SOLANO JEWISH COMMUNITY MARKS THE HIGH HOLY DAYS
Local congregation conducts both indoor and outdoor services
Driving along East Main Street in Vacaville, you will see a wooden shelter in the parking lot of Motoring Specialists auto repair shop.
The structure is not for the cars — it is for the use of the adjacent Chabad of Solano County during the Jewish High Holy known as the “Days of Awe.”
The temporary dwelling or sukkah, is used for the holiday known as Sukkot, the Jewish festival of giving thanks for the fall harvest, which is held from October 2-9 this year. Usually, the congregation constructs it about a week before the holiday.
But this year, because of restrictions on indoor public gatherings due to COVID-19, Chabad planned to hold the two earlier holy days, Rosh Hashanah (September 18-19) and Yom Kippur (September 27-28) outdoors in the sukkah. So they erected the tent a few weeks in advance.
However, on Tuesday Solano County moved from purple to red on the COVID spectrum, which means that Chabad and other houses of worship can
hold indoor services at 25 percent capacity up to a maximum of 100 people. So Chabad, which used the tent for Rosh Hashanah, will now conduct Yom Kippur services in its sanctuary.
For those who are not comfortable meeting indoors, the congregation will hold a separate Yom Kippur service in the tent. And the weeklong celebration of Sukkot will be held in the sukkah.
“The highlight was an outdoor shofar blowing,” said Chabad Rabbi Chaim Zaklos, “and we are very grateful to our neighbors, Motoring Specialists, who have been extremely gracious in helping us put up our temporary structure or tent, known as the sukkah.”
Over 100 people attended the Rosh Hashanah services last weekend, with everyone wearing masks and socially distancing.
Rosh Hashanah means “head of the year.” It is called that because Judaism teaches that God created the heavens and the earth on this day. The shofar is blown to call people to repentance.
Standing under the sukkah on Rosh Hashanah, Rabbi Zaklos blew the shofar 100 times, which he described as “a soulful call from the depths of the heart of every Jew wanting to reconnect with his heritage, his community, and his tradition.”
“Judaism believes that inherently everybody knows what is right, knows what is good and everybody wants it as well,” said Zaklos. “We just have obstacles from within, our evil inclinations, our circumstances perhaps, pressures at work or at home or even pressures of world events that distract us from what we really should be focused on… So once a year we have ten days of teshuvah, which is the Hebrew word for repentance, which really would be translated as ten days of return. Ten days to come back to our essential self, which is our soul. Because we are a soul inhabiting a body. We are not a body that contains a soul.”
“These days are days of reflection and introspection,” explained Zaklos. “There is extra devotion to Torah study, extra prayer and extra charity, the three pillars on which Judaism and the world stand.”
Congregants reflect on specific passages of scripture, such as Psalm 27 and Psalm 130, which echo the theme of repentance.
Zaklos said those scriptures bring “that same point that deep within ourselves there is that spark that never ever is extinguished. Just like you put a flintstone and soak it in water, you can still 40 years later come back and strike that flintstone and create a spark.”
Although Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is traditionally a solemn day, Chabad, while still greatly reverencing the occasion, brings a somewhat different perspective to the holiday.
“We do it with lots of songs and joyful melodies, upbeat and optimistic because we know that feeling guilty only goes so far,” said Zaklos. “We have to direct that feeling of wanting to change into a positive behavior in the coming year. So we have very joyful melodies mainly, making it easier to commit. Just like a perfect army when they go out to war they go out with a joyful melody. Familiar prayers are done in Hebrew and then some in English.”
The Neilah, the concluding service on Yom Kippur, is a time when final prayers of repentance are recited. Neilah means locking or the closing of the gates.
“The gates close because that is the climax of the prayers,” said Zaklos. “When the gates close behind us, they close in on us, with us inside. Because we are 100 percent certain that if we meant it genuinely and sincerely — our remorse for past behaviors and addictions — then certainly God will and does forgive us and embrace us and bring us into his private chambers.”
The solemn side of Yom Kippur is that it is a day of rest and one to afflict one’s soul, which is interpreted as fasting. People also seek to be reconciled with those they have offended. Judaism teaches that Yom Kippur is a day of judgment. Every person’s deeds, good and bad, are weighed in heaven. This is to determine who will live or die in the coming year, or who will have a good year or a bad year. Then, one’s name is inscribed in the appropriate book in heaven.
Before Rosh Hashanah, people wish each other “Ketivah v’chatima tovah,” which means, “A good inscription and sealing .”
“When a person commits to leading a moral, upright, ethical life, that’s being inscribed in the Book of Life, that’s real living,” said Zaklos. “The materialistic and mortal life is temporary. It comes and goes. It’s about making sure that you’re included in those that really live it up, that live truly a meaningful and a purposeful and a productive life… If we do our part, God does his part in giving us a good and happy life.”
In 2003, Yom Kippur fell on October 6, the first Monday of the month. By federal law, the U. S. Supreme Court term commences on the first Monday of October each year. The court opens with oral arguments. But not in 2003. That year, in deference to the Jewish holiday and in large part due to the efforts of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the U. S. Supreme Court officially deferred oral arguments until Tuesday, October 7.
Ginsburg and Justice Stephen G. Breyer are both Jewish.
“If they did Yom Kippur, we all can,” concluded Zaklos. “And we all should.”