The alarms will ring even in sleep mode, no need for the application to be launched or to leave your iPhone on. Just leave it in sleep mode (preferably connected to the charger).

So at last your iPhone can wake you in time for Shabbat morning prayer. No need to check the time several times at night!

Don’t be afraid to enjoy a nice Shabbatic nap, Shabbat Alarms will wake you up in time for the afternoon prayer.

Use it for anything you want to remember for Shabbat or Yom Tov, you can have up to 64 active alarms.

You have a choice of a short, medium or long alarm sound, it will ring once and that’s it. If your iPhone was in sleep mode, it’s screen will not even turn on – no risk to push something by mistake.

Compare this to the built-in clock application that is unusable on Shabbat because it will ring again and again until you stop it by sliding/pushing on the iPhone (which is forbidden on Shabbat of course).

Notes:
- Requires IOS 4
- This application is using local notifications and thus does not need or use a data connexion.

Tip: – If you are afraid that one ring might not be enough, just create several alarms at a few minutes interval…

(Review after Chagim…)

Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Category: Utilities
Released: August 30, 2010
Publisher: Ary Tebeka
Price: $1.99 (buy app)

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Tishrei

In the Sephardic tradition, Selichot begins during the series of Selichot services of the High Holidays on the second day of the month of Elul and recite Selichot throughout the entire Elul. In the Ashkenazic tradition, it begins on the Saturday night before Rosh Hashanah – this year Selichot (according to Ashkenazi custom) begun after midnight of  Sunday morning, September 5th.

Tishrei and preceding it Elul, it is also a best time for charity, tzedakah.

Apps – Selichot:  Sephardic tradition and Ashkenazic tradition

App – Virtual Tzedakah

App - High Holiday Guide (Tishrei)

App – Hilchot Chagei Tishrei

App – Kitzur Shulchan Aruch: Hebr./English and Hebr./Portuguese

App – Alarm Clock – there are a few iPhone apps of this kind, but only this one is kosher,  for two days of festival plus Shabbat - why: check it out.

Rosh Hashanah is characterized by the blowing of the shofar.  Shofar is used mainly on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  It is blown in synagogues to mark the end of the fast at Yom Kippur,  and blown at  four particular occasions in the prayers on Rosh Hashanah.

During the afternoon of the first day occurs the practice of tashlich, in which prayers are recited near natural flowing water, and one’s sins are symbolically cast into the water.

Many also have the custom to throw bread or pebbles into the water, to symbolize the “casting off” of sins. The Rosh Hashanah, is also a major holiday with wonderful culinary traditions.

Apps - Shofar (There are a few iPhone apps imitating the sound of the shofar. With their help you can not only listen but you could also learn how to blow the shofar.  Of course they can’t replace real shofar.)

App - iTashlich

App – The UK Really Jewish Food Guide

App – Fish: Kosher or not

App – Recipies: Kosher Cookbook

Yom Kippur is the tenth day of the month of  Tishrei.  According to Jewish tradition,  G-d inscribes  each person’s fate for the coming year into a book, the Book of Life, on Rosh Hashanah, and waits until Yom Kippur to “seal” the verdict.

One of the customs of eve of  Yom Kippur is a Kaparot,  an ancient ritual to save oneself from a harsh Heavenly decree by it being effected on another object. Vegetables, fish, money, and other objects have been used throughout the centuries.

The ritual is preceded by the reading of  Psalms 107:17-20 and Job 33:23-24.  The service is performed by grasping the object and moving it around one’s head three times, symbolically transferring one’s sins to the object. The object is then slaughtered or donated to the poor, preferably eaten at the pre-Yom Kippur feast.

In modern times, Kaparot is performed in the traditional form mostly in Hassidic communities. Members of other communities perform it with charity money substituted for the chicken, swung over one’s head in similar fashion.

App – Kaparot

Sukkot is holiday celebrated on the 15th day of the Tishrei. The Hebrew word Sukkot is the plural of sukkah, “booth, tabernacle”. The sukkah is intended as a reminiscence of the type of fragile dwellings in which the ancient Jews dwelt during their 40 years of wandering in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt.

Throughout the holiday the sukkah becomes the living area of the house, and all meals are eaten in it. On each day of the holiday, members of the household recite a blessing over the lulav and etrog, or  Four species.

App - Lulav Wizard

Traditional Rosh Hashanah greetings: Shana Tova Umetukah (A Good and Sweet Year),  Ketiva ve-chatima tovah (May You Be Written and Sealed for a Good Year), Sephardic greeting is Tizku leshanim rabbot (May you merit many years), to which the answer is ne’imot ve-tovot (pleasant and good ones), גוט־יאָר (gut-yor) (Good Year).

כתיבה וחתימה טובה, לשנה טובה ומתוקה

May We All Be Written and Sealed for a Good and Sweet Year
Jewish iPhone Community’  team

Tefilat Kaparot

In this application you’ll find the Tefila that is being said, with more information and instructions.

As in all the other applications by Yaniv Kalsky in this series (Tanach for all, Tefilat Haderech for all,  iZkor) you will have the following features:

-The text is in Hebrew only
- The interface can be set to Hebrew or English
- Set the font size
- Pinch to zoom
- Set the background
- Both Portrait and Landscape view

Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Category: Reference
Released: October 11, 2009
Publisher: Yaniv Kalsky
Price: Free (get app)

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Tashlich

Now, with iTashlich, anyone can cast away their sins any time, anywhere.

iTashlich is in English and in Hebrew, depending on your language setting. It explains Tashlich, and contains audio of the main prayer. It also contains the text, in modern Hebrew, of the three main prayers. No more papers blowing in the wind!

But wait, there’s more. iTashlich loosely follows the spirit of Al Cheit, the communal recitation of sins that we say on Yom Kippur. iTashlich offers questions based on “traditional sins”, as well as more modern, “sins-lite”. How will you stack up?

After reviewing the meaning of  Tashlich, hearing the Tashlich prayer, and considering some potentially relevant sins, you will experience a personal iTashlich experience designed just for you.

At long last the question will be answered: what happens to all of those crumbs down there?

Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

Category: Education, Lifestyle
Released: September 23, 2009
Publisher: iTashlich.com LLC
Price: $0.99 (buy app)

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The significance of the Festivals of the Hebrew month of Tishrei are so profound as to affect every Jewish soul, regardless of one’s degree of knowledge or commitment to Judaism.

Tishrei is the richest month in the Jewish Calendar commencing with Rosh Hashana, which begins the “Days of Awe,” through Sukkot and Simchat Torah – the “Season of our Rejoicing” – these holidays set the tone for the entire year to come.

This “Holiday Guide”  sets forth many of  the practical observances,  as well as the inner significance, of these dynamic Yomim Tovim (Jewish Holidays).

1-2 Tishrei - Rosh Hashanah
3 Tishrei - Tzom Gedaliah – (Fast Day) - On Tishrei 4 when Tishrei 3 is Shabbat
10 Tishrei - Yom Kippur – (Fast Day)
15–21 Tishrei - Sukkot
21 Tishrei - Hoshanah Rabbah
22 Tishrei - Shemini Atzeret & Simchat Torah - Also the 23 Tishrei outside of Israel

Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

Category: Reference
Released: July 07, 2009
Publisher: Dovid Zirkind
Price: Free (get app)

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Hamas has claimed responsibility for the attack and described it as a “heroic operation” on its website.

This is the most deadly attack against Israeli civilians since the 2008 massacre of 8 Israeli teenagers in a Jerusalem yeshiva.”

Natan Rolnik, young developer from Brasil created a new app called “Chagim Tishrei”. The app is dedicated in the memory of all the victims of Tuesday’s massacre.

“Chagim Tishrei“ is a simple app which includes some halachot for the Holidays of  month Tishrei, and the zmanim for Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa (in Hebrew only).  You can download it here.

As we can read in mishnah: HaKodesh Borchu wanted to make Am Israel worthy of merit, so He gave us an abundance of Torah and mitzvot”. During the month of Tishrei, praying to be provided with a good year full of brachot and good fortune we want all the merits to be granted to ourselves. By giving all of us mitzvot Hashem facilitated it a great deal. The reminder of those concerning the month of  Tishrei can be found in Natan’s app on a simple and legible interface, just to be read “on the go”.

We each must strive to discover how we can best utilize our talents to serve Hashem and our fellow man. A famous story is told in the name of many great Chassidic Rebbes, including Reb Zusia.  He used to frequently say that after death all human beings stand in front of “heavenly” jury and have to justify all their behaviors and actions. Nobody asks them why they haven’t been so great as Moshe Rabeinu or so educated as Rabbi Akiba.  Each person has various capabilities and they are asked only why all the talent they had not been put into use properly and if they have been as great as they could have been.  I think Natan using his talent in a good way.

The new technologies, including those presented by Apple, and all the capabilities associated with them, can and are indeed used not only for  pure entertainment. The app “Chagim Tishrei” is one out of many examples.  I am convinced that it will be a perfect gift for iPhone users at the break of new year.

In a conversation with us remembering the victims of  Tuesday’s massacre Natan Rolnik said: “I think, this is our best revenge: to spread Torah around the world in their memory”.

I think that it would be very hard to find a reaction to this tragedy which would be more Jewish than this.

Robert Pass, Mati Szmidt

Selichot

In the Sephardic tradition, Selichot begins during the series of Selichot services of the High Holidays on the second day of the month of Elul and recite Selichot throughout the entire Elul. In the Ashkenazic tradition, it begins on the Saturday night before Rosh Hashanah – this year Selichot (according to Ashkenazi custom) will begin after midnight of Sunday morning, September 5th.

Just on time RustyBrick in partnership with Davka Corp. has released Selichot Nusach Lita (only in Hebrew). The app includes all Selichot from before Rosh Hashanah through Aseret Yamei Teshuva. The app automatically selects the proper Selichot for that day. You can also browse the Selichot for the other days as well.

This simple and easy to use app includes features such as: built in calendar selects correct Selichot for that day, Hatarat Nedarim for Erev Rosh Hashanah, kaparot for Erev Yom Kippur.

