This year my 15-year old son and I are having yet another conversation about Judaism’s High Holy Days. He’s intent on capitalizing on his hard-won victory last year, the outcome of which was that he went to school on the second day of Rosh Hashana. This was no small concession for his parents. His father and I had never attended school on the High Holy Days while living under our parents’ roofs. But neither of us went to a high school as academically challenging as our son’s.
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The Judy Chronicles 
Having been brought up in an observant home, I never went to school on the 2nd day of Rosh Hashonah. Fast forward to my husband and I and our 3 children joining a Reform congregation in the suburbs. That first year, knowing intellectually that we were dealing with a calendar issue, I went to school on the second day, albeit on the other side of the desk. I felt like a criminal laden with guilt. even our Rabbi and Cantor did not hold or attend services. Tradition is difficult to overcome – and should we? Since that day I no longer ‘go to school’ on the second day. I attend and sometimes join in a lay-led service at our Temple or sit and read something meaningful. I am no longer observant in the way that I was as a child, but I am a Reform Jew with a soul and mind that transcend the labels.