In the rush of our lives, we tend to lose sight of the Holy because there is too much else that draws our attention and our energies. We might speak our spirituality, but we rarely take the time to meet it. So each spiritual tradition draws our remembering through a yearly rhythm of ritual. In the Jewish tradition, High Holyday observances call us to this deeper awareness each fall.

Opening to Forgiveness
The celebration of the High Holydays will soon mark the beginning of the Jewish year 5767. A preliminary service challenging us to open our hearts to forgiveness is called S’likhot. According to the sages of the Jewish mystical tradition known as the Kabbalah, no person can truly receive forgiveness without first extending it to others and to self. Because human and Divine energies are joined in a covenantal relationship, responsibility is shared. Each of us is invited to open our own hearts and become aware of the Indwelling Presence of that Greater One.

A New Year
Rosh Hashanah is a New Year’s Celebration that is spiritual in nature. In the morning service, Rosh Hashanah announces itself with the blast of the shofar, the sounding of a rams’ horn. This is the beginning of the Ten Days of Awe, a period set aside in Judaism since biblical days for personal and communal re-evaluation and renewal. The process of the ten days is one of unfolding awareness as we deepen our own path of awakening with greater consciousness. Worship begins the evening of Monday, October 3, and continues on Tuesday, October 4.

The Day That Makes Atonement
Concluding the ten days is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Yom Kippur, called the “Sabbath of Sabbaths,” is the holiest day of the Jewish year. We are directed toward an “at-one-ment” with self, with other, with community, and with God. From sundown on Wednesday, October 12 to sundown on Thursday October 13, the day is dedicated to contemplation and worship. This is a day of fast, concluding with another blast of the shofar and followed by a joyous break-fast.