In the last 24 years, my husband and I have been away from Rochester during the High Holidays only once - in 2006 to be with our sister-in-law who was dying of cancer in Boston.

Our rituals during those many years have become a comforting tradition - erev RoshHoshana candle lighting, kiddish from our beautiful individual Israeli cups, hamotzi with a round challah and apples dipped in honey for a sweet new year at our home with our son, my father, his companion and anyone else we know who doesn't have family close by; hugs and kisses in hopes of a sweet new year; an early dinner starting with chicken soup and matzoh balls; services at our Reform Synagogue starting at 8pm; back to the synagogue (in most recent years, the Conservative Shul) at 9am on Rosh Hoshana morning; and then lunch with friends beginning with gifilte fish and ending with fruit and a long walk.   A traditional dinner with other friends, followed by second day services back at the synagogue filled out our ritual.

So when our dear friends, Hilla and Boaz Hadas were visiting Rochester for Yom HaAtzmaut and suggested that we come to Re'ut for the chag, it took us slightly aback.  But, as Josh and I reflected, this year would be different in any case:  Our son was unable to get away from his new job to come home; my father passed away in March and his companion a month later. 

Which is how we found ourselves sharing Rosh Hoshana with our Israeli friends.

And what a sharing it was!  A clear demonstration of the bonds and traditions that unify us Jews around the world - and also a clear demonstration of the different ways we live our Jewish lives around the world.

From the time we arrived in Israel a week before to Erev RoshHoshana, every person we encountered - from our car rental clerk to restaurant waitstaff to shop personnel  - wished us a shana tovah.  We were reminded how different it is to be in a Jewish country rather than a Jewish community within a Christian country.  For everyone we came in contact with - it was a new year -THE new year.

In Reut, on erev Rosh Hoshana, Hilla and I set the festive tables outside and dressed them with real and ceramic pomegranates (the latter from an Israeli artist whose shop we had visited in Zichron Yakov several days earlier) as symbols of a fruitful year filled with good luck.  As we prepared for our meal I noticed that my Rochester chicken soup had been replaced by brightly colored, fresh Israeli salads and my chicken with salmon.  Our gifilte fish was there, but the pieces laid out in the shape of a fish, complete with the head.  

Hilla's parents arrived, grandfather and grandson donned kippot and walked to shul at 6pm.   Hilla, her mother and I lit Yom Tov candles.  Siblings and extended family from ages 2 to 82 streamed in and by 7:30, everyone was back and the rituals continued.  Kiddush with the single cup passed around from eldest to youngest for each to sip; many brachot highlighting the strength of kol Israel and the demise of it's adversaries - each made real by a delicious food - beans, spinach, fish.  And then the apples and honey, the challah - round and sweet and delicious, lovingly made by Hilla's mother.  There were hugs and kisses and the joyful voices of all the young ones playing in the yard.  Together, friends and family, we shared a delicious meal - and the common hope for a sweet new year.

The next day, Rosh Hoshana, the 4 of us drove past the synagogue on our way to a  hike in the countryside where we found beautiful bell caves and a 300-year old well where we did tashlich.  A taste of sabre fruit carefully removed from a huge cactus rounded out our adventure.

We got home in time to prepare for the second holiday dinner - fresh salads, sweet challah and a huge array of delicious meats which Boaz barbequed outside on the grill.  Again, a meal shared, a sweet year ushered in.  Family and friends together - including not only Josh and me, but a young Rochesterian and his Canadian girlfriend, in Israel for medical school, connecting with a loving family across the ocean.  

Lives intertwined, rituals comfortingly similar yet interestingly different - the people Israel - we, the Jews of the 21st century.