Shanah Tovah! For those who attended our High Holiday service at WJ High School and on Zoom I hope you found the services meaningful.
Shanah Tovah! For those who attended our High Holiday service at WJ High School and on Zoom I hope you found the services meaningful. I’m most appreciative of the amazing and hardworking Kehila HiHo Team. There are so many details of planning, security, technological challenges, etc. Thankfully, we didn’t need to endure bad weather.
I’m also most grateful to the many participants in our services, our readers, our musicians, our Torah readers, speakers and breakout session leaders. For us the Yom Tovim have truly become a reunion, to pray, to sing, to learn from each other and to learn from special guests. We also gathered to reaffirm who we are and to recommit ourselves to building a better future for ourselves and future generations.
Yom Kippur has been compared to a renewal of vows and a reaffirmation of our marriage with the Creator. Our Ketubah is the Torah. Sukkot, which begins Sunday night, is the honeymoon, when we are most intimate with the Source of All when in the Sukkah. While fewer Jews are building Sukkahs, the holiday has taken on greater significance because of its connection to the earth. Shaking the four species from nature, the Lulav and the Etrog, reinforces our love for nature, the divine in nature and the sacredness of this earth.
During the holiday we are encouraged to spend more time in nature and participate in the final harvest season. If you are in the area, come to Sanctuary on October 15 for our annual Sukkot celebration. See below. If you would like to stay overnight on Friday night the 14th, just let us know and we will try to accommodate you.
Wishing you a good Shabbes and a Khag Sameyakh!
Reb David