As the sun goes down today, a new year will dawn. The year 5768, to be exact, as numbered from creation.

Tonight and Thursday, Jews around the world will celebrate Rosh Hashanah, their New Year holiday.

The holiday marks the beginning of the High Holy Days, a 10-day period of repentance and prayer. At sundown Sept. 21, everything will culminate in Yom Kippur, a day of fasting and repentance that is their most sacred holiday, mentioned in the Torah as the Sabbath of Sabbaths.

This year, a new Jewish community in Casper will celebrate their first High Holidays together. Kol Ha' Am, a Reformed Jewish congregation, gathered in June to offer another option for worship, in addition to the Temple Beth-El.

Having two choices in a town the size of Casper that has fewer than 200 Jews is a good thing, said Michael Krampner, Casper attorney and congregation member, stating that Judaism is like a big tent full of a wide range of Jews.

"It's certainly not Tel Aviv," he said of the small number of Jews in town. But it's a good group of upstanding citizens who, due to the Jewish emphasis on history, strive to amend broken relations and promises and make the future better.

"In the common culture, many celebrate the new year by getting drunk and acting stupid," Krampner said. "We start by starting fresh. The whole time period is really about reviewing who you are and what you are."

In Hebrew this is called T'shuvah. English translates this to mean repentance, but it more accurately means to return, Krampner said. It is the process of finding and re-claiming the authentic and good version of oneself.

"There's no way you were a saint this year; it just doesn't happen," said Jessica Watters, who is majoring in business management at Casper College and is one of the youngest members of the community. She attends Kol Ha' Am with her mother, Barb Watters. She is also one of only three members who can blow the Shofar, a ram's horn used during the High Holidays and in ancient times as a way to alert people it was time to go to temple.

"It's an honor to be able to do something above and beyond for the church," Jessica said about her role in calling people to worship. She learned the skill by accident when a Shofar was passed around a circle of young Jews so they could give it a try. She was one of the only ones who could get any sound out of the horn that has no mouthpiece and no special technique.

The Shofar will be blown four times during Thursday's Rosh Hashanah service and multiple times during the period of repentance leading up to Yom Kippur. But other than being a traditional and symbolic act, the Shofar exists mainly to remind people of why the High Holidays exist: to start the new year out in right relationship with others and with God, Krampner said.

Not that symbolism isn't important. The Jewish High Holidays are full of deeply symbolic rituals. During Rosh Hashanah people eat apples dipped in honey to symbolize a sweet new year. And they share Challah, a round bread that represents both the crown of God and the circle of life, Barb Watters said.

In the end, though, the first 10 days of the Jewish month of Tishri are an opportunity to reflect and return, to make amends with others and to be sealed into God's Book of Life and granted a good new year, Barb Watters said. On Yom Kippur, Jews around the world will spend the day fasting from food and water to focus on prayer and confession before God. Then, at the end of the day, everyone will break their fast together. That act will have special meaning for the newest Jewish community in town looking forward to a new year.

Reach Hannah Wiest at (307) 266-0535 or hannah.wiest@casperstartribune.net.