Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-09-12

The year 1884, counting from the crea-
ton Of the world, Jewish chronology in
forms us, ended last evening at six o'clock.
and with il was ushered in the Hebrew
New Year of $685..
The Israelites are distinguished from all
other sects by the name in which they
celebrate the New Year; OF "a that is called
in Hebrew "ROsh HaShanah." The Chris
tian celebrates the New Year from the
birth OF Jesus Christ. The wOrshipers of
the Koran celebrate the New Year from the
time Of the flight Of Mahomet from Mecca
to Medina. The I~sraelite celebrates from
the creation Of the world, an event
hot actually Jewish. The celebration
Of the Jewish New Year is of a
more solemn character than that of the
Christians. The day is spent in PRAYER
and worship, doubtless from the ideas and
thoughts evolving from the fact of the ere
alton Of the world, and, consequently, it is
also called the Day of Memorial-"Yom
Kassikoram." God, it is thought. reviews,
after the lapse Of each year, his whole Gre
alton, and most especially man, his dOings
and his actions; and, in doing so. he as
signs to each one his fate for the coming
year-life or death, happiness OF misfortune,
TN "a " AA1LAlAAH- ILolAlEAAE- CAI . III
the "YOm Hardin" the Day of Judgment.
In order that the lsraeliteS might be alive
to these facts, that is the creation of the
world, the Memorial Day, the Day of Juds-
ment, that they mightrealiZe the sOiemnim-
port Of the day, nat they ghtrepentofthei
w~ickedness, there is what is called the
"Shofar," Or the blowing of the horn, the
symbol Of inviting them to PRAYER for the
fnrrivanazc aF Flnfr cine nrfyfn,n,- ~.
cOrding TO the Bible, there was observed
only one day, nut later, when the Israelites
became dispersed all over the Asiatic con-
tinent, when they filled the land of Baby
lon, and had no calendar, but counted by
the moon, in order TO celebrate the right
day, they took the last day of the month of
"Elul," the sixth month IN the Jewish cal
endar, and the first day of the month of
"Tishri,' the seventh month, and cele-
brated both days. They watched when
and made their calculations there
from. In these days, however, the more
advanced Jews nave dropped the last day
er as the day Of worship, thus going back
10 the original authority, the Bible. The
orthodox jews, still following strictly the
NtA--IAAl1 AAh Oo17C u NACA AbLNldliiEIcs dl- /
here TO the worship of the festival for a
space of two days. There are several mi
nor customs, formerly occurring in the fes-
tival, which are geneIelly omitted now,
although some of them, such as the wear
ing Of the shrouds are stil observed by
the orthodox jew. The Reform Jew con-
siders it merely a custom without anv
authority from the Bible. and Of
somber a character. In fact,
the Bible merely mentions the
day as the day of the allowing of the horn"
The Talmud and other books of a sacred
nature 10 the ISraelites enlarge on this
idea, and the worship in its present form
thus gradually developed itself.
The festival is religiously observed by
both orthodox and Reform Jews. the va
riO1s business establishments being closed
OH that day. 1t began at six o'clock last
and lasts until six o'clock this
evening with the Reform Israelites, and
until SIX o'clock tomorrow evening with
The Orthodox.