Good Saturday morning. Here’s a little lesson for you Gentiles. Rosh Hashanah began last night. Rosh Hashanah, which means “head of the year” in Hebrew, is a two-day celebration that marks the beginning of the Jewish High Holy Days each autumn.

The New Year inaugurates 10 days of repentance, also known as Days of Awe. They lead into Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which this year is on Sunday, September 27. That’s followed by Sukkot, of the Feast of Tabernacles, commemorating how God protected the Israelites as they wandered the desert in search of the Promised Land.

Rosh Hashanah began Friday at sundown, customarily with the blowing of the shofar, the ram’s horn, a sound traditionally meant to wake up people from their slumber, or perhaps in this year’s case, quarantine.


Traditionally, Rosh Hashanah is about acknowledging where we might have fallen short in the previous year and how to repair ourselves and the world in the coming year. Whether or not you’re Jewish, there’s value in the spiritual and emotional exercise of honestly contemplating your actions this year, and what you want most out of your life.



One major theme of Rosh Hashanah is the tradition of tashlich in which people symbolically cast off their sins, often by throwing morsels of bread into a flowing body of water.


Here’s a prayer from the Rabbi Rachel Barenblat:

“I’m ready to let go of my mistakes. Help me release myself from the ways I’ve missed the mark, lift my troubles off my shoulders. Help me to know that last year is over, washed away like crumbs in a current. Open my heart to blessing and gratitude. Renew my soul as the dew renews the grasses.”


(Information taken from CNN.com 9.19.20)


Blessings on your day and on your new year!

Pastor Sue