Jews prepare for High Holy Days

COLUMBIA, SC — The blowing of the shofar, or ram’s horn, is one of the most potent reminders that Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, is at hand.

On Sunday, more than 50 children gathered at the Jewish Community Center to learn how to make shofars and prepare for the holiday, which begins at sundown Sept. 29.

Amid the cutting and drilling, the sanding and shellacking of the ram’s horns, organizers hoped to instill powerful lessons of Jewish faith.

“First they say, ‘Can I touch it?’” Rabbi Levi Marrus said last week. When he tells the children not only can they handle the shofar but that he will teach them the three primary sounds and let them take their own shofar home, they are ecstatic.

“It’s so exciting,” said Marrus, an Orthodox rabbi who moved to Columbia last month — joining the city’s two other Chabad rabbis. He is leading the workshop.

The shofar, or ram’s horn, is among the most significant symbols of Rosh Hashana.

The horn is blown during prayer services on the holiday on which Jews traditionally ponder what they have done wrong during the previous year and seek to make amends in the new.

Rosh Hashana is a family day with meals that feature honey, sweetened challah bread and other delicacies that symbolize the hope for a sweet and pleasant year.

Rosh Hashana begins the 10-day period of the High Holy Days, which ends at nightfall Oct. 9 with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.