Chabad of Peachtree City will kick off its celebration of the Jewish New Year with the annual Rosh Hashanah family meal on Wednesday, Sept. 24. Services will be at 7:30 p.m. with the meal following at 8.
The festival of Rosh Hashanah — the name means “Head of the Year” — is observed for two days beginning Sept. 24 after sunset.
“This is the first day of the Jewish year,” said Rabbi Yossi Lew, director of Chabad of Peachtree City. “It is the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, the first ever man and woman, and their first actions toward the realization of mankind’s role in God’s world.”
Lew continued, “The central observance of Rosh Hashanah is the sounding of the shofar, the ram’s horn, which also represents the trumpet blast of a people’s coronation of their king. The cry of the shofar is also a call to repentance, for Rosh Hashanah is also the anniversary of man’s first sin and his repentance thereof, and serves as the first of the Ten Days of Repentance which culminate in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
“Additional Rosh Hashanah observances include eating a piece of apple dipped in honey, to symbolize our desire for a sweet year, and other special foods symbolic of the new year’s blessings, blessing one another with the words ‘May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year,’ and Tashlich, a special prayer said near a body of water (an ocean, river, pond, etc.”
Other services follow during the week, culminating with Yom Kippur on Oct. 4. Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, is a biblical mandated day of fasting, and begging pardon for a clean slate.
Services at Chabad follow traditional Jewish law and are free of charge. No tickets are necessary.
Morning services will be held Thursday, Sept. 25 and Friday, Sept. 26, 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Shofar blowing at 11:30 a.m.
Tashlich is on Thursday, Sept. 25 at 6:30 p.m.
Evening Services are Wednesday, Sept. 24 and Thursday, Sept. 25, 7:30.-8 p.m.
An evening service will be held on Friday, Oct. 3, Kol Nidrei at 7 p.m.
A morning Service, Shabbos, Oct. 4 at 9:30 a.m.; Yizkor, Shabbos, Oct. 4 at noon.
Neilah (Yom Kippur closing prayer), Shabbos, Oct. 4 at 7 p.m. Shofar Blowing and Breaking the Fast, Shabbos, Oct. 4 at 7:56 p.m.
Those who are planning to attend or who need more information and locations are asked to contact Lew at rabbi@chabadsouthside.com or call 678-595-0199.
