Elon offers pluralistic prayer services and community meals on campus as part of Rosh Hashanah.
With Rosh Hashanah coming earlier than usual this year, the Jewish community at Elon has the unique opportunity to celebrate the beginning of the school year and beginning of the Jewish year together.
Celebrated on Sept. 9 this year, Rosh Hashanah is a time for new beginnings, spiritual renewal, and community. Many may be familiar with the Rosh Hashanah tradition of dipping apples into honey to symbolize hopes for a sweet new year, and the blowing of the shofar, or ram’s horn, which is sounded during prayer services to awaken us to the need for self-awareness and intentional transformation.
This year, the campus Jewish community will come together for delicious shared meals and engaging, pluralistic, and musical prayer services led by Elon students and our new rabbi, Associate Chaplain Rabbi Sandra Lawson.
Rosh Hashanah services will take place in the Sacred Space in the Numen Lumen Pavilion and are open to everyone. These services will be held at 6:45 p.m. on Sept. 9 and at 10 a.m. on Sept. 10.
Another Rosh Hashanah tradition is called Tashlich, a ceremony in which bread crumbs, symbolizing our sins, are cast into flowing water. This year, Tashlich at Elon will take place on Sept. 10, with participants asked to meet at the Numen Lumen Pavilion at 3 p.m.
Among the traditional foods to be enjoyed during the celebration is a round challah, a traditional braided bread. The round shape of the bread recognizes the cyclical nature of the year and also resembles a crown worn for the “head” of the year. The round bread also symbolizes the desire to come out “ahead” in the coming year.
And of course, participants will enjoy apples dipped in honey to symbolize hopes for a sweet new year – a shana tova u’metukah.