FOR me, as a Jew, the past week has been a time for reflection. We are in the middle of the High Holy Days, religious festivals which take place over a month in the autumn.

Because of the vagaries of the Jewish calendar, the actual date varies from year to year and this year the first festival, the Jewish New Year, began on September 24.

The new year, as well as being a time for celebration, marks the beginning of what are called the 10 days of penitence which culminate in the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

It’s very rare in our modern world to have time specifically set aside for reflection and this makes this period invaluable.

The object is to prepare to start the new year afresh.

It gives us the time to review what has happened over the previous year, to reflect on the lessons we have learned and to make our peace with those with whom we may have had an argument.

And it hopefully allows us to be ready to take part in the communal act of atonement on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

The Day of Atonement is a fast day – adults do not eat or drink from sunset on the first evening until an hour after sunset on the day itself.

Fasting not only focuses our minds on our prayers, it is an act of penance as we confess not only to our own past misdemeanours, but for the sins of the world.

At the new year services, we hear the shofar, the ram’s horn trumpet used in Biblical times, being blown in the synagogue – it's a very distinctive sound, a summons to community and faith.

It’s very exciting – you can’t remain unaffected by it, people crane their necks to watch it being blown and children stand on chairs or move to the front where they can see. I still get goose pimples on my arms and the hairs on my neck rise as they did when I was a very small child.

It’s a reminder that now we have the chance to begin again, that God gives us this opportunity every year to square our consciences, to renew our commitment to our faith and humanity.

And that, hearing this trumpet blast as individuals, we have to respond as individuals too.

Our relationship with God, although part of a corporate relationship, is up to each one of us to fulfil in our own way.

We are not mediated in this by priests or rabbis, we cannot be absolved from our faults by anyone else. For generations, the rabbis have taught us that each person is born with the capacity for good and the capacity for evil and has to make that choice for themselves, using the Torah, the Jewish Law, as a guide.

So, in the same way, I must make my own preparations for Yom Kippur and take responsibility for my own faith in God and the community in which I live.

Yom Kippur is the most solemn day in the Jewish year but it isn’t the end of the High Holy Days.

Next weekend sees the festival of Succoth, an eight-day harvest festival, when we build small booths or huts outside to remind us of the time when Jews wandered in the wilderness.

We hang fruits from the roof and, if the weather allows, eat our meals in them.

And then, at the end of Succoth, comes the final festival, the Rejoicing of the Law, when we celebrate the giving of the Torah with prayers, dancing and a party.

A whole month of festivals!

We are indeed blessed.


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