Rosh Hashanah

Here's the link to the article but I just copied and pasted it here. www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080929/NEWS/809290247

Rosh Hashanah — Jewish New Year — concludes at sunset Tuesday, marking the first day of High Holy Days which end when Yom Kippur concludes at sunset Oct. 9. The 10-day period typically falls within the same month every year, but its exact date is determined by the lunar calendar.

“This is probably considered the most important time of year,” said George Gittleman, rabbi of Shomrei Torah Congregation in Santa Rosa.

About 900 observers were expected to attend services tonight at Yulupa building of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The LDS Church in Santa Rosa, as in past years is making its facility available because Shomrei Torah’s temple isn’t large enough to accommodate the surge in attendees that typically mark Rosh Hashanah, Gittleman said.

“It’s easily three times, four times, our normal crowd,” he said.

Following tonight’s service, many Jews will celebrate with family meals that include apples dipped in honey to connote a sweet new year and round loaves of challah bread. Some will attend a daytime service Tuesday and then spend time at a body of water where bread crumbs and lint will be tossed into the water to symbolize throwing sins away and starting fresh.

“You are starting the new year and looking back at the year you have had and try to return to your true self,” said Jeremy Olsancq, president of the board of directors for Shomrei Torah.

“The gates of repentance are open. You have 10 days until Yom Kippur and take care of what you need to take care of and right the wrongs you have done,” he said.

Part of that is offering apologies, large and small, to those who you might have offended in the past year, Olsan said.

“It’s something we do far too little of, I think, in our world,” he said. “I think it’s a good way to start the new year.”

Gittleman acknowledged different ways in which members of his congregation take stock of their year. Some scroll through their calendars and diaries to assess how their time was spent.

“Others spend time in meditation and quiet and do personal inventory,” Gittleman said.

Many of the services in the coming days will feature the blowing of a shofar — or ram’s horn.

“It’s a very powerful, I would say primal sound,” Gittleman said. “We blow it a number of times in Rosh Hashanah. It’s a wake up call, it’s like an ancient alarm clock; we need to be better people in the year ahead.”