A somber celebration for Jewish New Year

Young Chang

Though Rosh Hashana celebrates God’s creation of the world, though

it’s a time for people to greet each other with apples and honey in hopes

of a good and sweet year, Rabbi Mark Miller admits it’ll be a solemn

celebration.

“It’s going to be especially difficult to talk about sweetness with

the taste of ashes in our mouth,” the Temple Bat Yahm rabbi said. “Yet

the High Holy Days summon us to look toward the future with renewed

confidence, trust, faith, hope, perseverance and determination.”

Miller and other local rabbis will lead congregants through sermons

and services that emphasize hope despite Tuesday’s terrorist attacks on

the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Rabbi Marc S. Rubenstein of Temple Isaiah of Newport Beach expects

more visitors than usual Monday evening because people gravitate to

places of worship during tragedies, he said. Often, they’re in search of

a human connection.

So for the first time, though Rubenstein has never before spoken of

his own life in temple -- out of fear of abusing the pulpit -- the rabbi

plans to get personal. He will give sermons on miracles and love and

God’s presence in his life with personal examples.

“Because now, we’re hearing personal stories of how people are coping

with tragedies,” he said. “I feel I have to be positive. I can’t be

negative.”

Monday evening, when Rosh Hashana begins at sundown, Rubenstein will

give a sermon titled “To Begin Anew.” His first morning service Tuesday

is called “How to Live a Meaningful Life.” He will blow a ram’s horn to

kick off Rosh Hashana and children will send up fortune-stuffed helium

balloons to God. Later services will focus on the blessings God gives

people and Jewish theology.

Prayers will be said for peace in the world, and Rubenstein expects

about 250 people per service.

He acknowledges we live in an unjust world. The question is, what does

man do with injustice?

“We’re partners in God’s creation,” Rubenstein said. “We have to serve

God and we have to serve each other.”

Miller will discuss Tuesday’s tragedy during his Monday evening

message at Temple Bat Yahm, but within the context of the Jewish view

that man was created in the image of God.

“There are people who besmirch that image and, in the name of God,

drag his name through the mud. And so while we are all created in the

image, there are those who devote their lives to erasing that image and

finding more in common with the lowest beast,” Miller said.

His message will continue Tuesday, the first full day of Rosh Hashana,

with a discussion of the religious and scientific basis for the

“essential unity of humankind.”

“Both underscore, each from its own perspective, how one we all are

with each other and that the events this past week were violations of

that natural order and that religious ideal,” Miller said.

FYI

TEMPLE ISAIAH

o7 2401 Irvine Ave., Newport Beach. (949) 548-6900.

f7 Rosh Hashana services will be held at 8 p.m. Monday, 9:30 a.m. and

7:30 p.m. Tuesday, and 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

TEMPLE BAT YAHM

o7 1011 Camelback Drive, Newport Beach. (949) 644-1999.f7

Service times will be at 8 p.m. Monday, with a reception following at

10 p.m. On Tuesday, the main service will begin at 10:45 a.m. and the

Tashlich Service at North Star Beach at 1:30 p.m.

CHABAD JEWISH CENTER OF NEWPORT BEACH

o7 3419 Via Lido, Suite 147, Newport Beach. (949) 721-9800.

f7 Services will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday.