Evanston’s Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation hosted its annual Erev Rosh Hashanah Shofar Walk Wednesday, bringing around 200 people together to celebrate the holiday.
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, began on the evening of Oct. 2 and ends after sundown on Oct. 4. It marks the beginning of the Jewish High Holidays, a 10-day period ending with Yom Kippur.
JRC’s Shofar Walk gathered the Jewish community the night of Rosh Hashanah at Dawes Park. The procession began near the park pavilion and looped around the park, stopping at seven stations to gather, sing and hear the shofar.
The shofar, a traditional Jewish instrument made from a ram’s horn, is commonly used on Rosh Hashanah to signal an awakening, according to JRC’s Rabbi Rachel Weiss. Weiss said the sounding of the shofar is “a primal cry that says, ‘We are here to announce the holiday has begun!’”
Weiss said the Shofar Walk tradition emerged out of the pandemic, when members of the congregation were looking for a way to see one another and celebrate one of their holiest days.
“(It’s) really about making sure that we can do the most important thing we as Jews do together, which is to gather, to be together in community,” Weiss said. “Because you can’t be Jewish alone.”
A variety of people, some using canes and wheelchairs, and some pushing strollers and pulling wagons, all made their way around the park. Weiss encouraged everyone in the procession to chat with familiar faces and make new friends, too.
Along the way, safety marshals in yellow vests guided the group. One safety marshal, Robin Trilling, is a member of JRC and said she chose to volunteer as a safety marshal at the Shofar Walk to give back to her community.
Trilling explained that Rosh Hashanah offers Jewish people a chance for reflection as the new year begins.
“We want to grill ourselves about who we are, what we’ve done in the past year, and then ultimately apologize for our transgressions, wipe the slate clean and start all over again,” Trilling said. “For me, it’s a very hopeful thing, and as a mindful person living in the world, it’s a wonderful ritual.”
Trilling added that seeing the community together at the Shofar Walk “fills (her) heart.”
Another member of JRC, Tracy Hultgren, said he’s been a part of the congregation for multiple decades. He said since it arose from the pandemic, the Shofar Walk has become a staple celebration.
“JRC is a community that shows up, and speaks up and supports each other,” Hultgren said. “That’s why I’m here.”
As the sunset cast vibrant colors over Lake Michigan, the procession reached its final stop. Members of the congregation brought out their own shofars and were led in one final sounding of the horn.
The celebration drew to a close, but the congregation remained, doing exactly what Weiss had encouraged by talking and reconnecting with one another.
“This has been quite a year to be Jewish, to be a human being with a heart, to be someone who is awake and alive in the world,” Weiss said. “It has been a year filled with so much grief and brokenness and pain, and one of the ways that we make it through together is by being together.”
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