This week is flying by and Rosh Hashana is almost upon us.  If you have been as busy as we have this past week at the Jewish Women's Archive, the holiday comes as a welcome respite.  I have rounded up a "menu" of High Holiday links, some silly and some serious, to help ease us into the holiday season.  Enjoy!

Starters

• Find everything you ever wanted to know about Rosh Hashana here in the "Guide for the Perplexed." [Tablet]
• Learn about the Mahzor, the holiday prayer book used for Rosh Hashana. [Center for Judaic Studies]
• Step into a Rosh Hashana celebration, circa 1919! [New York Times]

Stories

• Holy Rollin', an illustrated retrospective on the High Holidays by Vanessa Davis. [Tablet]
• Rosh Hashana is a favorite "food holiday," but Lisa Himmel's story reminds us that the holidays present a unique challenge for Jews with eating disorders. [JWeekly]
• Mayim Bialik muses on what she learned from leading High Holiday services at UCLA. [Tablet]

Shofars

• Why does the sound of the shofar send a chill down our spines? Jeremiah Lockwood has some answers in this video. [MyJewishLearning]
• Gabriel Sanders and expert shofar-blower Ira Rezak discuss the shofar's ritual significance and get down to the difficult business of getting a shofar to sound the way it should in this podcast. [Tablet]
• Having trouble finding your own ram's horn this year?  There's an app for that!  No, seriously. There is a shofar app for your iPhone. [RustyBrick]

Sins

• Marjorie Ingall on raising kids to apologize and forgive. [Tablet]
• Having trouble finding the words to say you're sorry?  No problem, just use the Apologenerator 5000. [HiddenMelodies]
• Want to make a public apology?  Call Tablet, and they will post an audio clip of your apology on their site, for example: today's sorry. [Tablet]
• Wondering which type of bread to use for Taschlish (the traditional of going to the ocean or a stream or river to pray and throw bread crumbs into the water, symbolically casting off our sins)?  Women's Lens recommends pretzels for twisted sins, multi-grain for complex sins, ricecakes for tasteless sins, stoned wheat for substance abuse... you get the idea. [Women's Lens]

Security

• Rabbi or Rambo?  Rabbi Gary Moskowitz believes shul members should take security into their own hands for the High Holidays this year. [The Forward]

Something Sweet

For those of us feeling the spiritual weight (repentence, resolutions, apologies) or logistical weight (travel/meal prep/family) of the High Holidays, this deliciously absurd, dubbed, Muppets video should give you a little lift.  Shana Tova!