Jewish residents gathered in the Boston Public Garden to herald the New Year with a blowing of the shofar Tuesday evening.
“The Jewish people have been blowing the shofar, a simple hollowed-out ram’s horn, for thousands of years in celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year,” said the Central Synagogue of Boston. “Intrinsically, the shofar is not just a sound. It is a cry. A prayer. A soul-awakening, personal, meditative and rousing experience.”
Rosh Hashanah kicked off Monday and will last through Wednesday, marking the religion’s New Year. The Central Synagogue of Boston welcomed adults and children to witness the blowing of the shofar near the Public Garden’s George Washington Statue Tuesday and again Wednesday from 6 to 6:15 p.m.
The sound of the shofar is a “essential precept associated with celebrating the holiday and the New Year,” the synagogue said. Other traditions include eating apples and honey and special services.
The Jewish High Holy Days start during the New Year celebration and last through Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, which ends at nightfall on Oct. 2 this year.
Central Synagogue Boston’s Rabbi Mayer Zarchi reads from the machzor, a prayer book for the holiday, before blowing a shofar in the Public Garden on Rosh Hashanah. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)
Chenchie Zarchi holds the machzor, a prayer book for the holiday, as her husband Rabbi Mayer Zarchi blows a shofar in the Public Garden on Tuesday. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)
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