ROSH HASHANAH

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, will begin this year on Wednesday evening, launching Judaism’s reflective Holy High Days, which culminate with Yom Kippur on Sept. 29.

TRADITION: The Jewish New Year is a solemn time in which each person’s fate is said to be subject to review and judgment in the divine “Book of Life,” thus a greeting in Hebrew that translates, “May you be inscribed for a good year.” Central to services is the blowing of the shofar, or ram’s horn, calling the assembled to repentance.

OBSERVANCES: Selichot , or prayers for forgiveness, are part of the whole cycle of High Holy Day services and is the name of a pre-Rosh Hashanah service which will be held tonight at many synagogues. Rosh Hashanah services will be conducted in synagogues Wednesday night and Thursday, then on the second day in Orthodox, Conservative and some Reform synagogues. Some congregations observe tashlich , the custom of throwing crumbs into a stream or lake, symbolically casting one’s sins into running water.