VALLEY ROUNDUP : Northridge : Shofars Sounded for High Holy Days

The sound of shofars rang out Thursday at Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School as students marked the beginning of the Jewish new year.

About a dozen students formed a circle and blew the ram horns, signaling the start of Rosh Hashana and 10 days of repentance, said Rabbi-in-Residence Jan Goldstein.

“It’s a wake-up call. They are waking up to those behaviors they have taken part in the last year that have been negative in any way--our sins, our misdeeds,” Goldstein said. “Let’s recognize what they are and discard those and do better in the coming year.”

The school ceremony was expanded this year to include more students, and it made them feel part of something larger, Goldstein said.

“It told them Judaism is not just an adult way of life,” he said. “It’s for children as well.”

Shofars were used in ancient times by the Israelites to call people to gatherings, he added.

In a related ritual later in the day, about 200 students took a field trip to Topanga State Beach, where they threw bread crumbs into the water. The crumbs represent sins being cast into the ocean, Goldstein said.

The ceremony had special significance, he said, because the day school is near the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, where a gunman wounded five people Aug. 10.

“This was a form of healing, a form of renewal,” Goldstein said. “It taught them to respect themselves.”