The Laugh Factory Hollywood will host a free Rosh Hahana service at 11 a.m. Thursday, continuing a 42-year tradition.
“We will pray together for peace in the Middle East, asking God’s blessings to help end the conflicts in the region,” Laugh Factory founder and owner Jamie Masada said in a statement.
This will be the 42nd consecutive year free High Holy Days services have been conducted at The Laugh Factory.
Most congregations require membership and tickets for High Holy Days services, but the JEM Center in Beverly Hills is also among the organizations holding free services, with a traditional service set for 10 a.m., an evening service at 6:30 p.m. and another free service at 10 a.m. Friday.
Registration can be made online at www.jemcommunitycenter.com/events/high-holiday-services-2024.
Rosh Hashana, the two-day holiday marking the Jewish New Year, began at sundown Wednesday — the day begins at sundown on the Hebrew calendar — with services continuing through sundown Friday. They feature the blowing of the shofar, a ram’s horn mentioned in the Torah and used by ancient Jews in religious ceremonies and as a call to arms — and now used at Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
Jews are biblically commanded to hear the shofar during the High Holy Days.
Rosh Hashana is a time when Jews gather with family members and their communities to reflect on the past year and the one beginning. Celebrants also eat festive meals featuring apples dipped in honey, symbolic of the wishes for a sweet year.
Rosh Hashana ushers in the Days of Awe, a 10-day period of repentance and contemplation culminating in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Judaism’s most solemn and somber day.
During the High Holy Days, Jewish tradition holds that God records the fate of each person for the coming year in the Book of Life, which is sealed at the end of Yom Kippur.