Rosh Hashana, which ushers in the High Holy Days in Judaism, begins at sundown Wednesday. Special services are held on Day 1 (Thursday) and Day 2 (Friday). The next day, a Jewish Sabbath, is Sept. 11.
Rabbi Larry Moldo of Congregation Beth Shalom in Modesto was attending school a couple of miles from New York City’s Twin Towers in 2001 and finds this year’s timing “intriguing.” Rosh Hashana often falls later in September or even October.
"One of the medieval poems we recite (during Rosh Hashana) talks about who will live and who will die," he said. "It just seems very interesting to me."
Moldo said he had recently moved his family to New Jersey in 2001 and was taking classes in Riverdale, N.Y., which is "just across the Hudson from Manhattan."
His memory of Sept. 11 gets a bit fuzzy -- he doesn't remember exactly what classes he was taking or where he stayed until he could finally get back home.
"I didn't have any cell phones back there," he said. "My son was in kindergarten that year. They kept showing video clips (of the terrorist attacks) at school, even to the kindergartners, some of whom had parents who worked downtown. Land line phones, and even cell phones, weren't working real well. I finally sent out a note on the Internet saying that I was alive."
Two days after the terrorist attacks, he caught a ride with a fellow student to southern Pennsylvania and rode a train home from there.
He remembers one rabbinical student who -- with thousands of other people -- walked across the car-less bridge to check on his mother in Manhattan. Some of his colleagues, Moldo said, had grown up in the city.
"It was not good for any of us, but for them, not having the towers was devastating. Some could no longer attend classes because they couldn't deal with the fact that the skyline had changed, that the towers were no longer there."
Most of the Jewish congregations in the area had members who were affected in some way, either with family members or friends who died in the towers, or those who were late to work that morning and struggled with survivor's guilt, Moldo said.
"The congregation in New Jersey where I was serving at the time didn't have anyone in that. But we had a number of Holocaust survivors. Many of them were saying, 'More people were killed in the Holocaust than in (9/11).' "
Rosh Hashana that year fell six days after the terrorist attacks.
"The prayers, especially the one talking about who shall live and who shall die, was a much more powerful thing that year, especially among the East Coast congregations," Moldo said.
Rosh Hashana celebrates God's creation of the world. This year will begin the Jewish year of 5771.
The Jewish holiday is nothing like a rowdy New Year's Eve party.
"This is an intense kind of celebration," Moldo said. "This is the emotional ambience of checking in with God, at a minimum saying, 'Thanks. I'm still here.' At a maximum, there's a lot of potential for personal growth -- clearing out the dead wood to focus on where we've come short with God."
The month preceding the "Ten Days of Awe" begins with a thorough housecleaning to get rid of anything with leaven, which is likened to sin in the Torah. It also begins the time of introspection, when you consider what you may have done wrong to other people or to yourself.
"It's easier to work on where you've fallen short with other people," Moldo said. It's harder to focus on where you've fallen short with yourself -- to either being stubborn to not forgive yourself, or on the other hand, to forgive yourself too easily."
After those days of trying to right any wrongs you may have caused, including asking for forgiveness and making restitution, the focus turns to God. The final day, Yom Kippur, is 25 hours or more of fasting when each person considers what he or she might have done against God.
Bee staff writer Sue Nowicki can be reached at 578-2012 or snowicki@modbee.com.
RSS
E-Mail
Print
reprint or license
