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Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew: ראש השנה‎, literally "head of the year," Israeli: Hebrew pronunciation: [ˈʁoʃ haʃaˈna], Ashkenazic: ˈɾoʃ haʃːɔˈnɔh, Yiddish:[ˈrɔʃəˈʃɔnə]) is a Jewish holiday commonly referred to as the "Jewish New Year." It is observed on the first day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar.[1] It is ordained in the Torah as "Zicaron Terua" ("a memorial with the blowing of horns"), in Leviticus 23:24. Rosh Hashanah is the first of the High Holidays or Yamim Noraim ("Days of Awe"), or Asseret Yemei Teshuva (Ten Days of Repentance) which are days specifically set aside to focus on repentance that conclude with the holiday of Yom Kippur.

Rosh Hashanah is the start of the civil year in the Hebrew calendar (one of four "new year" observances that define various legal "years" for different purposes as explained in the Mishnah and Talmud). It is the new year for people, animals, and legal contracts. The Mishnah also sets this day aside as the new year for calculating calendar years and sabbatical (shmita) and jubilee (yovel) years. Jews believe Rosh Hashanah represents either analogically or literally the creation of the World, or Universe. However, according to one view in the Talmud, that of R. Eleazar, Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of man, which entails that five days earlier, the 25 of Elul, was the first day of creation of the Universe.[2]

The Mishnah, the core text of Judaism's oral Torah, contains the first known reference to Rosh Hashanah as the "day of judgment." In the Talmud tractate on Rosh Hashanah it states that three books of account are opened on Rosh Hashanah, wherein the fate of the wicked, the righteous, and those of an intermediate class are recorded. The names of the righteous are immediately inscribed in the book of life, and they are sealed "to live." The middle class are allowed a respite of ten days, until Yom Kippur, to repent and become righteous; the wicked are "blotted out of the book of the living."[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosh_Hashanah

For secular Jews

It would happen each fall around the Jewish new year. At the very time when renewal was in the autumn air, Arnold Barnett, an engineer from Moorestown, would go into a mild funk. His wife eventually figured it out: He was less than enamored with high holiday synagogue services.

"He simply wasn't engaged by what went on inside our Reform synagogue, or with the traditional approach to Judaism," said Ellen, 70. "I knew he was struggling. So sometimes, I would just go to services alone."

Then last year, the Barnetts saw a small notice in a local Jewish newspaper about a recently formed group in South Jersey. "We went to a meeting that was focused on Jewish history," Arnold, 71, recalls, "and that was something I could relate to. It was much more appealing."

And so the Barnetts will celebrate Rosh Hashanah, which begins Wednesday at sundown, by meeting Sunday with like-minded members of South Jersey Secular Jews - a group of people who may or may not believe in God, but do believe in caring about the world and one another, respecting and understanding Jewish history, and celebrating a culture that has meaning and emotional pull.

"The most important aspect of secularism is the survival and continuity of the Jewish people," said Paul Shane, a native New Yorker now living in Philadelphia and married to the daughter of Holocaust survivors.

Shane, 75, a member of the more established Philadelphia Secular Jewish Organization, believes humans are responsible for what happens on Earth. The here and now is central, and actions speak louder than words.

That philosophy resembles traditional Judaism. But secular Jews and traditional Jews part company when it comes to accepting religious dogma.

If you're secular, God is optional. (Traditional Judaism has "God at its heart. That's not an option," said Rabbi Ethan Franzel of Main Line Reform Temple Beth Elohim in Wynnewood.) Also, life-cycle events are handled individually - for instance, there are no set burial or wedding traditions in secular Judaism.

Of course secularism, in which one adheres to cultural norms rather than religious ones, is hardly new. During the Renaissance, from 1450 to 1600, and the Enlightenment in the 18th century, many Jews shed the God-oriented elements of their Jewishness, according to Shane, a professor of social policy at Rutgers University in Newark. That shedding also continued in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

What's different today is that a growing number of secular Jews are finding one another, forming groups, and practicing the social responsibility Judaism requires - minus the synagogue.

Rifke Feinstein, executive director of the national Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations, says there are approximately 2,000 affiliated secular Jews in the United States. But because seculars typically are unaffiliated, and therefore uncounted, estimates for the entire American secular population range from 8,000 to 40,000.

In the Philadelphia area, there are six such organizations for secular Jews - including the five-year-old South Jersey Secular Jews - all under the local umbrella cooperative venture called Kehilla for Secular Jews.

For many people, discovering that such an organization exists has been a relief.

" 'I thought I was the only one!' is what people often express when they discover that they are not alone in their secular relationship to their Jewishness," said Larry Angert, 59, a member of 11-year-old Shir Shalom: A Havurah for Secular Jews. "The Jewish tent is big, and there's room for all of us in it."

