September is not just the beginning of a new school year, it’s also time to ring in the New Year-Jewish style. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, is being celebrated today by students across the university.
U of T’s Jewish organization, Hillel, said they have been able to organize bigger celebrations this year thanks to the new Wolfond Centre for Jewish Campus Life at the corner of Huron and Harbord streets. In its first year running, the building has generated a steady stream of students, and festivities for Rosh Hashanah were already well underway earlier this week.
Preparation for the holiday began on Tuesday with a workshop teaching students how to design a “shofar,” which is a ram horn that is blown into during the holiday to symbolize a “wake-up call” to Jews and signify the onset of a new year.
New Years in Judaism is a much more solemn event compared to secular North American drunken festivities: most of Rosh Hashanah is spent in prayer.
“Ten days following Rosh Hashanah is Yom Kippur which is both a time to reflect and repent for your sins,” explains Lisa Isen Baumal of Hillel. “During these 10 days, “tashilich” is practiced, which is the symbolic event of throwing away sins. [It involves] going to a river and throwing away bread crumbs,” as if one were emptying the crumbs from their pocket and embracing the New Year with a clean slate and a fresh start.
Hillel is anticipating that most students will be heading home on the weekend for their home-cooked Rosh Hashanah meal, packed with everything from apples dipped in honey-to symbolize a “sweet” New Year-to challah, a traditional egg bread, braided in a circle to symbolize the cycle of a new year.
But for those students unable to make it back to see their families this weekend, Hillel is organizing a placement program for students. They have families across Toronto waiting to take university students in and provide them with a hot Rosh Hashanah meal on the weekend.
Prayer service will be running at the Wolfond Centre on Thursday and Friday this week. After this holy weekend, Hillel is throwing a more irreverent “Frosh Hashanah” on September 23, a city -wide party that will bring Jewish youth together from across Toronto for the New Year.
