Hoshana Rabba and Sleepy Hollow

From Encyclopedia Judaica:

From the 13th century onward, there is evidence regarding special popular beliefs connected with Hoshana Rabba. There was a very widespread belief that he who did not see the shadow of his head on the night of Hoshana Rabba [Jameel: From the light of the moon] would die during that year, for Hoshana Rabba was the day of the "seal," wherein the verdict of man (passed on the *Day of Atonement) is "sealed," or the day on which the "notices" of the verdict were sent out (Sefer Ḥasidim, ed. by R. Margoliot (1957), nos. 452–3; Naḥmanides on Num. 14:9; Zohar, Ex., 142a–b).

Hoshanah Rabbah
Germany, 1663.

I guess Hoshana Rabba in Sleepy Hollow in 1790 was less than fortuitous.

The story is set in 1790 in the countryside around the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town (historical Tarrytown, New York), in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. Sleepy Hollow is renowned for its ghosts and the haunting atmosphere that pervades the imaginations of its inhabitants and visitors. The most infamous spectre in the Hollow is the Headless Horseman, said to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper who had his head shot off by a stray cannonball during "some nameless battle" of the American Revolutionary War, and who "rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head".  HT: Steg

A Pitka Tava to all our readers...

--Jameel



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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Israel Flyover on Friday evening

Two spectacular events this Friday evening:

1. Tonight's full Moon is the biggest of the year, as much as 14% wider and 30% brighter than lesser Moons earlier in 2008. An astronomer would say this is a "perigee Moon" because it occurs at perigee, the side of the Moon's elliptical orbit closest to Earth for the next 15 years.

Go outside tonight and soak up some moonlight. (source)

2. This evening --(Friday, around Maariv time), starting at 5:03 PM, the International Space Station AND the Hubble Telescope will be visible above Israel.

5:03 PM -- appears from the west

5:07 PM -- highest point, 47 degrees south

5:11 PM -- disappears to the east/south east.

Credit: Israel Astronomy Association

Shabbat Shalom!

כשם שאני רוקד כנגדך ואיני יכול לנגוע בך כך לא יוכלו כל אויבי לנגוע בי לרעה

--Jameel

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד