The growing community of Jewish residents at SaddleBrooke Ranch experienced our holiest days of the year, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, in October.
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, began this year at sundown on Oct. 2. The traditional greeting on this day is to wish one another a good, sweet year with all our heart—because that is what God values most. During the holiday, we eat pieces of sweet apple dipped into honey. Before eating it we say: “May it be Your will to renew for us a good and sweet year.”
That day was also the start of 10 days of introspection that culminated at sundown on Yom Kippur, on Oct.12, which is a day of fasting. During that time, we each took a deep, private dive into the kind of person we have been over the past year and what mistakes or affronts we have made that we need to address.
This process is called Atonement—or as some like to say, At-One-Ment: being at one with other people, with ourselves, and with God. Some people contend that on Yom Kippur, the Gates of Heaven are open. Because we believe that this is the day on which God decides how the upcoming year will go for each of us, worshippers pledge to one another, “May you be written in the Book of Life.”
As Yom Kippur ended at sundown, we joyfully (and hungrily) broke our fast at the Ranch House as a community.
We look forward to a year of peace for Israel and its neighbors, the release of all the hostages, and a new year filled with love, joy, health, and satisfaction for ourselves—and for you.