Some local secular groups, like Philadelphia's Sholom Aleichem Club, which started in 1954, and Philadelphia Workmen's Circle, founded nationally in 1900 to aid Jewish immigrant workers and to promote Yiddish, have graying memberships. Bob Kleiner, 85, of Elkins Park, a retired sociology professor at Temple University, and his wife, Frances, a teacher of Yiddish, both long active in the secular movement, lament that younger people are not actively involved in these historic groups.

But the formation of new groups, such as South Jersey Secular Jews, is evidence the movement still has traction.

Credit Naomi Scher, 64, of Cherry Hill, whose children attended the Jewish Children's Folkshul, another Kehilla group, which is a parent-run cooperative held at Springside School in Philadelphia. About 100 children receive their Jewish education, not in a traditional Hebrew school but in classes that nourish social justice and individual responsibility. Bar and bat mitzvah aspirants undertake personally meaningful projects that they ultimately share with the entire Folkshul community.

Although Scher formed relationships with parents of her children's classmates, commuting to Philadelphia became burdensome once her children graduated, and in 2005, the retired social worker decided to start a secular group closer to home.

What began as a gathering of eight to 10 people now regularly attracts 30, meeting monthly with speakers who address social and political concerns, Scher said.

Deborah Chaiken, 74, of Palmyra is delighted to have a group close to home. "In the formal Jewish community, I felt that I didn't really have a voice. Here, I know that I do."

Dues are $25 a year, and participants are asked to bring food for potluck dinners. Meetings are held on the second Sunday of the month at Unitarian Universalist Church in Cherry Hill..

South Jersey Secular Jews members Cary and Bilha Hillebrand of Cherry Hill call the group a welcome addition to the local landscape. For Bilha, 54, the philosophy of the group is more in keeping with that of her native Israel, where the majority of the population leads a more secular lifestyle.

"We are not in any way antireligious," says Cary, 60. "We hold the belief that we are responsible for what happens to ourselves and to the world. And to us, that's the essence of what religion is, and should be."

Sacked workers of Mouka Foam were seen loitering around the company premises on Tuesday. They were hoping that they would be called back or compensated by the company for letting them go ‘unjustly.'

About 71 workers of Mouka Foam were sacked because some of them refused to work last week Thursday, due to the public holiday declared by the federal government to mourn the late President Umaru Yar'Adua, who died on 5th of May, 2010.

When NEXT visited the head office of Mouka Foam Limited on Tuesday, located at Plot ‘M', Awosika Avenue, Ikeja Industrial Estate, Lagos, some of the workers said they hope the company would rethink its decision; while others sat dejectedly by the gate.

A casual worker, who identified himself as Mr. Chibike, said, "On Thursday, the Federal Government declared a public holiday but the management insisted that we should work, but the union said that we should be paid before we work, since it is supposed to be a work free day. But, the management did not agree, so the union said we should go home since they did not agree. Only for us to come on Monday (10th May) and we were told that we have been sacked."

One of the former leaders of the workers' union at the Mouka Foam branch of the National Union of Chemical Footwear Rubber Leather and Non-Metallic Product Employees (NUCFRLANMPE), who craved anonymity, narrated that on the said day, the plant manager insisted that they must work, but they (former union leaders) pleaded that the management gives the workers some incentives, since they would be working on a day that had been declared work free.

"But the Management refused to heed our call, and so we told the workers that they can go and honour the memory of the late President if they want to go, and they can stay if they want to stay. They printed names of people that didn't stay and sacked them without notice. Some had spent years here, and some have been injured in the course of doing this work."

About 71 of the casual workers were sacked out of 99 casual workers. The 28 remaining workers were some of the workers that stayed behind," he said.

Mr. James, one of the workers who was not sacked, said they no longer have a union. The former union has been dissolved.

"So, nobody is fighting for them. They (Mouka Foam) used the police to chase them away from the compound," he said. Mr. Ikechi, also a casual worker that was sacked, cried out, "I have been working here for more than 3 years. It is shocking what they did to us. I don't know where to start from. I am a student doing part-time at the University of Lagos. How do I pay my fees now?"

A public relations officer for Mouka Foam, Agbo Agbo, in a phone conversation, said that the casual workers were not sacked because they refused to work on a public holiday. But that they decided to let some casual workers go because they have no need of them.

The President of The National Union of Chemical Footwear Rubber Leather and Non-Metallic Product Employees (NUCFRLANMPE), Boniface Isok, said that they are not aware of any problems their members may be facing at Mouka Foam.

A long standing cause
Although there have been less news on the struggle against casual staffing in the country, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said it has not yet relented in its effort to fight against the use of casual staff by companies and businesses in the country.

Denja Yaqub, the assistant general secretary of the NLC, defending the lull in the union's fight against temporary staffing, told NEXT in a previous report:
"Most people believe the NLC has lost the fight against casualisation because of the other struggles we have embarked on. The fight against casual or contract staffing by employers in the country is still on, and we are planning to take it up as a big issue from December to June, next year (2010).

