New year and new beginning for Chabad of Bradenton

EAST MANATEE, FL — The High Holy Day season is here, and Jews across the nation are celebrating a new year and a fresh start with G-D.

The season begins in Elul, which is the Hebrew month preceding Rosh Hashanah, where Jews draw closer to G-D through self-examination and by clarifying their goals in life.

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year that commemorates the creation of Adam and Eve. It is a time where Jews ask G-D for another year of life. The holiday is followed by Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, where Jews fast and seek atonement for their transgressions against G-D, according to Aish HaTorah, a leading organization in Jewish educational programs.

Chabad of Bradenton celebrated the new year with a Bris Milah, or a ritual circumcision, of Rabbi Mendy and Chanie Bukiet’s fourth son, born this month. The Bukiets have three other sons: Chaim Meyer, 5; Mordechai, 3; and Zalman, 2.

“The whole concept of the High Holidays is to start fresh,” Rabbi Bukiet said. “And what a perfect example to see a child starting out with a new life and really create whatever he wants for himself.”

Jill Schein, who has attended Chabad of Bradenton since it began three years ago, recalls when her sons, now 12 and 15, had their Bris Milah.

“It’s a way of bringing your son into the Jewish world,” Schein said, adding that the ceremony is a covenant that Jews have with G-D. “So it can be a little scary for some moms.”

The fact that the ceremony was held on Rosh Hashanah added more significance to the new year, Schein said.

“It’s just a beautiful thing,” she said.

Her son, Daniel, 15, said he appreciates this time of year and uses it for reflection.

“For me, it’s a time for prayer and for making resolutions for the new year, just like Jan. 1. ”It’s also a time to say I’m sorry and be forgiven for anything bad I’ve done that year.“

This is an exciting time for Chabad of Bradenton, which celebrated its third anniversary last month.

Bukiet said he plans to move the center into its new location at the First Priority Bank off State Road 70 in November. The new site offers more space for the center’s programs and will also lessen Bukiet’s four-mile trek to the center each Saturday for Sabbath to a two-minute walk from his home.

On Oct. 31, the center will offer new courses for its Jewish Learning Institute. The focus will be on Israel and why Jews are so connected to the land, Bukiet said.

”Our ultimate goal was to offer intensive and creative adult education, and this really fits what we wanted and envisioned for Chabad,“ Bukiet said.

For the meantime, the center’s focus will remain on the High Holy Days, which ends with the Simchat Torah, or the celebration of the Torah on Oct. 5.

”Just like a baby who doesn’t have a back record or past, we have the opportunity to start again — right from the beginning,” Bukiet said.