This Year’s High Holy Days: Challenged but Emboldened

We’re all being tested this year, and I’m not referring to the lines forming at urgent-care facilities and repurposed parking lots for swab invasions up our nostrils. We’re being tested — perhaps like never before in recent memory — for our sense of priorities, our core principles and attitudes and our underlying faith.

As these “tests” are being manifested in virtually every area of our lives, in a few weeks from now, they will take on yet another dimension for members of the Jewish community. We will be faced with the question of if/how to observe the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in this challenging year.

The Days of Awe marking the start of the Jewish New Year are universally recognized by Jews — regardless of whether they otherwise regularly engage in religious practice or are affiliated with a synagogue — as a time of spiritual and communal renewal. It is a time to get that “Jewish recharge” and “soul connection” for the year ahead. Many go out of their way to attend services and observe the traditions of these sacred days, perhaps more so than at other times of the year.

So, what about these trying days when COVID-19 concerns and mandated guidelines and restrictions will make it very difficult to congregate and hold services?

To that, I say: Bring it on. As a community, we will not be aiming for mediocre simulations of what we’ve done in the past, but creative ways of making these days more special, memorable and meaningful than ever before.

This year will require creative out of the box adapting and compensating, serving to enhance — rather than detract from — the qualitative depth and richness of our celebrations. If in past years we’ve simply gone through the motions, perhaps this is the year to invest more of our heart and soul into every aspect of these auspicious days. If in past years, we’ve been somewhat on the fence (doing the minimum), perhaps this is the year to leap off that fence and do the maximum. If in past years, we’ve stayed away altogether; perhaps this is the year to show up. 

The blasts of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah are, in essence, a nonverbal declaration of “Hineini” — a triumphant cry from the soul that says, “Whatever the circumstances, I am here with God, as He is here with me. Whatever the hardship or obstacle before me, I shall muster the courage to transcend it — to persevere.” This is the way the Jewish people have responded to the trials and tribulations of our storied history. The greater the challenge, the stronger our resolve. There is nothing counterintuitive about this; it’s who we are.

Time and again, when “summoned,” our ancestors — including such figures as Abraham, Joseph, Moses and Isaiah — responded to the challenge at hand with a single word: “Hineini”  — Here I am.

Beyond a statement of mere presence and availability, Hineini connotes a sense of readiness to rise above the adversity at hand to embrace a unique mission and purpose. It speaks to a sense of renewed vitality and redoubled commitment, saying, in effect: “Rather than discourage or deter me, this challenge will motivate me to summon the greatness latent within my soul, so that I may be where I need to be and do what I need to do … ‘Here I am’ with every facet of my being.”

This year will require creative out of the box”adapting and compensating, serving to enhance — rather than detract from — the qualitative depth and richness of our celebrations.

For students of the Torah, the word “test” is interchangeable with the word “summons.” Scripture is replete with accounts of inspirational figures whose faith and devotion repeatedly were tested under the most trying of circumstances. With hindsight, we can see how those “tests” were, in fact, instances of God summoning those individuals to new heights of greatness; a greatness that would inspire future generations throughout the millennia.

It is noteworthy that the parasha traditionally read aloud in the synagogue on Rosh Hashanah — Genesis 22 — recounts one of the greatest “tests” in the Bible: The Binding of Isaac, where Abraham was summoned by God to bring his son, Isaac, as an offering on Mount Moriah. In the course of that one chapter, Abraham invokes the word “Hineini” on three separate occasions. 

When Abraham’s hand ultimately was stayed by the angel, revealing the true nature of the ordeal, a ram was offered on the altar in Isaac’s stead. One of the reasons for the sounding of the shofar, a ram’s horn, on Rosh Hashanah is to recall the unstinting faith and devotion displayed by our patriarch in response to a test of unimaginably trying proportions.

So, while none of us can claim to know what this COVID-19 “test” is really all about (at least not yet), it nonetheless should be clear to all that we each are being summoned to aspire to new heights of greatness.

At Chabad of the Conejo, we will be extending various “COVID-kosher” avenues of observance of the High Holy Days from which people can choose, depending on their preferred/required mode of congregation vs. isolation.

The rabbi’s sermons will be broadcast live on Zoom and Facebook on weekdays just before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (to avoid the use of electronic devices on the holy days) — Sept. 17 and 24, respectively — and be accessible thereafter via YouTube (for non-Sabbath/holiday viewing).

We will offer free “High Holiday Handbooks,” published specially for this year, which folks are welcome to pick up at the Center for Jewish Life in Agoura Hills (please call in advance). These handbooks, which provide detailed “How To’s” for the observance of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in the home environment, can make for an enriching and uplifting family experience.

We will be offering in-person outdoor High Holy Day services at select locations. Held under a canopy for shade, these abbreviated services — to be offered several times throughout the day at different hours — will adhere to all county health guidelines for maximum safety and precaution. While Chabad always has had an open-door policy, welcoming people to join us for services whether they’ve reserved in advance or not, with this year’s restrictions on capacity and seating proximity, we regret that attendance will have to be by reservation only.

Finally, on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, we will provide short shofar-blowing ceremonies (masks and socially distant standing required) at designated public parks throughout the Conejo Valley. (With the first day of Rosh Hashanah coinciding with Saturday, there is no sounding of the shofar on Shabbat.)

Whether it’s any of the above avenues or another mode of celebration one opts for, I strongly encourage my fellow Jews to utilize the spiritually propitious moments of the approaching High Holy Days to attain precious insight, perspective and growth — not despite the pandemic, but because of it. The challenges are real and they are great, but so is the historic opportunity to stand up and proclaim, “Hineini — Here I am, ready to serve. Ready to illuminate. Ready to bless and be blessed.”

For more information, schedules or to make arrangements or reservations, visit the website or call (818) 991-0991.

Rabbi Moshe Bryski is the executive director of Chabad of the Conejo, an outreach and educational organization serving the greater Conejo Valley area, with nine regional centers.