Jewish holiday begins next week

By Dave Clark

Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008 | midnight

On Rosh Hashanah, Rabbi Mel Hecht prostrates himself on the ground, a prayer shawl wrapped around his head.

"As many times I have done it in my lifetime, it's always as if it's the first time," he said. "I feel such a sublime sense of humility and regret, laying myself before God."

Those emotions encapsulate the experience of many Jews during the Days of Awe, which begins with Rosh Hashanah Sept. 29 and culminates with Yom Kippur Oct. 8.

On these holiest days of the year, routine and work are curtailed as the outside world fades, and an intense period of self-examination comes into focus. Jews pledge to live more meaningful lives filled with tzedakah (literally justice, also charity) and mitzvot (literally commandments, also good deeds).

They seek forgiveness and resolution with those they have wronged and commemorate the departed in the recitation of Yizkor prayers. Following a 24-hour abstention from food, drink and sex on Yom Kippur, the period of introspection ends with renewal.

"It's a whole season where you are invited to look inward to reassess life and human relationships and do it in a way that by the time you finish, you are almost reborn," said Hecht, the former rabbi of Temple Beth Am in Summerlin.

Asking forgiveness from others as well as God is a central theme of teshuvah, or returning. So is ridding oneself from excess guilt.

"You're trying to set your house in order with regard to your relationships, even when you may feel that a good portion of the problem originated with someone else," Hecht said. "I think it's universal. Everybody has that need."

Summoning Jews to begin that process is the blast of the shofar, or ram's horn, which is blown in synagogue. For Hecht, the ancient instrument embodies the religion's sense of mystery and wonderment.

"The shofar is the mechanism by which you're asked to respond to a higher calling," he said.

That connection with the past is also strengthened through the recitation of Yizkor, prayers for the dead.

"If you don't feel linked to what has gone before, if you don't have spiritual memory of what helps make you and your culture what it is, then you are truly adrift on the sea of life," Hecht said.

"Tashlich" is another important custom and link to the past, which Hecht said is seeing a resurgence in popularity. It represents the discarding of one's sins by tossing bread crumbs into a body of water.

Fasting is yet another catalyst for trying to reach a higher state of self-awareness.

"It's to refocus your entire self with both the physical and spiritual that becomes a way of sensitizing yourself," Hecht said. "It makes it possible for whatever communication you're going to allow God to give. It makes yourself predisposed to hear your inner spirit."

The universal themes and timeless rituals are reasons the High Holy Days draw such large numbers to synagogue, even among the most secular of Jews.

"The human spirit always has a mystical and mythical need to return to its origins," Hecht said. "It means family and memories associated with family. That's what brings you back."

Dave Clark can be reached at 990-2677 or [email protected].