A. MONTES
POLITICAL PAPIST COLUMNIST
“If we lose touch with Judaism, we lose touch with the Incarnation,” said the Rev. Anthony Ariniello as he presented on the Jewish roots of Lord’s Day Monday Sept. 30.
Over 50 attendees, including two nuns, assembled in the International Lounge in the J.C. William’s Center at nine in the evening to learn about the cultural beginnings of household Saturday traditions.
Ariniello, a member of the Community of the Beatitudes, encouraged the crowd to join his demonstration of the annual Rosh Hashanah feast that commemorates both the creation of the world and the Jewish new year.
He connected the feast to the weekly Shabbat meal from which the household tradition of Lord’s Day takes its inspiration. Shabbat custom includes a blessing of bread and wine, which Ariniello performed, along with a special fruit blessing for Rosh Hashanah.
While relating the reverent symbolism of the Jewish dinner table and of the sanctified meal, Ariniello equated it to the Holy Mass, calling it a “celebration that helps make us family.”
Reminiscent of Lord’s Days, the crowd then passed the food and drink around in the sharing, familial spirit of Jewish feasts, wishing each other a sweet new year in their best Hebrew.
“It reminded me of the family, and I was able to have more insight into what Christ’s life would have looked like with Mary and Joseph,” said senior Shelby Hawks, referencing the feast celebration.
Feast days, once afternoon rolls around, are a time of “sharing, listening and being present to one another,” Ariniello explained to the room.
Especially on Rosh Hashanah, a day of remembrance, the Jewish people take time to deeply reflect upon ways the Lord freed them that year. Ariniello also spoke of the sanctification of time, of the importance of memory and of major Jewish feasts.
Ariniello ended with plugs for mission trips and the Community of the Beatitudes pilgrimages, then led the gathered crowd to the lower J.C., where they learned traditional Jewish dances.
“It reminded me in a deeper way of the depth of salvation history,” senior Katie Burns said. “This is a part of our faith too.”