The great Jewish days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are upon us, and local temples and worshipers celebrate with services and a host of activities.

The first day of Rosh Hashanah, or the Jewish New Year, is Monday. Yom Kippur, also known as Day of Atonement, follows on 19 September.

Rosh Hashanah is a period of introspection and reflection that commemorates the creation of the world and inaugurates the 10 days of repentance. The traditions include a lot of time spent in the temple, the shofar's breath – a ram's horn – and Tachlich or "rejecting". Yom Kippur involves fasting and asking God's forgiveness for sins.

"It's about becoming a better human being, and the work is never done," said Rabbi Leonardo Bitran of Temple Beth El at 139 S. Winton Road. "During the two days of prayer, we focus on the constant repentance. … Any attempt to improve ourselves must have periods of reflection so that we take stock of our lives and have the will to do better.

B'rith Kodesh Temple will serve in two local cemeteries and at the temple itself at 2131 Elmwood Avenue in Brighton. Executive Director Michael Yudelson said events and services are meant to "meet their spiritual needs. With them, they feel like part of the community of B'rith Kodesh Temple and what we are trying to build here (and) to start a happy new year. "

Beth El Temple has a new clergyman, Hazzan Randall Levin, who will be celebrating his first great holy days in the Rochester area. Levin was hired in July and succeeds Hazzan Martin Leubitz, who was with Beth El Temple for more than two decades. (The hazzan, says Bitran, is the leader of singing and melody of prayers, a high-ranking representative of the congregation.)

Efforts are being made at Beth El Temple this year to attract young professionals in their twenties and thirties. For Rosh Hashanah, the shrine service begins at 8:30 am on Monday and Tuesday, followed by youth programming and services at 10:30 am. A "Young Professionals Service" will be held at 10 am every other day. in a tent the campus grounds.

"We decided … to lead this group with a different intensity," said Bitran, adding that these services will include "rigorous singing". People of this age range tend to distance themselves from temples and Beth Temple officials. . The Tachlich service – which usually involves tossing breadcrumbs into the water – will be held on Monday at Cobb's Hill Park, with a separate young professionals service on Wednesday night in the Bushnell Basin.

Services for Yom Kippur will follow the same schedule and format on September 19th.

Temple B'rith Kodesh, the largest local congregation, with more than 800 families, will also offer various services during the holidays. Cemetery services will be held Sunday at 10 am at Mount Hope Cemetery and an hour later at White Haven Memorial Park in Pittsford.

"We will visit the graves of family members and loved ones," Yudelson said.

A service Erev Rosh Hashanah will be held at 20 hours. Sunday and a service Erev Yom Kippur is at 8 pm 18 September. Both programs must be broadcast live on WXXI-FM (91.5).

For the first day of Rosh Hashanah Monday, a family service (for families with young children) will be held at 9am. a service for youth and the typical service of the congregation will follow at 10:00. A reception will be held on the lawn after services, with the Tachlich service on a nature trail adjacent to the B'rith Kodesh Temple property.

Rosh Hashanah services for Tuesday will begin at 10 am at B'rith Kodesh. Yom Kippur services follow a similar schedule: 9 hours for family service and 10 hours for youth service and congregational service.

"Everyone at the synagogue feels better at the end of the holidays," said Beth Beth Temple's Bitran. "After the holidays, we are in a very advanced spiritual position to move forward in our lives. It is a religion of "becoming" and improvements must be made.

Alan Morrell is a freelance writer based in Rochester.

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