How will many celebrate the Jewish New Year (or Rosh Hashanah) in 2009?
SANTA CRUZ — Friday’s setting sun marks the birth of a new year in the Jewish faith, as Rosh Hashana begins. The holiday is the beginning of 10 Days of Awe, when Jews make commitments of change and growth for the new year with a personal, introspective review of the individual’s life and relationship with God. “It’s about embracing life and launching a new year,” said Rabbi Richard Litvak of Temple Beth El in Aptos. “It’s also about doing the spiritual work to make it a new beginning to the new year.” He explained that though the holiday is a day of repentance and personal judgment, it has a positive tone of renewal and hope. Rabbi Yochanan Friedman of Chabad by the Sea agrees that the holiday has a positive, if serious, tone. “It’s definitely a very somber day, but not a melancholy or sad day,” Friedman said. “It’s an upbeat kind of somber, often in the deeply respectful sense.” Friedman explained that Rosh Hashana is a day for people to objectively judge their relationship with God
Rosh Hashanah — a two-day holiday celebrated by millions of Jews worldwide — begins at sundown tonight. “It is a high moment,” said Rabbi Zvi Konikov, spiritual leader of the Chabad of the Space & Treasure Coasts, of the holiday. One of the most popular traditions for celebrants is to dip apples into honey as a wish for a sweet New Year. Round loaves of Challah bread are also served to recognize the Kingship of God, Konikov said. “It should be something uplifting for every child and every adult,” Konikov added. Rosh Hashanah also begins a 10-day period of reflection known as the Days of Awe, and ends with a 24-hour period of fasting on Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement. Sources: http://www.floridatoday.
