Region to celebrate Rosh Hashana
Services will go on amid pandemic, with options being offered
COVID-19 may have changed the way Chabad of Northwest Indiana will celebrate Rosh Hashana this weekend, but it hasn’t canceled anything.
Rabbi Eliezer Zalmanov said Chabad has been holding services outdoors since June, and celebrations for Rosh Hashana this weekend will be no different.
“As long as the weather cooperates we plan on continuing outside,” he said. “Once we have to move indoors then we need to reassess and readdress our options.”
Rosh Hashana translates to “the head of the year” and is a two-day Jewish holiday marking the Jewish New Year stretching from sundown Friday to nightfall Sunday.
Since the services for Rosh Hashana at Chabad will have to be moved outdoors and many are still wary of public events, Zalmanov said there will be several different options for those who want to attend.
“We’ll be cutting out a lot of the speeches and some of the singing that usually takes time,” Zalmanov said.
“We’re also offering two afternoon options that are much shorter. We’re doing an afternoon service on Sunday … that’s for adults that are not comfortable sitting through the full morning service, which is usually three to four hours long.”
While Chabad will have 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. services Saturday and Sunday. The 3 p.m. Sunday service will last an hour or less, the rabbi said.
They will also have an hourlong program beginning at 5 p.m. for children and families, which will feature a magician, snacks and story time.
The blowing of the shofar, a ram’s horn, is the most important part of the Rosh Hashana service, Zalmanov said, and Sunday’s services will center around it.
“It’s blown several times throughout the morning service,
and it’ll be the focal point of both of our afternoon services as well,” he said. “While we won’t be having the full Rosh Hashana service in the afternoon, we will be doing the shofar and the entire program will be centered around the shofar sounding.”
Chabad will not be doing any sort of virtual service streaming over Zoom, Zalmanov said.
“Because we follow the traditional Jewish law, we would not be able to use any virtual kind of service,” he said. “No Zoom or anything online, which is why we’re focusing on in-person as the situation would allow.”
While Chabad has an in-person celebration, Temple Beth-El will opt for a Zoom service, much like they have been doing since midMarch, said Larry Gill, the president of the congregation.
Since the congregation switched to virtual service, Gill said there has been an increase in attendance, though virtual is still not a preferred method.
“We’re getting used to it,” Gill said. “Nobody likes it, but it’s the best we have … it is different, but until someone can come up with something better, that’s the best we have.”
Temple Beth-El’s services for Rosh Hashana will be shorter than the usual three- to four-hour period. Gill said the plan is for the service to be about an hour and a half, and he expects more than 250 people to join the Zoom call to celebrate.
“We were at 100 participants, but for the High Holidays we upped our (Zoom capacity) to 500, because we’re expecting well over 100 people,” Gill said.
As Temple Beth-El continues to hold services virtually, Gill said the hope is to get back in the building when it is safe to do so.
“We’re still operating,” Gill said. “We’re doing the best we can — the building is closed and we haven’t had any in-person gatherings since March, so we’re just hoping and praying that the vaccine will come forward. We can’t wait to get together.”
As people in the area celebrate Rosh Hashana, Zalmanov noted that the holiday is a celebration that sets a tone for the rest of the year.
“The way we behave and the way we conduct ourselves on Rosh Hashana has an effect and is a reflection of how the rest of the year will play out,” Zalmanov said. “In the current situation, having to adapt and having to make the best out of a situation that is less than ideal, hopefully the rest of the year will be equally adaptable and if changes are necessary, we’ll make those changes.”