Head of the Year - Day 1

Literally, Rosh Hashonah (ראש השנה) means “head of the year.” Or, figuratively, it can be translated to mean new year. Specifically, in colloquial English (and Hebrew too), it means the first two days of the month of Tishrei, during which Jews celebrate the creation of the world (yes, we say it happened on this specific day 5769 years ago – I’m sure Bishop Usher could tell you what time) and start the process of “cheshbon nefesh,” of checking our souls, of looking at ourselves this past year and thinking about what we are proud of and what we could have done better, at least in regard to our fellow human beings. This leads to Yom Kippur which we finally atone for the sins against God, and start the year anew and refreshed. But more on YK later.

RH normally, for many American Jews and me, is a time spent with family. There is a fair amount of time spent in services, but the holiday is really based around family and community being together. It’s much more a communal holiday than YK, but since they occur in tandem, RH gets a bad rap. I’m not actually sure why either of them get a bad rap, but it may have something to do with fasting…

There certainly is no fasting on RH however. In fact, this year, I spent a disproportionate amount of time at meals, than I did at services. Monday night, Erev RH, I attended HUC services. The HUC student choir, made up of the cantorial students and a few other students who made up the bass/tenor sections, sang beautifully. The rabbi was our Dean, Michael Marumur, who is a Rabbinic Rock Star; the hazzan (cantor) was Eli Schliefer, who is, apparently, the patriarch of modern Reform cantoring. He’s very old, and sings in a very old, slow style, but was fantastic.

The service itself, as with the other HUC services I attended, focused disproportionately on the performative aspect – the choir sings, the cantor sings, the rabbi talks – without much by way of communal participation and praying. This is mainly done because HUC services are learning experience for the cantorial students, who all have solos and amazing voices. The downside is the very prayer-able congregation (mostly students) aren’t really able to pray. I went because HUC is my community here and I wanted to support my friends in the choir who had been practicing for months. And who sang beautifully. But if this were the states, I would have hated the service and not gone back. I need a service, especially during the chaggim when I can participate fully and actively. But in this context, it was fine. It was lovely. It was community.

For Erev RH dinner, HUC hosted a RH Seder (yes, there are not just seders on Passover) and five course meal, complete with a seemingly unlimited wine service. Most of the class was there, and it was a great way to start the holiday, together as a community. The seder was led my by friend Jordan (who was half of the bass section in the choir) and he had every table make a skit/pun about a food that’s part of the seder (e.g. pumpkin, beets, wine, fish head, dates). My group was dates – we made a pun with the English name (Can I offer you a date? Sure. How about tomorrow night?) and the Hebrew name – Tamar (A date tamar-ow! Tamar-ow night!). It was a lot of fun. The food was mostly pretty good. And Meredith and Harrison finished the night with a song session.

For morning services I returned to HUC. The service was more of the same, and literally more of it, as I oscillated between states of awake and sleep. Anyhoo, after the service was Tashlich (a service in which we toss bread crumbs into running water in order to symbolically cast away our sins), which I had been asked to lead. I was very nervous, but I felt I put together a good 6 minute service, including some singing, some Psalm reading, some reflection, some bread tossing, and some singing. I was very pleased with my efforts and how the congregation took to the service. The feedback I received was also very positive, which made me feel pretty good.

Lunch was at my friend Amy and Sarah’s apartment. They had “brunch” themed lunch, with all sorts of delicious items: baked french toast, polenta, potatoes, fruit salad, glazed salmon, pecan pie, apple crisp, kugel, mimosas, and wine. It was incredibly scrumptious and tasty, and a really nice group schmoozing and reflecting and just being together. That afternoon, I was exhausted, and then there was a full day of RH left to go!