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(Music)
Reader
There is pleasure in working with clay. We can roll it in our hands to shape and mold images. We can make it whatever we desire: a bowl, an animal or a person. Then, when our work is finished, we can think about new shapes that might be given our clay in the future.
Reader and Group
In many ways, our lives are like the clay we mold. Through the long seasons of the year, fall, winter, spring and summer, we give our lives shape and form. A moment then comes when we pause to think of what has been done. This is the Rosh Hashanah moment, a time to think about the past, and a time to plan for the future ahead.
Reader
The very words Rosh Hashanah tell us of the deep purposes of our holiday today. Rosh Hashanah means the “beginning of the year,” a festival of new beginnings.
Group
Day of Remembrance, Yom Hazeekaron, is also a name for Rosh Hashanah. This name, too, teaches us about our holiday. Yom Hazeekaron calls us to remember the year that has passed, as Rosh Hashanah urges us to look to the year that lies ahead.
Reader
In our work with clay, we learn from the objects that have been formed how better to make shapes that are new. By studying the past, we learn of the future. Thus the Rosh Hashanah teaches us to think about our lives during the year that has ended, to plan for new happiness in the year ahead.
Reader and Group
This is a day of remember the past;
This is a day of planning the future;
On this day, we take our stand between two times.
(Rise)
(Song)
Reader
Rosh Hashanah celebrates the unity of time, the birth of tomorrow from our lives today.
(Song)
Reader and Group
May we use the gift of new tomorrows to grow in kindness and wisdom, understanding and strength.
(Group is seated)
Reader
In every beginning, there is creation, the birth of something new. Rosh Hashanah is a festival of creation.
Group
Creation is all about us. When a seed is formed, or an animal born, nature creates life.
Reader
When the artist puts color and line on canvas, she creates a painting.
Group
When imagination dreams, persons create stories and songs
Reader
The mind and heart bring forth creation. In the beginning, the world of man was dark and formless. Brightened by understanding, shaped by love, the world slowly fulfills its promise of use and beauty.
Group
Creation is all about us. The earth came to be very long ago, yet even today continues to change. Mountains grow and shrink, seas swell and rise, volcanoes and earthquakes change the face of the land.
Reader
Light and darkness, too, stay never the same. In the season of Rosh Hashanah, the festival of new beginnings, sun and moon equally shine.
Group
The seasons thus never cease to change. New crops spring up in summer’s warmth, and fall’s harvest even now appears. The earth then will rest in icy cold to receive spring’s warmth at winter’s end.
(Music)
Reader
Together we have seen creation in nature’s many ways. Our lives, too, share in creation’s flow.
Group
With seeing and hearing, knowledge grows;With the ages of life, the body grows;
With emotion and feeling, wisdom grows.
(Song)
SERMON
Reader
On Rosh Hashanah we pause from our daily tasks to think of the many changes in ourselves and the world. We begin a new year, and we are new too, our wisdom greater, our feelings deeper, and our knowledge more true.
Group
Rosh Hashanah is a time to pause.
Reader
On Rosh Hashanah we remember the year that has passed. We think of the many people, – parents, teachers, and friends, – with whom we have shared love and help.
Group
Rosh Hashanah is a time to remember.
Reader
On Rosh Hashanah we think of time. With the past behind and the future before us, we can plan for the year we wish to create.
Group
Rosh Hashanah is a time to plan.
Reader and Group
We face the coming year with hope for our world, and trust in those who love us.
(Music)
SHOFAR SERVICE
Reader
(Ram’s horn is held up)
This is the shofar. It is a ram’s horn. In the ancient communities of the Jews, the horn of the ram was used to announce important occasions.
Group
Thus we use the shofar to announce that Rosh Hashanah, the festival of new beginnings, has arrived. It tells of the long centuries of time that the Jews have celebrated the Rosh Hashanah.
Reader
T’keeah, Sh’vareem, T’ruah, and T’keeah G’dolah are four special sounds of the shofar. These sounds have many meanings. Let us rise and listen, as we think of some important meanings they might have for us.
T’keeah
Reader and Group
In the T’keeah we can hear the call of Rosh Hashanah, to think deeply about ourselves as children of time.
Sh’vareem
Reader and Group
In the Sh’vareem we can hear the voice of the past, reminding us of its joys and sorrows.
T’ruah
Reader and Group
In the T’ruah we can hear the voice of the future calling us to growth and change.
T’keeah G’dolah
Reader and Group
In the T’keeah G’dolah we can hear the challenge of the Rosh Hashanah, to meet the new year with courage and hope.
Reader
The shofar has announced that today is Rosh Hashanah, the festival of new beginnings. Together we have celebrated the wonders of the world: the creation of the universe, the creations of nature, and the power of creation in each one of us.
Group
May we use our gift of new beginnings wisely, to become the people we wish to be, in strength, in love, and happiness.
(Music)
Reader
We have now come to the end of our Rosh Hashanah service. The shofar has announced the New Year. In its ancient sounds, we can hear the voices of parents, teachers, and friends speaking to you, our children. The shofar tells of our hope and confidence in you, of our desire that you grow to create better beginnings every year. You are all so very important to us. Rosh Hashanah teaches how precious beginnings are. For our community and for the world, you, our children, are the new beginnings for all of us.
L-sha-na to-va ti-ka-t-vu
Ti-ka-te-vu v-te-cha-te-mu
We wish you a very good year,
Sha-na to-va, a happy New Year.