joyous occasion. Eid al-Fitr reminds us of the importance of compassion, sharing, and the joy of coming together as a family. And one more celebration we'll look at here is Eid al-Adha. The first day of Eid al-Adha actually aligns with the third day of the Hajj, both being on the 10th day of the month of Toth Hijjah, which is the one or the month of Pilgrimage, and that's the 12th and final month of the Islamic calendar. And I wanted to speak a little bit on the Hajj, but that would take a very long time, so I'll go ahead and forego that and just we'll talk about Eid al-Adha and I'll call it a day here. So Eid al-Adha, which is actually coming up here towards the end of the month, is translated as the festival of the sacrifice, and it commemorates the Pluribani sacrifice. On the 10th day of Toth Hijjah, it is the major event that is celebrated is the ritual slaughter of an animal. This animal could be a goat, a cow, a sheep, a lamb, or a camel, and it's ideally distributed in three parts equally, one for consumption of the family, one for friends and extended family, and one for the poor and the needy. Now in lieu of slaughtering the animal of themselves, which it could be quite difficult, I'm not really exactly a master at it yet, but we're working on it. You can arrange to have the animal slaughtered, sometimes overseas, in which case the entirety of the sacrificial meat would then be distributed amongst the poor. What's distinct here about the slaughtering the animals with Qurbani is the discarding of the blood of the animal and the lack of any burnt offerings accompanying it. Now this sacrifice is acceptable between the 10th and the 13th of Toth Hijjah. And for the reason behind the Qurbani, it's a symbol, it's a embolical replication of the story of Ibrahim or Abraham al-Islam and his son. In the Qur'an in Surah number 37, as Safat, it means those who set the ranks, verses 102 to 109, the story of that is relayed, where Abraham sees in a dream that he must sacrifice his son. And most as you say that this is Ishmael, but it's not, he's not explicitly named in the text. And one quick note about that is that the Qur'an doesn't exactly elaborate upon the identity of the son, as it's not the point of the narrative. The Qur'an itself did not delve into the details of the sacred narratives in the way that Tanakh typically does, but rather it draws out the overarching and structural lessons of the narrative. So here, upon telling his son about the dream, his son willingly accepts the ultimate destiny and lays on his side of his forehead for sacrifice. At that point, God calls out to Abraham and informs him that he has fulfilled the dream and that this was just a test for him. God then provides a ram to be sacrificed instead as a ransom for his son, and that is now remembered with the Qur'an's sacrifice. On Eid al-Adha, similar to Eid al-Fitr, the prayer is held consisting of two cycles of prayer with the additional tuk-pedes and the following of the prayer with the sermon. And then after each of the five obligatory daily prayers, between the fajr or dawn prayer on the 9th of Dhul-Hijjah and the usur of the 13th of Dhul-Hijjah, the sunset prayer, the Muslims will additionally say the tuk-beer out loud in the following manner. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, La ilaha illa Allah, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Wala ilaha illa Hamd. Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest. There's no God but Allah. Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest, and to Allah goes all praise. And the festivities are similar with the traditions of Eid al-Fitr, like greeting one another with Eid al-Badr, visiting and embracing family and friends, exchanging gifts, partaking of sweets and foods, but it's also a time to reflect on the blessings that we have and an opportunity to share with those in need. Eid al-Ata really encourages us to be compassionate, selfless, and prioritize the welfare of others. And if you haven't partaken in an Eid celebration, I would highly recommend it, if presented with the opportunity. It's a wonderful experience and a great time to connect with loved ones and celebrate. And just to conclude in here, Islamic holidays, they provide us with the moments of celebration, spiritual growth, and community building. They serve as reminders of our values and principles. They emphasize the importance of love, compassion, sacrifice, and self-reflection. Whether it's the celebration of Eid al-Fitr or the spirit of sacrifice during Eid al-Adha, the holidays pretend to bring Muslims closer to their faith and to one another. With that, I will see you the rest of my time and I'll thank you all for listening. Okay, thank you very much, Omar. So you'll take some questions now? Okay, great. I'll just bring the microphone over to whoever has a question. I am Jewish and our holidays start the night before the day of the holiday. When do Muslim holidays start? Yeah, so I should have clarified that, actually, as well. They start at Maghrib, which is like at the