Rabbi Micah Citrin and Rabbi Karen Citrin are guiding Temple Israel through the High Holidays as the new co-rabbis of Tulsa's Reform Jewish congregation. Courtesy
Tulsa Jews and Jews around the world are immersed this week in observances that go back 4,000 years.
The High Holidays, the most sacred days on the Jewish calendar, began with Rosh Hashanah at sunset Wednesday, the Jewish New Year, and will end Sept. 14 with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
The days in between are called the 10 days of repentance.
The observances are based in the Bible and have been celebrated by Jewish people continuously since Bible times, said Rabbis Micah and Karen Citrin, who are leading Temple Israel through the High Holidays for the first time as the new co-rabbis of Tulsa's only Reform Jewish congregation.
"In the last 1,000 years, the liturgy has basically been intact, as we know it today," Micah Citrin said.
"This long history has been part of us for so long, you definitely feel that," Karen Citrin said. "When you're in these moments, you get that sense."
She said memory is one of the themes of the holidays, celebrating a God who "remembers us, remembers our ancestors."
While some Jewish holidays are focused on the family, the High Holidays focus on the community, on coming together, she said. "The prayers are all worded in the plural. ... We're all in this together."
Micah Citrin said the Jewish New Year is not a time for a party but for "introspection - how we make our lives meaningful, how we can fix mistakes that we made during the past year and try to grow for the next year."
It's a time for remembering God as creator, supreme over all the earth, he said.
"At Rosh Hashanah we're heading toward these 10 days of repentance, of returning to God, returning to our best selves, seeking forgiveness.
"There's an image that God opens the book of life on Rosh Hashanah and scrutinizes our deeds, just as we're scrutinizing our deeds. ... We're hoping that God will in the coming year inscribe us for a blessing in the book of life. The hope is that we'll live in goodness and live in holiness and blessing for another year."
During the High Holidays, he said, Jewish people seek forgiveness from those they have wronged.
On Sunday, Temple Israel members will observe Tashlich, a ceremony at the Arkansas River in which bread is cast into the water, symbolizing the casting away of sins.
He said the Jewish concept of sin is different from the Christian concept.
"In Judaism there is no such thing as original sin. In Jewish theology, nobody comes into the world a sinner. We have the capacity to know the difference between right and wrong. We have free will and the capacity to do great good and great harm. When we sin, our actions didn't hit the bull's-eye, we went astray."
Karen Citrin said the clergy wear white during the High Holidays to signify starting over with a clean slate, and the covers on the Torah scrolls are changed to white.
The Jewish greeting is not "Happy New Year," but a wish for a good year, or a good and sweet year, she said.
Customary foods during Rosh Hashanah are apples dipped in honey, signifying sweetness, and a round challah bread, signifying the cycle of life.
During Yom Kippur, a 25-hour period beginning at sunset next Friday, many Jews will stay at the synagogue for much of the day, and many of those who are medically able will fast from food and drink.
"The idea is not to focus on physical, material needs, but to focus on spiritual issues," Micah Citrin said.
"Fasting helps with a sense of remorse," he said, and cultivates a sensitivity to the suffering of others.
"There's a liberation in it, not having to be so dependent on our immediate needs."
Temple Israel does a major social justice campaign as part of the High Holidays, handing out paper bags at the Rosh Hashanah service, asking members to bring them back full of food on Yom Kippur for the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma. The congregation typically donates about $50,000 in cash for the food bank and other programs.
The High Holidays end as they began, with the blowing of the shofar, a ram's horn.
Bill Sherman 918-581-8398
bill.sherman@tulsaworld.com
Local
The convenience store chain was the sole distributor of the 50-cent stickers residents were required to place on bags of extra yard waste.
The plaintiff alleged in a lawsuit that he was made to perform pushups to avoid a ticket or jail.