סליחות ל iPhone ו iPod Touch – מנהג ליטא

למחזיקי סידור Rustybrick – יכול לרכוש הסליחות בתוך הסידור – רכישה in-app $.99

מאפיינים:
כולל כל הסליחות משבוע לפני ראש השנה עד ערב יום כיפור.
מציג הסליחות הנכון של אותו היום אוטומטי
דפדף בין כל חלקי הסליחות בקלות
כולל התרת נדרים לערב ראש השנה וסדר הכפרות לערב יוה”כ

Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Category: Reference
Released: 26 August 2010
Publisher: RustyBrick, Inc. © 2010 RustyBrick, Inc.
Price: $2.99 (buy app)

If you have already RustyBrick’s  Siddur you can download this app as the in-app purchase only for $0.99.

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App “Selichot Nusach Sefardi” – read here

There is a great deal of symbolism tied in with the legal requirements for what constitutes a proper shofar. The shofar of  Rosh Hashanah, whose purpose it is to rouse the Divine in the listener, may not be constructed of  an artificial instrument.  It must be an instrument in its natural form and naturally hollow, through whom sound is produced by human breath, which G-d breathes into human beings. This pure, and natural sound, symbolizes the lives it calls Jews to lead. What is more, the most desirable shofar is the bent horn of a ram. The ram reminds one of  Abraham’s willing sacrifice of that which was most precious to him. The curve in the horn mirrors the contrition of the one who repents.

In the Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 16a), we read:

Rabbi Abbahu said: Why do we sound the shofar? Because the Holy One, blessed be G-d, said:  Blow me a ram’s horn that I may remember to your credit the binding of Isaac, the son of Abraham, and I shall account it to you as a binding of yourselves before Me. The Torah tells us: Abraham look up and behold, he saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns (Genesis 22:13). This teaches us that the Holy One, blessed be G-d, showed our ancestor Abraham the ram tearing himself free from one thicket and becoming entangled in another.  Said the Holy One, blessed be G-d, to Abraham: Thus are your children destined to be caught in iniquities and entangled in misfortunes, but in the end they will be redeemed by the horns of a ram. Therefore the prophet Zechariah said of the time of redemption: And the Lord shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth like the lightning; and the Lord G-d shall blow the shofar, and shall move in stormy winds of the south (Zechariah 9:14) (Source).

Accorrding to Mishneh Torah (Laws of  Repentance 3:4) the shofar says, “Wake up from your (moral) sleep. You are asleep. Get up from your slumber. You are in a deep sleep.  Search for your behavior. Become the best person you can. Remember God, the One Who created you.”

Today shofar is used mainly on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  It is blown in synagogues to mark the end of the fast at Yom Kippur,  and blown at  four particular occasions in the prayers on Rosh Hashanah.  Because of  its inherent ties to the Days of Repentance and the inspiration that comes along with hearing its piercing blasts,  the shofar is also blown after morning services for the entire month of  Elul, the last month of the Jewish civil year and the sixth of the Jewish ecclesiastical year.  It is not blown on the last day of month, however, to mark the difference between the voluntary blasts of the month and the mandatory blasts of the holiday. Shofar blasts are also used during penitential rituals  such as Yom Kippur Katan and optional prayer services called during times of  communal distress. The exact modes of sounding can vary from location to location (Source).

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There are a few iPhone apps imitating the sound of the shofar. With their help you can not only listen but you could also learn how to blow the shofar.  Of course they can’t replace real shofar.  Check it out:

• Shofar
• iShofar
• Shofar Hero
• pocketShofar
• Shofar of  G-d

Simply by blowing softly into the microphone the divine sound of the Shofar of  G-d will resonate.

Make sure to blow into the bottom right portion of your iPhone, blow gently and consistently in order to part the seas.

Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch

Category: Music
Released: December 19, 2009
Publisher: Iyedah
Price: $0.99 (buy app)

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pocketShofar

Upon touching the screen the deep sound of the Shofar can be heard while it gradually glows up. As far as the screen is being touched the sound PLAYS.

Ceasing touching the screen will make the sound to go PAUSE mode. This feature makes this app particularly suited to the blessing ceremony style where the user wishes to intercalate the holy shofar notes with spoken verses.

Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, iPad

Category: Lifestyle
Released: October 20, 2009
Publisher: Jose Berengueres
Price: $0.99 (buy app)

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Shofar Hero contains the four kinds of ritual blasts heard during the Jewish Holidays of  Rosh Hashanah (New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).

Shofar Hero contains high-quality shofar recordings, played both in a studio and in a synagogue.

Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, iPad

Category: Entertainment
Released: October 04, 2009
Publisher: Yotam Gingold
Price: $0.99 (buy app)

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To make a Tekiah (Gedolah) sound, tilt the shofar at a 45 degree angle and hold your finger on the shofar.

To make a Teruah sound, hold the shofar in its normal position and tap the shofar.

To make a Shevarim sound, slide your finger across the length of  the shofar.

Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, iPad

Category: Music
Released: July 26, 2010
Publisher: Adam Levy
Price: $0.99 (buy app)

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