In thinking about and writing about the High Holy Days of 5767 yesterday I got to thinking about the SECOND day of the holiday. Traditionally, because of the Diaspora where, because of the many world locations to which Jews fled to escape persecution, the exact day prescribed to hold the services could not be determined. In order to comply with God’s injunction to observe the Holy Days, Festivals and events – markers of the ancient agricultural calendar had to be known for observant worshippers to follow and not miss following a commandment.  So, a second day of the holiday was instituted in order not to miss the occasion and offend God.  My use of Yiddish, “tsveta tug yuntif”, merely simplifies the concept into “the second day of the Holy Day” and not necessarily in a nice way.  Why must New Year’s Day be spread over two days?  That is the question that has plagued observant Jews for thousands of years after having been banished from Jerusalem by the Romans.  Going in every direction of the compass, they lost the certitude of time when prescribed Holy Days and Festivals should be held.

But, the question should be asked (and often is), why is it necessary since our calendars are reasonably accurate, to add and keep that second day.  In the days when the Reform movement was bold and brash – breaking with many traditions – the second day of the Holy Days seemed old-fashioned and unscientific – therefore it was quite logical, sensible and equally observant to just hold the one day as the New Year and when the Day of Atonement arrived ten days later only one day of fasting would be necessary.  Has anyone noticed that there never was a second day of fasting prescribed for Yom Kippur? That was because Yom Kippur was exactly ten days after Rosh Hashanah.

I do not observe a second day for the New Year.  Carol also does not. I think many others (for diverse reasons) do not follow the new Reform criteria (which I have not seen in print or discussed, just added on in recent years) making it so.

But, the real reason I am writing this essay is something my first Father-in-Law, Isidore Smith, was fond of saying.  He was not observant as far as I remember and had been the eldest of many siblings and came to America learning to speak English keeping an accent.  He was a cultural Jew remembering that eating meat without any blood left in was a practice traceable to ancient prohibitions.  But he was modern enough to consider a second day of the Holy Days a bit too much.  He would look around and see children playing and getting into trouble and then call out to them calling them “Tsveta tug Yuntif” – “Hey, second day of the Holy Days – who needs you?”

I revere him for this memory and how he generously put up with me.