NEW YORK — The world's most comprehensive site for the upcoming full month of Jewish High Holidays is attracting visitors by the thousands.

"The Complete High Holidays" (http://www.chabadcenters.com/high), as the site is called, was launched at the Lubavitch World Headquarters only a few days ago and includes hundreds of web pages, chock-full of information, from how-to guides and interactive quizzes to deep Talmudic and mystical insights.

Offering its content in both advanced Macromedia Flash(tm) technology and a simple but elegant text-based design, "The Complete High Holidays" is a treasure trove of information about this important time of the Jewish year, culled from more than 720 sources, ancient and contemporary.

EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW
"The Complete High Holidays" features include prayer excerpts, Bible readings, stories for children, and a thorough and exciting look at the layers upon layers of meaning associated with the holidays. The site provides, for example, more than 35 different explanations for the sounding of the shofar, or ram's horn, on Rosh Hashanah.

In addition, the site spans the entire history of the Jewish People, citing sources and practices ranging from the biblical Patriarch Abraham to ancient Rome to Turkish Izmir in 1729 to 1890s' Dagestan to 1950s' Iraq to 1990s' Jerusalem.

A lengthy analysis of one of the Rosh Hashana readings yields the prayer rituals that were first introduced by a Jewish woman. Medieval philosopher Maimonides is given much play as he explains how one can make amends for past iniquities.

An introspective piece allows each visitor to "test your nature" and see how it can be changed for the New Year.

An interactive quiz helps visitors test their knowledge, and an "Ask the Rabbi" button allows people to get answers to any holiday questions: where to find a prayer service, how to keep the holidays while far away from a Jewish community and any other question, including probing, advanced questions about deep mysticism and philosophy.

But perhaps the most important feature of the site is its appeal to both scholar and layman. While containing enough information to fill months of study, the presentation is straightforward enough for even small children to attain a better understanding of the many holidays and precepts.

The site is available to internet users through direct access to http://www.chabadcenters.com/high, as well as through hundreds of local portals around the world: Chabad-Lubavitch institutions worldwide, linked interactively through the http://www.chabadcenters.com network of local Websites, are offering The Complete High Holidays on their local Websites.

"Our goal is to help every single Jew throughout the world gain a deeper understanding and heightened appreciation for the upcoming month of High Holidays," said Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky at the launching of the site at the Lubavitch World Headquarters. "The Web is the perfect medium for this, as it reaches even the most remote parts of the world and allows each person to learn at his or her own pace, while maintaining autonomy and even anonymity, if he or she so desires.

Rabbi Krinsky pointed out that the Complete High Holidays Website compliments Chabad-Lubavitch's myriad of other global efforts to increase holiday awareness.

The Jewish month of Tishrei, beginning with Rosh Hashanah on the eve of September 10, includes both solemn and joyous holidays, and is considered to be the "head" of the New Year, from which spiritual energy is derived for all the months that follow. Perhaps most famous are Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but this month also includes Sukkot (festival of the booths), Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. (For more information please check out the site!)

"The Complete High Holidays," as well as all the http://www.chabadcenters.com Websites, are joint projects of the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters and more than 2,000 Chabad-Lubavitch institutions around the globe.