Another custom that speaks spiritually calls on Jews, when they have completed afternoon services on Rosh Hashanah, to visit a body of water where fish swim. They throw food into the water as a symbol of casting away their sins.
Traditions of this sort, repeated in the autumn of every year, can stir faith and strengthen community. Though Rosh Hashanah itself is not connected to a particular historical event, it still recalls God’s dealings with the chosen people through the centuries. The New Year is a time to start over, to turn from the idols of false gods, and to repair the bonds with neighbors broken by sin.
I asked a friend, filmmaker Marlene Booth, what Rosh Hashanah and the other holy days mean to her. “It means a combination of gathering together with family and eating wonderful familiar food,” she answered “As soon as we get home from services on Rosh Hashanah,” she says, “we cut up an apple and dip the apple in honey.”
She also told me that Jewish study, especially of Hebrew and the Bible, is infused with sweetness. Studying in a Yeshiva, students mark the Hebrew letters with honey..
Marlene Booth also described this as a time for renewal and reflection, with leisure “to sit around talking about what the last year was like, and thinking back on your relations with other people and your sense of integrity about yourself where you have come up short. You might also send letters to friends saying that I’m sorry that I messed up.”
“It feels in many ways like a new beginning” she adds. “In the synagogue, we will begin the new cycle of readings. Starting in a few weeks we will be reading the book of Genesis, beginning the Torah. Looking at yourself, you get a chance to see yourself afresh. During the high holidays everything is really writ large.”
“We will go for a walk, play scrabble. People try to spend time with extended family members. A lot of Jewish worship features familiar tunes that you have not heard for a year. My son who is away at college would not think of being absent from his family.”
My friend also described the atmosphere in the synagogue on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. “The synagogues are filled. You hear the same melody in every synagogue all over the world. You feel a sense of wholeness with other Jews.”
Even unbelieving Jews get swept into the action. In keeping with long tradition, they sit on the bench outside and do not enter the synagogue, Marlene Booth reports. “They won’t go in, but they don’t want to be absent. People who are inside take breathers anyway because the service lasts all day.”
I also consulted Rabbi Norman Janis, counselor to the Jewish community at Harvard University and asked him to share his feelings about the Days of Awe, as the High Holidays are often called.
They deserve this name, the rabbi says, because nothing can be more awesome than the coronation of God as King.
Rabbi Janis points to the blowing of the shofar as the most moving single part of the worship service. He calls this event “the mother of all wake-up calls.” “It says something like ‘wake up and live right,’” he explains.
He agrees with Marlene Booth in finding spiritual joy in this season because it is the time when all Jewish people come together. This makes for an excitement that fills the heart.
Kol Nidre, on evening before Yom Kippur, it says all the vows that have been made, you are given a clean bill. The atmosphere remains very sober. At the evening service, the synagogues are filled. The same melodies are heard in every synagogue all over the world. You feel a sense of wholeness with other Jews doing the same thing.
One year we visited Hawaii and threw our bread crumbs in the Pacific. Symbolically, it was sins being cast on the waters. At Yom Kippur you are supposed to think of your relationship to your fellow human beings, to God and to yourself. This view combines introspection plus awareness of the social world.
Excitement – you feel great especially about the holidays. We will go for a walk, play Scrabble. People try to be with extended family. Students celebrate with others on campus. A lot of Jewish worship is top 40, the tunes you have not heard for a year. Marlene’s son could not imagine not being with our family.
Even agnostic Jews, in accordance with an old tradition, sit on the bench outside and do not go into synagogue. They won’t go in but they don’t want to be absent. People take breathers anyway. On Rosh Hashanah, 9 to 1.Yom Kippur a couple of hours in evening. On Yom Kippur, a day of fasting – service not over till 3 stars.
The most striking fact about the high holidays is it’s the time in the Jewish calendar when everyone comes together. Ten times the rest of the year. Passover most observed at home. Why? Day of Judgment, book of life, God is king; “what really unites it all . . . you are coming together to hear the Shofar.” Think of all the ways the horn is used in regular life. Going into battle, victory, crowning of kings unimaginable without brass. The coronation of God, it was heard at Sinai when Moses given the Torah. “Tremendous signnificance , to the public blowing of this horn.” To remind God of the covenant and Abe’s virtues. Most people don’t realize why they are coming together.
What could be more awesome that the crowning of the king of the universe. Exodus 19. Just seeing so many people packed together for this occasion. “A wake up call. Wake up and live right.- that’s what it is about.”
A time when people of the same family not living near one another come together – somewhat like Thanksgiving. This latter the great civic religious holiday. Putting on different clothes “to honor the Sabbath.” After Yom Kippur, a relaxing.
You come through the holidays and you have done what you can. You now hope that God will take care of you. You ask: Please spread over us the shelter of peace. A build up of tension till Yom Kippur, then a relaxing. It’s all one. The calendar for Christians follows the life of Christ; the Jewish the life of the people.
Richard Griffin