September marks a meaningful time of year for the Jewish community, bringing two major holidays that invite both celebration and reflection, explains Rabbi Jennie Bunde, with Temple Sholom in Galesburg:
“The holiday of Rosh Hashanah begins the Friday night of September 11th and then ten days later, we have the High Holiday, which is Yom Kippur. These are the two biggest holidays in the Jewish calendar. They are spending most of the day in the synagogue. We have prayer services throughout the day. We are reading from the Torah, which is our way of calling the Bible, but we are reading from a scroll. We are even blowing a rams horn that we call a shofar. It is a very big, sort of solemn event,” shares Rabbi Bunde.
“Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the Jewish New Year, but we are also taking the time to reflect, thinking about the past year, things we have done well, maybe places where we may have missed the mark and wish we could do better. So, we are spending time in reflection and prayer and just hoping that the next year will be a better year for us and we are better human being,” Robbi Bunde adds.
To learn more about the High Holiday Services, visit templesholomgalesburg.org.
