Local Jewish congregations celebrate Rosh Hashanah
Gavin Nguyen
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) – The valley’s Jewish population is ushering in a sweeter new year. Rosh Hashanah is the holiday that marks the start of the new year in Judaism.
Faith leaders of Jewish congregations in Palm Springs gave sermons when the holiday began Tuesday, with a smaller number of such services on Wednesday. It’s a part of the Jewish High Holidays – a period that will come to a close with Yom Kippur on the evening of October 1st this year.
Many took the time to reflect on the past year and usher in a “sweeter” new year, though some acknowledged that the holiday takes on added meaning in the context of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
David Bent is the ba’al tekiah at Temple Isaiah in Palm Springs – a role in which he blows the shofar, a horn from a kosher animal like a ram. On Wednesday, he told News Channel 3, “We always keep Israel in our thoughts. You can’t separate the people from the land.”
In reference to the shofar, he continued, “It connects us from generation to generation. It is the same sound heard in every school, every synagogue. And we want every hostage home and we want to make sure that everybody knows. We remember those that have been fought and died.”
The worshipers who gathered at Temple Isaiah said they were using the holiday to reflect. They also hoped others would be able to realize that despite our differences, we’re all human.
The guest rabbi who gave sermons through Rosh Hashanah at Temple Isaiah, Rabbi Marc Rubenstein, offered his thoughts: “The world is upside down right now full of problems, but most of them are caused by man. And we can’t blame God for what’s happening in man’s endeavors.”
He continued, “You can’t fix the world, but you certainly can fix yourself. So in my sermon, I talked about the act of kindness, of being kind to people.”
Rabbi David Lazar, of Or Hamidbar, another congregation based in Palm Springs, also blew the shofar throughout Rosh Hashanah. He regularly finds families with children who don’t want to sit still for an hours-long service, instead offering to visit and entertain the kids with his long, heavy kudu horn.
He said in his sermons through the holiday, he and fellow worshipers adopted new prayers as the conflict continues in Gaza. One prayer is critical of the current Israeli government, while the other urges compassion for Palestinians worldwide.
“This particular moment of stress and tension and violence between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians and those that are of the opinion – the same opinion as myself – believe that there needs to be coexistence,” Rabbi Lazar explained.
He recognized that the country has been shattered by violence in the past year, and the environment has been broken by humans. Despite what he called a shattered state of the world, he offered this hopeful message for Rosh Hashanah: “My message this year to the community was we need to look at ourselves, how we are broken human beings and how we may even be shattered. But there is the potential of coming back together.”