Winged Foot Golf Club and the USGA paid tribute to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Saturday at the U.S. Open.
The American flag as well as the 120th U.S. Open flag out in front of the clubhouse in Mamaroneck, New York, were lowered to half staff for the third round.
On Friday, the world learned of Ginsburg’s death as Rosh Hashanah began — a holy time in the Jewish faith that has brought both comfort and special meaning to her death for some of her supporters.
Rosh Hashanah marks the start of the Jewish New Year.
“According to Jewish tradition, a person who dies on Rosh Hashanah, which began tonight, is a tzaddik, a person of great righteousness,” book critic Ruth Franklin tweeted soon after the news of Ginsburg’s death broke.
It’s not the only point of significance. Because Ginsburg died Friday evening, her death occurred around the time Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, began.
“If one dies on any Shabbat they are considered a Tzadik … more so when it’s on the new year,” Rabbi Andrea London of Beth Emet synagogue in Evanston, Illinois, told USA TODAY.
The upcoming week is Jewish High Holy Days, which lead up to Yom Kippur – a time when Jews focus their attention on repentance and reflection of action.
Ginsburg, 87, had overcome four bouts with pancreatic, lung and colon cancer dating back two decades but she could not beat the most recent spread to her liver and died from complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer.
USA TODAY contributed to this article.
