Jewish congregations in Connecticut happily anticipating High Holy Days

That sound you’ve been hearing all week is the sound of the new year.

Yosef Wolvovsky, rabbi of The Chabad Jewish Center in Glastonbury, has been blowing the shofar for several days throughout the Hartford area to herald the coming of Rosh Hashanah, which ushers in the year 5783 on the Jewish calendar.

“The shofar sounds like a piercing cry. Every one of us in our lives reaches a point when we can’t articulate what we need and don’t know what the next step is. God knows. When we cry out with the sound of the shofar, we are putting our trust in God’s hands,” Wolvovsky said.

Synagogues and chabads throughout the Capitol Region are preparing for the High Holy Days: Rosh Hashanah, the new year, from Sept. 25-27; and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, on Oct. 4 and 5.

As the world emerges from the isolation and loneliness of the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, many religious leaders in the Hartford area say their congregations are particularly looking forward to gathering together to pray.

“This holiday is going to be different in some ways and normal in some ways. People look forward to normal. We haven’t been normal for a few years now,” said Randall J. Konigsburg, rabbi of Beth Sholom B’nai Israel of Manchester. “People want to be together. They’ve been apart for a long time.”

Jeffrey Glickman, rabbi of Temple Beth Hillel of South Windsor, said not only are longtime congregation members looking forward to the return of the closeness of the High Holy Days, he has seen an unprecedented number of new converts.

“I have been here for 28 years. I have never had so many people come in, probably 10 people in the last year, and they are bringing their whole family with them,” Glickman said. “This has never happened before. It’s incredible.”

Glickman attributed the increasing interest in Judaism to the same source: the frightening isolation of the pandemic.

“People are talking about the the pandemic of COVID but I think there is a greater pandemic of loneliness, which is exacerbated by COVID,” Glickman said. “We are an antidote to loneliness. We provide meaning in people’s lives.”

That meaning is never greater than during the High Holy Days, the rabbis say.

Shaya Gopin, rabbi at Chabad of Greater Hartford in West Hartford, said Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur “show our inherent desire to live in a proper way.

“We receive God’s blessings for the new year. It’s a time to really try to come close to God,” Gopin said. “We ask for God’s input and we are called to reconnect as often as we can.”

That reconnection applies to God, and to each other, Wolvovsky said.

“For decades, our model has been the brick-and-mortar model. Then the pandemic hit and we shifted to essentially offsite services,” he said. “Slowly, as people become more comfortable getting together, the two communities gather. People you met in the nightly Zoom class didn’t meet in person until two years later.

“There is no greater way to bring divine blessings than human unity. It is the greatest pleasure we can give to God. We pray, we eat, we sing, we wish each other well. This is of a great value and begins the year on a blessed note.”

Gopin said last year, when Chabad of Greater Hartford held its first outdoor Rosh Hashanah gathering at the Delamar Hotel in West Hartford, he could see the congregation’s happiness of being able to unite again. “Everyone could find a comfortable place there,” Gopin said.

Chabad is doing it again this year, with four days of outdoor observances at the Delamar. The days will include kids’ activities like prayer circles, crafts, entertainment and games, as well as traditional services in Hebrew and English, culminating in the blowing of the shofar. Admission is free but registration is required at chabadweha.com.

Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.