Rosh Hashana Question

[Ravenseye]

What's with the gold slippers? I did some googling and couldn't find anything about it. Yesterday alot of the women were wearing gold slippers, and we couldn't figure out why, until we realized it was Rosh Hashana....but then we got curious as to what the meaning of it was...

Yet my googling failed. ANyone know?

[Pool Hall Ace]

1. Kicking as I would like to know myself.

:kick:

[Ravenseye]

2. Kicking again

I find it hard to believe that there are no Jewish DU'ers online right now who can answer this question. I've found only a few references to 'gold shoes' and it seems like maybe they're worn on both Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashana but I can't find anything that just lays out when where and why. I've emailed all my jewish friends, but haven't heard back from any of them, and I'd feel dumb calling one up at work to ask this...

[Ravenseye]

3. I went to AskMoses.com

And asked an online Rabbi about it. She had never heard of the custom (but she was in Europe)...

Maybe it's a Pittsburgh Jew thing? It wasn't just a couple of women, it was ALOT of women. Gold Slippers...no heels...totally not matching the outfit...

Grr. I'm going to have to call and bug people soon.

[Ravenseye]

4. Kick for the Afternoon

Seriously? Nobody knows?

[Debbi801]

5. No clue. I have never seen anyone wearing gold slippers

for Rosh Hashanah, and I am Jewish and live in a very large jewish community. :shrug: I have never heard of this.

[Ravenseye]

8. It's so weird

I refuse to believe that many jewish women in pittsburgh made the exact same terrible choice in shoes on the same day, going to temple. It has to be some sort of local tradition or something. It can't have been just chance.

Is there any time when a jewish woman wears gold shoes/slippers for any other reason?

[Midlodemocrat]

6. Maybe there was a sale on gold slippers somewhere.

:shrug:

[dolo amber]

7. ...

:spray:

[Ravenseye]

9. lol

When we say the first two women ( a mother and her daughter ) walking along wearing the gold shoes we both made comments on their terrible style choice of shoes. Both of them. Then block after block, more women, wearing gold slippers. All heading towards the temple. That's when we realized that it was Rosh Hashana and figured it had to be some tradition for that.

Through the rest of the day we say a variety of women around town wearing them.

If it was a sale, it was a good one.

[Radio_Lady]

10. From a lapsed Jew -- here you go:

I remember my daughter (now a Conservative -- almost Orthodox Jew) wearing cloth slippers to High Holy Day services.

She couldn't wear leather due to some Rabbinical proviso. Believe me, there are a bunch of those.

Here's what I found for you. Not sure about the gold shoes, but here's the leather vs. canvas story.

From this tome: http://www.etzchayim.org/HighHolyDays.htm (You have to scroll through a lot of other stuff...)

Leather Shoes vs. Canvas Shoes

As leather shoes were the most comfortable in ancient times (when the alternatives were wood or burlap), our ancestor rabbis forbade them as a way of making the day more uncomfortable to us, that we afflict ourselves more in our sorrow. Many thus began to wear the only non-leather-soled shoes they had: canvas shoes.

Thus a tradition was born to wear these shoes all day on Yom Kippur, even though they are more comfortable, on the whole, than leather shoes today. This is an example of one tradition obviating another.

On the other hand, seeing people in a tallit (shawl with fringes) at night wearing canvas shoes or house slippers to synagogue emphasizes that the day is different, and has the same benefit of all the changes on Passover that induce children to ask questions.

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Thanks for the post.

[Ravenseye]

11. They were probably Orthodox

There is a VERY large population of Orthodox jews here, most likely they were orthodox. I've read about the cloth slippers, or rather not using leather on their feet in the temple I think, and this might be part of that tradition.

I just couldn't find anything about them specifically being gold, which all these were.

[npincus]

12. I'm Jewish, never heard of it.

[Radio_Lady]

13. Reform Judaism did away with a lot of this B.S. -- but still, there's

too much of it for me.

You'll see me socializing with the Unitarians when I feel it is necessary.

[eyesroll]

14. Are you sure it was Rosh Hashana vs. solstice or Ramadan?

Not that I'm familiar with solstice or Ramadan customs involving gold slippers, either. :shrug:

[Ravenseye]

15. Definately Rosh Hashana

Everyone was heading to the temple, and it was on Rosh Hashana with people heading to the service.