sunset. The sunset. The sunset. Yeah. Okay, so they start the day before too. Yeah, the sunset. Thank you. Absolutely. Sorry, I meant to mention that. Who else has a question? Yeah, I was just wondering with these, you know, when you break the fast during the day or at the end, is there a ritual statement, like a Passover statement, where you remember what's going on? Is there a, you know, just a formalized, ritualized statement that goes with this? Not exactly like the Passover statement, though. It really just sort of varies. First of all, as you make a supplication as you see fit, but not specific like the Passover statement is. Who else has a question? I actually have one question. Oh, okay. I think you said that you break the fast by eating an odd number of dates. Is that right? So it's a practice of the Prophet to eat an odd numbers of dates. Yeah, odd numbers of dates. And that actually was going to the Eid prayer. Going to the Eid prayer to eat an odd number of dates prior to going to the prayer itself. And it's a sunna. So it's a following in the tradition of the Prophet. Okay, thanks. Oh, Carolyn. I mentioned a delicious dish that you eat on Eid. What is that? It's an Afghan dish. It's called kabbali pilau. It consists of rice, meat, carrots, raisins, and sometimes pistachios. Very, very delicious in my opinion. Thank you. It's better than a salad shirt. And the carrots and raisins are like caramelized, so it's definitely much better than typical. Carolyn will make a note of that. I can't test it. Oh, it's delicious right now. Okay. All right. We're just going to have another question. Okay, here comes the microphone. I was curious about why the Muslim calendar, well, Ramadan, which I'm familiar with, sometimes it's in November, sometimes in July. It just varies too much throughout the year. And we're on a lunar calendar too, but I don't know why, but the holidays vary maybe a month or so every year, they're not always the same. But somehow they stay in the same part of the year. Right. Right, so the lunar calendar for us, so it goes about 10 to 12 years back each year, but the months tend to stay the same. They just, the Gregorian date moves 10 to 12 days back for the whole year, like per year. So I don't mind, I love the rabbi elaborate upon the Jewish calendar, but for our calendar goes about 10 to 12 days back each year. So that's why it goes season to season. It's actually possible to have Ramadan twice in a year. There's calculation. I don't remember what it's coming up, but it's possible to have it at the end of the year and then at the beginning of the year at the same time, two separate Ramadan's that overlap. So because the calendar shifts 10 to 12 days. Any other questions? Okay. If you think of something maybe at the very end, you could ask them. All right. Let's give another round of applause. And now Rabbi Judith Seid from Tri Valley Cultural Jews. Just standing up because I'm short. The Jewish calendar. The Jewish calendar is really, when you know the Jewish calendar, you know the history of the Jewish people. It's messy. It changes all the time. It's inventive. And sometimes different people have holidays that are longer or shorter or even individual. There are things about the Jewish calendar that would be recognizable to you. We have a seven day week. Not every culture does. Like Baha'i and like the Muslim calendar. Our days start like the Baha'i. We have a spring new year sort of. And it's it's limited solar like the Hindi calendar. It's usually 12 months. That's where it kind of all goes off the rails. Because when you're an ancient culture, you've got lots of different influences. And you have a herding, a herding culture. And you also have a farming culture. And herding cultures are lunar and farming cultures are solar. So we had to make some kind of arrangement. Whereby the seasonal holidays had to come at the right season. But we also had to use the moon for our months. And so like the ancient Babylonians, the solution was to add some months. We add a second last month of the year, a dark, in the spring. And we do that seven times every 19 years. The third, sixth, eighth, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th years of the 19 year cycle. But it's not that easy. Because some of our holidays cannot happen on a Friday or a Sunday. Because they are fasts, which I will get to. You can't have a fast the day before the day you can't cook. And you can't have a fast the day after the day you can't cook. And you can't cook on our Sabbath, which is Saturday. So as a result, we sometimes add a month or subtract, no, add a day or subtract a day from a couple of months. And as a result of all of this finagling around, which got finally solidified in the 700s, as a result of that, Jewish years can be 353, 354, 355, 383, 384, or 385 days. This is why we always have a printed calendar around. Because we have no idea when the holidays are coming, unless we can see it written, written right down. So our days, the seven days of the week, are numbered. They're called Yomechad, first day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day. Six days only, the seventh day, the Sabbath has a name. And this has, I think, to do with our horror of idolatry. That the names of the months, although they are adopted from the Babylonian names, are not generally associated with the months. But for instance, in English and in a number of other languages, the names of the days are associated with various gods. And we're not, we're not, this is not what we're going to do. We do celebrate the new moon. It's kind of a minor holiday that has been kind of recovered as a women's holiday, just in the last probably 60 years, 50 or 60 years. This is typical of Jewish holidays, is we keep reinterpreting our traditions and our holidays in order to make them responsive to our environment and what's going on in the world and where we live. I should say there are also holidays, I'll go through the actual holidays pretty quickly. But there are holidays that are celebrated only in some communities. Some people celebrate holidays for one day, some for two. The holidays that are celebrated in individual communities are often kind of redemption days. They will be called a Purim after the holiday of Purim in which Jews were saved from extermination. So sometimes if a small community somewhere in the world has been saved from some kind of extinction event, they will have their own Purim. We also have individual holidays. For instance, we mark the death anniversary of members of our families. It's called a Yiddish, we call it a Yord site, which means a year time. And so every family celebrates different Yord sites. And on those days, we generally light a 24-hour candle. If you are religious, you might go to a synagogue and recite Qadish, which is the prayer that religious Jews recite when somebody dies or when they read. Our holidays, some of them are family holidays and some of them are community holidays. All of them have some variety of seasonal kind of primitive, historic, religious, national, and kind of ethical qualities to them. And some holidays are more seasonal, some holidays are more historical, but they all have more than one meaning to them. And this makes it very convenient because you may know that if you have two Jews in a room, you've got three opinions. So there's something in our holidays for all of us. For each of us to connect with. Some of our holidays are really ancient from royal times, a thousand BC or so in ancient Israel and Judea. Others of them come from what we call priestly times when there were temples in Jerusalem. Others are from rabbinic times, we're in rabbinic times still now, dating from around the turn of the Christian millennium around maybe 100 BCE. And some of them are just modern holidays that we celebrate now that because things happen and we have to have ways to celebrate them. So I will go through our year. There's only one of the 12 months in the Jewish year that does not have any holidays. In full, we've got like five. It's exhausting. So our first holidays is called Rosh Hashanah, which means Rosh is the head and Hashanah is the year. Rosh Hashanah is our new year. And our new year comes on the first day of the seventh month. And I see you are looking confused because this is confusing. This is one of the compromises that's made between hurting and because our first month is in the spring, the ancient new year is in the spring, because of course it is because that's when the little rams and the little goaties or what are those called kids are born. And that's the beginning of things in a hurting community. In a farming community in the Middle East, the most important thing is whether there's going to be rain. So a time when you expect that the rains will start would be the time that you would be really paying attention. And so that's how the new year ended up in the seventh month. Ten days after Rosh Hashanah is 24 or younger if you have my accent in Yiddish. And that is a day of atonement. That's a 24 hour fast. We don't fast for a whole month. But we do fast for 24 hours and we have this concept called a hedge around the tour, which means just to be sure, we fast for 25 hours. And that is a no food, no drink fast. However, like Muslim fast, there are exceptions. Pregnant women may not fast. If you are sick, you may not fast. If you are traveling, it is better to stop traveling in fasts. But if you can't, you can't. And so you can make it off the same, you know, the same idea. And that is a day when religious Jews will spend most of the day in the synagogue. It's a day that you get right with other people, you get right with God. But you cannot get right with God unless you have gotten right with other people. There you must, during the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yiddish, you must apologize and make amends to anybody that you've wronged. And that person is obligated to forgive you if you have. And you kind of give up your grudges. And that's, you know, for me that's the important part of the day. Because I am not a religious person. But for a lot of