"Casual workers are not entitled to be part of any trade unions, as they are not fully employed. This has been affecting the way the employers treat their staff, and the struggles for a decent workplace by the trade unions."

Mr. Yaqub maintained that the practice of engaging people in casual jobs infringes on the right of Nigerians to have decent jobs, adding that, "Section 42 of the Act empowers Labour to fight against it, and this is what we will do since the government has failed us."

He became the second Nigerian leader to die of natural causes while in office, as the late dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha, who died on June 8, 1998. Other Nigerian leaders who had died in office were Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa Maj.-Gen. Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi and Gen. Murtala Muhammed. They were killed during attempts to overthrow their governments in 1966 and 1976 respectively.

Presidential Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, told The Associated Press that Yar’Adua died at 9pm on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, with his wife, Turai, at his side. Adeniyi, whose voice cracked with emotion as he spoke did not give a cause of death.

By virtue of Section 146 of the 1999 Constitution, Acting President Goodluck Jonathan automatically becomes the President. It reads, ”The Vice-President shall hold the office of President if the office of President becomes vacant by reason of death or resignation, impeachment, permanent incapacity or the removal of the President from office for any other reason in accordance with section 143 of this Constitution.”

THE PUNCH learnt that news of Yar‘Adua‘s death first filtered out shortly after he breathed his last when some presidential aides briefed Jonathan and the National Security Adviser, Lt.-Gen. Aliyu Gusau (retd.), about his death.

The Federal Governmment immediately declared today as a public holiday. It also declared seven days of mourning, during which flags will fly at half-mast.

Yar’Adua spent much of his time as the governor of Katsina State (1999-2007) battling a kidney-related ailment. But his supporters he claimed had recovered sufficiently to contest the 2007 presidential election, after he got a kidney transplant.

At a point during his tenure as governor, Yar‘Adua spent six months at a stretch in a German hospital. But not long after he won the presidential election and was inaugurated, his health failed and he had to be flown abroad on a few occasions for treatment.

Although the exact nature of Yar‘Adua‘s frequent illness was never truly known, as his medical trips abroad were always shrouded in secrecy, the Presidency gave an indication of the nature of the sickness after he was flown to Saudi Arabia on November 23, 2009 for medical treatment.

His personal physician, Dr. Salisu Banye, told newsmen on November 26 that Yar‘Adua was being treated for acute pericarditis, an inflamation of the membrane surrounding the heart.

However, Saharareporters, an online medium, had, in a series of reports, insisted that the President suffered from the terminal Churg Strauss syndrome.

Last November, he was admitted to the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he spent 93 days before being flown back to Nigeria under the cover of darkness.

After his return on February 23, he was kept incommunicado at the Presidential Villa and was shielded from his deputy. In fact, in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation last month, Jonathan said the President‘s family was shielding Yar‘Adua from him.

He said he had only been able to meet with the President‘s wife while attempts to see Yar‘Adua and assess his condition were rebuffed.

Due to the uncertainty that surrounded Yar‘Adua‘s medical condition, the National Assembly on February 9, 2010 passed a resolution declaring Jonathan as the Acting President.

The news of the President‘s death immediately spread like wildfire across the country, with many Nigerians expressing shock and grief at the 58-year-old President‘s demise. Also, various cable channels across the world broadcast news breaks of Yar’Adua’s death intermittently.

Reactions started pouring in within a few hours of his death. Kwara State governor Bukola Saraki, who is also the chairman of Nigerian Governors’ Forum, said, “As a Muslim, the first reaction is that everyone will pay the ultimate price and death will come when it will come. The passing on of the President at this point in time in our national history is not only tragic but devastating. It‘s indeed a colossal loss to the nation and Africa.”

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, in his tribute, wrote, “What passes for the Nigerian nation is nothing more than a tragic arena, and Yar‘Adua is only the latest tragic figure. The vampires, including those within his own family, turned him into a mere inert resource for their diabolical schemes.

“They have a reckoning with their conscience, assuming they know what the word means. One can only hope that, while mouthing sanctimonious platitudes such as ‘Power belongs to God,’ they have now learnt that the politics of Do-or-Die cannot guarantee who does and who dies. They must stop playing God. I pray for the repose of the soul of their latest, much abused innocent victim. Wole Soyinka.”

In his reaction, Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko described the President‘s transition as a sad loss to the nation. Mimiko, in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Kolawole Olabisi, described the late President as an apostle of democracy, who maintained a firm belief in the Rule of Law and fairplay.

In his reaction, Kogi State Governor Ibrahim Idris said in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Richard Elesho, “We would like to keep our fingers crossed, taking into cognisance that the power of life and death are the in the hands of God. We have to accept it as the will of God. We condole with the family and pray God grants them the fortitude to bear the loss. The man suffered for so long. It’s indeed a big loss.”