שנה טובה L’shanah tovah tikatev v’taihatem, which means “May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.” Today marks the beginning of a new year in the Jewish calender. Now why 5772? Isn’t it only the year 2011? Well, the Jewish calender goes by the lunar year and not by our standard Gregorian calender which has only been in counting for 2011 years. So in other words, we’ve been counting a lot longer.

The Torah refers to the holiday as Yom Ha-Zikkaron or the day of remembrance or Yom Teruah the day of the sounding of the shofar. Now as the beginning of a new year, we look at it as a sweet and healthy new year. This symbolism comes from us dipping apples in honey. There is similarity between the Jewish New Year and the American Year: Many Americans use the New Year as a time to plan a better life, making “resolutions.” Likewise, the Jewish New Year is a time to begin introspection, looking back at the mistakes of the past year and planning the changes to make in the new year.

One tradition that is well known by most people in the Jewish culture and others is the blowing of the Shofar. On Rosh Hoshana, the shofar which is a ram’s horn, is blown somewhat like a trumpet. One of the most important observances of this holiday is hearing the sounding of the shofar in the synagogues. The sound of the shofar varies based off of different forms of notes that are sustained or repeated different times. This suggests that the sound of the shofar calls for repentance.

Rosh Hoshana is a day where we can look forward to a sweet year of new endeavors. This year I am looking forward to many new and exciting things for my Rocket Family!

-Go Rockets and L’Shana Tova!

Puff Puff Puff…hold your breath or take your last puff. August 1st 2011 is when the Tobacco Restriction Use Policy officially went into effect. Since then we have seen a lot of changes to our campus not only policy wise but aesthetic changes to our campus. Commonly confused with ‘bus stops’ the designated tobacco use areas have been constructed to restrict the use of tobacco to certain areas of campus. Ultimately this would be phased out in hopes for the University of Toledo to become tobacco free and smoke free.

Higher education institutions across the country are taking up the trend of becoming tobacco free completely. For example at the University of Michigan football games announcements are made that the facility is a ‘Smoke Free’ facility. Other institutions such as Grand Valley State, have implemented a policy to become tobacco free. As of July 1st 2011, according to American’s for Non-Smokers Rights, 365 colleges have become smoke-free. Below is a list of all the colleges that have gone smoke free.

smokefreecollegesuniversities.pdf

This policy is a gateway for the University of Toledo to be the first campus to be Smoke and Tobacco free. With these changes and thanks to the wonderful work being done by the Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drugs Policy Committee we will see these and many more come to fruition. So with a huff and a puff say goodbye to that bad tobacco stuff!

Go Rockets!