Jews, it's, you know, starting the year right, there is an ancient prayer about who was I in the next year and how they might perish. It's a very scary day. It was a very scary day for some people. And then a month later, we've got the harvest holiday of Sukkot. And that's the first fruits. And we build a little temporary hut and eat in it. Some people sleep in it. At the end of the seven-day period, there are three holidays that come right upon each other. Some people celebrate to the same day. And some don't. These are Shmini and Cirrus, Hashanah Rabbah and Simphastora. Hashanah Rabbah is the day when you pray for rain. And we have this kind of, it's a, you get a palm branch and you have myrtle and willow. And you wind them all up and then you beat it on the ground. And because, because you know how palm branch does a dry palm branch, it sounds like rain. It's sympathetic magic. You're saying, hey, do this, do this. And it's fun. We, we don't really think it means the rain. But it's, you know, it's an ancient tradition. So why not? And then Sukkastora is when we start the yearly reading of the Torah. The Torah is the first five books of the Jewish Bible. And it is read in the synagogue Monday, Thursday, Saturday. It's read throughout the year. And because sometimes we have two months of Adar, on years that we don't have two months of Adar, we got to double up some of the portions so that sometimes it's really long. Anyway, in Simphastora, the Torah is usually on a double scroll. And one of them gets bigger and one of them gets smaller as you go through it. And in the synagogue, they will finish reading. And then if you're lucky enough to have tutorials, you take out another one that somebody has re-rolled already and start reading the first part. Otherwise you have to roll it all the way back. And that's a festive occasion. The idea is that you never finish, stop, and then you just start right over again. And you'll find something new. You'll find something new every time. In the spring, early spring, we have to the Shvat, which is another ancient holiday. It's when the saccharizes and the tree is in the Middle East. It's actually a tax holiday. If your tree is old enough to have born fruit, then you owe taxes on it. We haven't used it that way since, you know, 70 CE. But we still want to celebrate the holiday. And so throughout the last 2000 years, we've celebrated different days and now it's our Earth Day. It's the day that a lot of congregations will do something, plant trees. I mean, we're still with the trees. Plant trees or do something to help, you know, the ecology. It's our, in the early spring comes Purim. I mentioned that. That's the, if you've read the Book of Esther, that's the holiday that comes from the Book of Esther. The Book of Esther is horrifying. We don't, we don't tell our children the whole story. We, we stop before the massacre and we don't really explain how Esther got chosen to be the queen. But kids will dress up and in times past or in communities where there are a lot of Jews in their place, they will bring around treats called shalachmanot, shalachmanos in my accent. They bring around treats, cookies, candy, homemade stuff around to other people in their, in their community and they'll dress up as the people in the story. And that's, it's kind of like a reverse Halloween. In the late spring is the Passover. That's another seven or eight day holiday and that commemorates the exodus from Egypt. It's not a historical truth. It is and it is a moral truth. It is the founding myth of the Jewish people. That once we were slaves and now we are free and we learn from that. We didn't really like being slaves and neither does anybody else and that it is our responsibility to, to create a just world. There's a big dinner along ceremony. This is a family ceremony, not a community ceremony. And during this holiday, we, many Jews don't eat any leavened food. So they eat matzah, which is a cracker. No bread, no vinegar, no beer, no cake, you know, nothing with yeast or any leavening because the story says that when it came time for the Jews to leave Egypt, there was a sign on their doorpost. Somebody put the blood of a lamb on their doorpost and they knew this is the day we're going. But they didn't know in advance so they didn't have time to bake bread. So the bread didn't rise and it was flat and that's matzah and that's the story of why we didn't eat leavened food for those seven days. If you are a Jew of North African or Middle Eastern or Sephardic descent, that would be Jews mostly from Yugoslavia. Old Yugoslavia doesn't exist anymore. The Balkans in general, where Jews ran away in 1492 and Jews and Muslims were expelled from Spain. And then in 1497 when they were expelled from Portugal. Many, many went to the Ottoman Empire where they were welcomed. So if you are of those heritage of Jews, you will eat beans and rice. But if you are from Ashkenazi Jews, Central and Eastern European Jews, you don't. Because that wasn't your staple anyway. We really have beans and rice in modern times. You