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A time to heal

Jews begin their days of atonement in a solemn celebration of Rosh Hashana.

By GAIL HOLLENBECK
Published September 23, 2006

BEVERLY HILLS - On Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, members of Congregation Beth Sholom greet each other with the phrase L'Shanah Tovah Tikateivu: "May you be inscribed in the Book of Life for a good, healthy and joyous year."

Rosh Hashana services began Friday night at the synagogue and will continue at 8:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. today and 8:30 a.m. Sunday.

The service this morning will include the reading of the Torah by Helmo Trzesniewsky while ritual chairman Les Leavitt uses the Yad, or pointer, in the Torah scroll.

Renditions of the "Shaharith" will be chanted using traditional, or "Nusach," melodies. The Musaf service concludes with Rabbi Zvi Ettinger and the choir.

The shofar, or ram's horn, will be blown by Frank Forti for the Sunday service.

Evening services will be led by the rabbi and the congregation's choir.

"Most others celebrate the national new year as a joyous occasion, whereas we observe our new year as a most solemn event," Ettinger said.

In the Torah, the five books of Moses, Rosh Hashana is referred to as Yom Teruah, the day of the sounding of the shofar.

In prayers recited during the observance, it is ascribed as Yom Ha-Zikkaron, the day of remembrance, and is also called Yom HaDin, the day of judgment.

"It is when the Almighty adjudicates the future of every living creature for the coming year," Ettinger said. "Although we believe that the judgment is recorded on Rosh Hashana, we are given 10 days called, in Hebrew, the Asseret Y'mei T'Shuvah, 10 days of penitence, prior to Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, when the verdict is sealed."

In the congregation's monthly newsletter, Ettinger talked about how the holiday is observed:

"Rosh Hashana is a two-day holiday observed by the blowing of the ram's horn, the recitation of distinctive liturgies and eating special foods symbolizing our hope for a good and sweet year," he wrote.

"This year the shofar is not blown on the first day because it falls on Shabbat, and the ancient rabbis feared that somebody might end up doing something they shouldn't do on Shabbat if the shofar were required, but it will be blown by Frank Forti on the second day as usual."

Rosh Hashana literally means "Head of the Year." Although commonly referred to as the New Year, Rosh Hashana is actually only one of four new years in the Hebrew calendar.

"Rosh Hashana, which takes place on the First of Tishrei, actually occurs on the first day of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar," Ettinger wrote.

"How then is this the 'new year'? Well, Rosh Hashana is Yom Harat Olam, the birthday of the world. Rosh Hashana is the anniversary of creation and, therefore, a new beginning in the cycle of time that began when God created the world."

According to Ettinger, the commandment to observe Rosh Hashana is first found in the Torah in the book of Vayikra or Leviticus 23:24-25.

"The nature of the day was established in the Torah," Ettinger wrote, "but the name Rosh Hashana was not used until later, perhaps out of fear that a major Jewish festival around the autumn new moon would be associated with the many pagan moon festivals that were common at the time.

"But by the time of the return from the Babylonian exile in the fourth century B.C., the observance of Rosh Hashana as a new year festival was well established. By the time the Mishna was codified at the end of the second century B.C. Rosh Hashana had taken on the meanings that we know today."

[Last modified September 23, 2006, 06:46:52]