Zev Englander Blog 3: My Rosh Hashana

My Rosh Hashana every year is pretty repetitive. My family comes, we have dinner, and do all of the Jewish traditions both nights. During the day we go to my Dad's Shul and sit in services for 5-6 hours. I blow Shofar with Noah Rubin for hundreds of people in services. It has been the same since 6th grade. This year, given the circumstances of COVID-19, the synagogue decided hosting services would not be worth the risk given there are hundreds of elderly people in the building on the high holidays. Services were streamed live, and even though my dad was in the building as the Rabbi I wasn't allowed in to blow Shofar. So, we chrome-casted the stream on the TV and sat on the couch, without any extended family here. To me, Rosh Hashana lost most of it's meaning this year, and it was disappointing to realize that we did Passover on zoom and are still online for the high holidays. I think there were still positives of online Rosh Hashana though. Because it was a Livestream, Jewish people from all over the country were able to watch and experience a meaningful Rosh Hashana for maybe the first time. We also had a socially distanced Tashlich with the community which was nice. Noah and I  were still able to blow shofar together, and I guess it all worked out fine although different. For my classmates, how was your Rosh Hashana?? Hopefully, everybody found meaning and was able to reflect on their year. I will be attaching a link to steps for blowing a shofar. 

https://www.wikihow.com/Blow-a-Shofar#:~:text=Press%20the%20shofar%20gently%20to,hold%20the%20shofar%20in%20place.