know, we have potatoes. We love potatoes. There's another, that's not interesting. Then in later in the spring for today's later, there's another harvest holiday, the wheat holiday, another seven-day holiday. The three seven-day holidays, those are days when in times past, in the times where there was an independent Jewish kingdom in Israel, there would be the in-gathering. You would bring sacrifices. This was during pre-Sahedan times. We had a temple. There were animal sacrifices. Or you would bring the first fruits, the first animal, or the first grain. And so those are, and of course the holidays had to be several days long because people had to walk to get to Jerusalem. And there's a, you know what I didn't tell you about? You don't know Hanukkah with a holiday with the lights. Everybody's got in the fall or the winter, everybody's got some holiday where they do sympathetic magic again. They make a lot of light and they're like, sun, see, see, this is what you want to, you know, this is what you want to do. It's what we want you to do. At Hanukkah, we light one candle the first night and to the second night we go out all late nights and we're saying, you know, sun, see, more and more light. Do that. And every year works. So we keep doing it. And I think I've chatted on for a long amount of time. So questions. Okay, questions for Rabbi Chewney. Hi, my name is Omar Muhammad. I have a few questions. Number one is that how do you guys break your fast? After 24 or 25 hours? Is there any special, is there a ritual or special food? Yes. Yeah, actually I'm going to say that again. Anything special to break your young people fast? People get together and there is a serum, not even a ceremony, there's a tradition of eating an egg. But mostly we just get together and eat. Yeah, there's no particular like religious ceremony. And about how many days do you guys fast in a year? Oh, well there are two main fasts that are 25 hour fasts and there are four minor fasts which are sun up to sun down fasts. So not very many times. We like to eat. And regarding the reading or recitation of the Torah, so it's first five chapters of the Jewish Bible. Yes. Okay, the different than a regular Bible that is called? For me, this is the regular Bible. The Christian Bible incorporates the Jewish Bible, they call it the Old Testament. It's in a kind of a different order from us. But if you're looking at a Christian Bible, you will see the same first five books in the same order. Yeah, and we don't recite. We never recite. Even if you know it by heart, you always follow along. So as not to seem like you're bragging because you know it all. What language? Hebrew. Thank you for your question. Okay, who else has some questions for her about you? Me. When I was a little girl, I remember that as our Seder, my father always sat on a bunch of pillows rather than sitting up at a chair. And nobody ever explained that to me. Could you? Absolutely. During the Seder, the youngest child recites four questions. And one of the questions is on all other nights, I'm translating, on all other nights we eat either sitting up or reclining. Why on this night do we recline? Your father was reclining. And the answer is because when we were slaves in Egypt, we could not rest. And so tonight we are able to rest and recline as we eat with our families. So that's why he did it. It's one of the, it's the answer to one of the fiachashis for questions. Yeah, well, sorry. We are not exempt from the ills of patriarchy. Yeah. With the trigger to translate. The ills of patriarchy? No, the four questions. With the trigger to translate. Yeah. Yeah, but you know what they mean. Oh, yeah. The four questions are Why is this night different from all the other nights? Okay, do it with me. Okay. On all other nights, we eat either hamets or matzah, matzah or leavened food. And why on this night do we eat only matzah? On all other nights, we eat all kinds of vegetables. And on this night, we eat bitter vegetables. We eat horseradish. We love it. On all other nights, we don't dip our food even one time. Why on this night do we dip it twice? And that refers to the ritual foods that we're eating and one gets dipped in salt, water, and like that. And then the reclining one. Did I do good? Thanks. Okay. Okay. Chris? All right. I'll bring you the microphone. This is a first for me. I've met Jewish people who are cultural Jews. It was the first time I've met someone. You call yourself a rabbi, but you describe yourself as doing your talk as not being religious. So I thought it might be a good opportunity just to elaborate on what you mean by that. Sure. I call myself a rabbi because I have been ordained a rabbi. A rabbi is a teacher. A rabbi is somebody who is qualified to teach and to judge. And that's what it says on your ordination certificate, your smicha. It says to teach, to teach, to judge, to judge. It's kind of like, can you teach? Yep. Can you judge? Yep. Among religious Jews, the judging has to do mostly with, is this chicken kosher or not? Is this person a person I can marry or