The New Year is a time at once joyful and solemn for Jews, because it marks a new beginning for each of us. It carries the assurance that we all do get a second chance and urges us to seize hold of it.
Every year they roll around, and every year you\’re not quite sure what to do. Go ahead, ask us. After years of answering readers\’ questions, we\’ve compiled the most frequently asked ones below:
After World War II, two Jewish GIs returned to Los Angeles and founded a synagogue in Westchester. Beth Tikvah, as it was called, finally found a permanent home in 1959 on the Westchester bluffs.
But last month, the Conservative congregation — known since 1968 as B\’nai Tikvah after merging with the nearby B\’nai Israel in Baldwin Hills — held its last service at the historic Westchester building, with its 204-seat sanctuary. On Aug. 20, about 100 people showed up for a final Havdalah service to say goodbye.
Because of dwindling membership and a lack of Jewish families in the area, the congregation decided to sell the property and look for a new location on the Westside.
Davi Cheng had some trepidation when she went to Hillel for the first time. She tried to feel comfortable, but she couldn\’t understand the language of the services and the liturgical rituals were confusing.
Then she spied something unfamiliar on a bookshelf that made her feel right at home: a shofar.
It was about this time last year that my 2 1¼2-year-old son decided to begin his terrible twos. At first we hoped that we\’d been given a reprieve, but we soon discovered otherwise. He was apparently intent on making up for lost time.
At Temple Congregation Ohabei Shalom in Nashville, Tenn., congregants newly trained in the ancient skill of shofar blowing sounded the ceremonial ram\’s horn for the first time this past Rosh Hashanah. It was the first time a lay member of the 150-year-old synagogue had blown the shofar.
\”It was quite a pivotal moment\” for the 800-family congregation, said its rabbi, Mark Schiftan.
Deeply rooted in classical Reform Judaism, the temple\’s services until recently were marked by choirs and English-only prayer. This Reform movement charter synagogue is undergoing upheaval, and it is not alone.
Yossi Mizrachi stood in front of a class of second-graders at Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy with a dark, ridged, 4-foot-long buffalo horn in his hand.
"Go away!" Gabe, 15, yells at his two younger brothers, having been rudely awakened by a blast of the shofar.
I forgot to blow the shofar this morning. No, it\’s not quite Rosh Hashanah and I haven\’t missed this year\’s round challah or apples dipped in honey.
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