Blast of shofar heralds Jewish new year
Zelda Dean sounds a musical instrument called a shofar ahead of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, at Congregation Emanu-El synagogue in Victoria on Thursday. Blown like a trumpet, the shofar is of ancient origin and is hollowed out of a ram’s horn. It’s used to announce Jewish holidays such as Rosh Hashanah, which is on Monday. But, like most Jewish holidays, observances begin the evening before. So there will be services on Sunday and Monday in the Blanshard Street synagogue.
For a New Yorker like Rabbi Harry Brechner, Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, was signalled by smells from bakeries making sweet treats.
“What I remember from my childhood was a lot of funky bakery smells,” said Brechner, now rabbi to Victoria’s Congregation Emanu-El on Blanshard Street.
At Rosh Hashanah, “we eat food that is sweet, signifying a new year that will be sweet,” he said. “So we eat a lot of honey, we will dip apples in honey and there is always a lot of honey cake.”
Rosh Hashanah, literally “head of the year,” arrives on Monday and is the first of the two Jewish High Holy Days. The second is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which will occur on Sept. 23.
Observances for most Jewish holidays begin the evening prior, so there will be Rosh Hashanah services at the synagogue on Sunday and Monday.
Meanwhile, in the days prior, the synagogue will have been made to look its best. It will be swept and straightened out, and draped in white coverings.
One of the most notable moments of Rosh Hashanah is the sounding of the shofar. The hollowed-out ram’s horn is blown like a trumpet.
Brechner said Rosh Hashanah is a deeply personal and spiritual occasion. It’s a time when people attempt to reconcile themselves with, or seek forgiveness from, the people they might have wronged or failed in the year just ending.
“It’s a time for asking for forgiveness and giving forgiveness,” he said. “It’s a time to make sure our relationships are in order.”
He said it’s part of a process called teshuvah, frequently translated as repentance. But Brechner said he prefers to think of the teshuvah process as a kind of return to a personal space that is true and good.
“It’s a return to a path of goodness, back to a connection with divinity in the universe, back to God,” he said. “I would even say it’s a return to that authentic self.
“If I have hurt you, then I have hurt myself because I have damaged my relationship with God,” Brechner said. “You are, after all, one of God’s children.”
But Brechner also said teshuvah and Rosh Hashanah traditions are not all about contrition or guilt.
There is a Hebrew word, mechilah, to denote the special human forgiveness sought at this time of year. Its root is shared by the Hebrew word for dance.
“So essentially, you are asking your loved ones or those who are close to you: ‘Are we dancing?’ ” Brechner said. “Am I really in my groove in terms of who I need to be in this world?”
Rosh Hashanah also offers people a chance to check in with their inner selves.
On Monday, about 5:30 p.m., congregants will head for the ocean off Dallas Road, near Cook Street, to let go of those things where they feel they failed themselves.
“We let go of all those promises we made to ourselves that we couldn’t fulfil,” Brechner said. “We are trying to cast off all the stuff we are not proud of. But it’s also a pretty big party with lots of people and dogs and families. It’s a lot of fun.”