not? Judging about Jewish law. In our tradition, we help you make judgments. We are trained to help you clarify values. And make your own judgments about things. And then the teaching is the teaching. It is only coincidental that rabbis are treated like priests or ministers. That's a Western thing, a modern thing. In old days, rabbis were actually not allowed to take money for their, for being rabbis. They had to have an actual job. And they were rabbis on the side. Oh, I don't believe in any gods and I don't pretend I do. Thank you. What? Okay. Oh, I was asked what it means not to be religious. And I said, what it means is that I don't believe in any gods. And I don't pretend that I do. Thank you. Okay, I have one question. You said there's a day you guys remember about dead people. Yes. Okay, is that dead people you're talking about in the spirits? The time they were with their family? They're going here after? What do you mean remembering the dead? Oh, we remember because we believe that immortality is in memory. And that when we remember somebody, we're bringing some part of them forward into our own lives. A lot of times, in my family, I just make their favorite meal. On their yurt site. I make my grandmother's chicken vegetable soup with nobody eats but me. But I'm going to do that because it's my bubble again is your site. There is no prescribed way to do this. Sometimes you just talk about the person. When I, for instance, when I do a funeral, one of the things that I like to ask people to do is to remember their the favorite thing about the person who's died and to incorporate that into their lives. You know, to give that trait immortality that way for a while. And so sometimes people talk about that. Sometimes people just light a candle and go on with their lives. There's nothing prescribed about it. Okay, thanks. We have a question back here. And then Ruth, I think you had one more question. And then we'll close the quote formal part of the meeting. And if people want to stay after that for small group discussions, I can. Okay, question back here. Hi, my name is Saria. And I'm going to piggyback on your response to the previous that you said, Rabbi, you're Rabbi, but you don't believe in any God. I have heard the term that I'm an atheist Jew. Could you please explain what does that mean? It means that you're Jewish and you don't believe in any gods. Because being Jewish is not a religion. It's it is more like being, for instance, Navajo. You can be a Navajo. You can you can believe in the traditional Navajo religion. You can be a Christian. You can be an atheist, but your culture, your ethnicity is still Navajo. And that's the same way with Jews. It's only in the West where we say, you know, Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish is if it's a religion. Religion is part of our culture, like it's a part of any culture. But it's not a religion for sure. Because Jews don't believe the same thing. We were all over the map. The best I can say is that Jews don't believe in more than one God. Some believe in one, some believe in none. We all think different things. It's it's not it's not a creedal religion. There's nothing that you must believe in order to be Jewish. It's just something you are. And you have one more question? So as a rabbi, do you hold, you know, services on a regular basis? We have my community. Yeah. Yeah, we we have holiday observances. And about once a month we get together on a Shabbat to light candles, eat challah, drink a little wine, play a game, sing, you know. So so you do a lot of the traditional Jewish rituals and and that's that keeps your community connected to, I don't know what you say, Judaism isn't a religion, but it keeps it connected to the culture. Yeah. Okay, got it. Thank you. Okay, let's give one more round of applause to our presenters. Thank you very much. And I have just a few announcements I'd like to make. And when I finish making them, then anyone who needs to leave may do so. Well, you could actually leave now if you had to. But here are my announcements. Interfaith Interconnect will take a vacation in July. So our next religion chat will be August 9th. And we haven't determined for certain the topic or the location. So keep an eye on your email for that. And then in addition to our second Wednesday religion chats, we also plan to hold our annual observance of World Day of Peace in September. And we're right now working on dodging the Jewish holidays as we can. So we don't have a conflict. And then we're also going to be collaborating with the Livermore Pleasant and Interfaith Clergy Association for another interfaith thanksgiving service in November. And it will probably be in Pleasant in this year. Last year it was in Livermore. So stay tuned for information about that. And so we hope to see you all on Wednesday, August 9th, our next religion chat. And now if anyone who would like to stay for informal discussion may do so, I think we have. Tell 830s are right. Okay, great. And thank you again, everybody for coming. Thank you to our people online.