Windsor's Jewish community gathers for restriction free Rosh Hashanah

For Windsor's Jewish community, this year's Rosh Hashanah services take on a whole new meaning as their gatherings are allowed to take place free of COVID-19 restrictions for the first time since before the pandemic.

"Being alone is sometimes nice but it's not the way we're meant to be, " Rabbi Sholom Galperin of Shaar Hashomayim synagogue said. 

"What I'm taking out of this year is 'wow, thank God, thank you God that you're able to allow us to come together, be together.'"

Rosh Hashanah, marks the beginning of the Hebrew Calendar, which this year turns to 5783. The holiday began Sunday evening and is followed by two days of service ending tomorrow evening at sunset. It is meant to reflect and repent on the previous year and prepare for the upcoming year.

"People seem to need to be reassured that things are going to be ok," said Devorah Fick, who is a spiritual leader known as a Hazzan at Beth El Windsor.

WATCH |Galperin talk about what it means to celebrate Rosh Hashanah together

"As a community, we're going to come back and we're going to continue to do this. We're going to be healthy and we're going to be there for one another."

Shaar Hashomayim, an orthodox congregation, has not offered video options for its services. However, Beth El, a reform congregation, will still offer a live stream of their service. This year it will be focusing on its in-person services rather than having an interactive service over Zoom.

"If someone can't come for whatever reason, they can get on Zoom and watch but they'll be watching what's going on in the sanctuary," said Fick, who began at Beth El in the summer.

"On Zoom there is no harmony, there's one voice that sings. So to be in a space together for the high holidays and hear other voices... I was working in another synagogue before and often they would get emotional because of the other voices around them." 

WATCH | Fick talk about what it means to have services in-person again

Chabad Windsor also invited people to come together in an outdoor setting Monday afternoon at Jackson Park for a blowing of the shofar, a hollowed out ram's horn that is blown in the month leading up to Rosh Hashanah as well as on both days of the holiday. 

"It shows unity and everyone is able to serve God in the way that they're going to serve God," Galperin said.

"The main mitzvah, the main commandment for Rosh Hashanah, it's not the apples, it's not the honey, it's not the head of the fish, it's not the praying. It's to hear the shofar."