A white kippah on my brother’s head.

People on bimah holding the Torah.

People attending services.

A shofar.

The entrance before you walk into services.

A fountain at the Eretz Cultural Center.

A mosaic.

Tallit.

Siddurim (prayer books).

People standing at services.

People on the bimah in front of the ark leading the service.

Look back to last September 25, when a majority of America’s youth were sitting in desks raising hands, taking tests, and quickly scribbling down notes to keep up with their lectures. Yet, on that day, not every student was present, not just because of sick days or doctor’s appointments, but for a different reason entirely. In fact, my own desk can be counted as one of those empty few last week, not because I ditched, but because I was six hours away in Los Angeles attending religious services for Rosh Hashanah with my family.

Rosh Hashanah is one of the most important holidays for the Jewish people, so special that it is even considered one of the two High Holy Days. Since the Jewish calendar follows a lunar calendar and not a secular one like the one the United States follows, the holiday can fall anywhere from September to October. However, the day is consistent throughout the Jewish calendar, always celebrated on the first of Tishrei. Rosh Hashanah means “head of the year” in Hebrew, an appropriate name for a holiday rejoicing the new year. Similar to that of the United States’ customs, Rosh Hashanah is a time of reflection and goal setting for the upcoming year and a time to look for a fresh start. However, unlike the American culture’s New Year, Rosh Hashanah has a different idea of how this fresh start and reflection should be dealt with. Every year on this holiday, Jews are expected to reflect upon the wrongdoings they have committed within the past year. By looking back on the things they have done wrong, people can make their goals revolve on how to improve on or change how they will do things in the upcoming year and learn from their mistakes. Also, in addition to goal setting, they apologize to those they have hurt in the past year in order to help start the year off on a fresh start. This apologizing occurs from Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the year, to the ten days following it until Yom Kippur, the second High Holy day in Jewish culture. Thus, Jews go to temple on Rosh Hashanah to attend services and to look back into the past and look forward into the future.

On September 25, I went to services at the Eretz Cultural Center in southern California. I attended the services with my family and a close friend of theirs. During the service, they blew the shofar, a Jewish tradition that occurs every year on Rosh Hashanah and happens at every temple across the globe on this day. We also prayed in both Hebrew and English and took some time to reflect on the past year. At the end of the long service, they did the Mi Shebeirach, a prayer for those in need of healing that is said at significant Jewish services. It was a special prayer for me this Rosh Hashanah because my grandpa is currently going through chemotherapy, and it was why he couldn’t attend services with us, so in a way, it helped me let go of what’s happened with him in the past year and look towards this coming year with a more positive outlook. After the service ended, I felt ready to take on the new year with all of its new challenges and opportunities and say goodbye to the previous year.
So last week when I could have been sitting through classes at school, I was instead six hours away, reflecting on the year that’s past and how I would do better in the one that was just beginning, the Jewish year of 5775. L’shanah tovah. A good year.