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WAVENEY ANN MOOREFor bay area rabbis and their congregations, Rosh Hashana is a time of introspection, prayer - and family.
ST. PETERSBURG - In recent days, Rabbi Jacob Luski has been a bearer of gifts - shiny red apples and serving-size packets of honey - to Jewish patients at hospitals and nursing homes.
The traditional gifts symbolized sweet wishes for the Jewish New Year or Rosh Hashana, which begins tonight at sundown. It's a busy time of year for Luski and his fellow rabbis. Extra services are scheduled to mark the High Holy Days, which begin with Rosh Hashana and end on Yom Kippur, the most sacred day of the Jewish year. Yom Kippur, also referred to as the Day of Atonement, is observed with abstinence, fasting and prayer, and most of the day is spent in the synagogue or temple.
For observant Jews, the 10-day period from Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur is one of solemn introspection. It is believed to be when God judges his people and writes their fate for the new year in the Book of Life. It is a fate that is sealed on Yom Kippur.
Particularly at this time of year, rabbis find themselves having to balance their own spiritual lives with those of their congregation. Rabbi Michael Torop of Temple Beth-El and his wife Betsy, rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom in Brandon, are familiar with this struggle.
"I would say the biggest challenge involves balancing the needs of our communities with the needs of our family," Rabbi Michael Torop said Monday.
"Each of us has our responsibilities to help prepare our community and guide them through these holy days. At the same time, as a committed Jewish family, it's important that we find the time to prepare personally and as a family for this same period. I think the challenge exists through the year, but becomes particularly acute during the holidays."
The parents of Gideon, 9, Aaron, 7, and Hannah, 3, the two rabbis, ordained together 14 years ago, usually have early Sabbath dinner together before heading to Friday night synagogue services. Rabbi Michael Torop said he and his wife believe it is important their family spends quality time together and adapt their celebrations as a Jewish family to accommodate their professional lives.
"As a family, we will have a Rosh Hashana meal together before the start of the holiday," he said.
Being a rabbi has changed the way he prepares for the High Holy Days, said Rabbi Alter Korf of Chabad of St. Petersburg.
"As a yeshiva student, the focus is on yourself and preparing yourself for the High Holidays," he said.
"As a rabbi, you have to help everybody else prepare. You end up becoming prepared as you are helping others. Teaching about the holidays and talking about the significance of the holidays has a profound influence on yourself."
Korf and his wife, Chaya, have three children, daughter Mushka, 3, son Mendel, 2, and Moshe, 4 months. In preparation for the holiday, his wife baked honey cakes, one of Rosh Hashana's traditional specialties, he said.
Korf, who will lead holiday services at the St. Petersburg Hilton at 8 tonight and 10 a.m. on Thursday and Friday, has spent the days leading up to Rosh Hashana teaching people about the shofar and other holiday customs and obligations.
"The High Holidays are for realizing and reasserting our dependence on God," he said. "This is a time for us to recommit to what he asks us to do. Rosh Hashana is all about our mission as people - man, woman and child - to make a better world."
For Luski, rabbi of Congregation B'nai Israel of St. Petersburg, and his wife Joanne, family life remains paramount, even as the obligations of synagogue life are met.
"Now that the children are older and are out of the house, the first thing is to make sure that they have made their reservations to come home for Rosh Hashana," Luski said.
"To arrange to have the family together, that is always a prime priority for them and for us."
The Luskis have four children, Yael, Jeremy, Rachel and Naomi, all of whom live or attend school out of state. He said daughter Rachel still is sad about not being able to come home in 2001, when Rosh Hashana, a traditional time of family gatherings, fell shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The month before Rosh Hashana, Elul, is a time of preparation for the High Holy Days, Luski said.
"We add into the liturgy an extra psalm, Psalm 27, and weekday mornings sound the shofar. It is the sound of awakening, to get you going, to get you moving," he said of the ram's horn that also is sounded at Rosh Hashana and at the end of the final Yom Kippur service. For him, personally, said Luski, the shofar provides a spiritual awakening for the upcoming holy period.
"I try to do some extra study, some extra prayer, some extra good deeds. I pause and look back over the past year and develop some strategies for the future. Rosh Hashana gives you the opportunity to do so," he said.
The days before Rosh Hashana also are when Luski, who also serves as the Jewish chaplain of Bay Pines VA Medical Center, makes special visits to hospitals and nursing homes. The apples and honey he gave to patients, along with special New Year cards, were put together by Congregation B'nai Israel's youth group, he said.
"Since they can't come to you, you try to go to them," he said of those to whom he conveyed early Rosh Hashana greetings.