Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation

Gillian Jackson

Hakhel: A Shmita Sukkot Gathering at the Farm on Jennings and Beit Sefer Campout Mashup!

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It’s the end of the Shmita year, the 7th year in the ancient Jewish agricultural justice tradition in which  debts are forgiven, the enslaved are released, and our fields are released from cultivation. Traditionally we gather at Sukkot to conclude the year, and begin a new cycle full of intent for growing justice, solidarity and community resilience.  Join us on Saturday October 8 at the beautiful Farm On Jennings for study, imagining your personal and communal next 7 year cycle, and to volunteer in the fields for a fall farm cleanup. 

 The Farm on Jennings has been fallow all season, due to illness in the family, and our work will assist the farmers in re-gathering all the pieces of the farm that were released this year. We’ll weed the perennial food forest, harvest pears, and weed the hoop house.  This is  a unique opportunity to actually see what it must have been like to reclaim food-growing and cultivation after a year in which farming was not done.  RSVP Required.  

This event is not for families with children younger than 15 due to farm safety issues, and please do leave your beloved dogs at home for this!

Where:  The Farm on Jennings  6900 Jennings Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48105

Dates:  Study and Farm Re-Cultivation:  Saturday, October 8.

             Shmita program 9:30 – 10:45; Farm Volunteering 11 – 3. 

 Farm Volunteering Only:  Sunday, October 9, 10 – 2.

Please wear waterproof boots, long pants and long-sleeved shirt, bring a hat, and gloves if you want to wear them while working.  Please bring a journal and one personal object meaningful to you in this past year for the study/visioning session.

Parking is available in the circular driveway and along Jennings Road. Simple Farm lunch provided.

Beit Sefer Schedule:

Saturday:

2-4pm          Sukkot building and tent settling! (Dave and Martin) *Option to help AARC help spruce up Carol’s farm, Shmita celebration* ​Tools, more people to come learn how to set up a sukkah!​

3-4pm          Search for schach with Parents! (​snippers, any beautiful boughs from your property to share, and your children’s favorite fruits, so we can hang these from our sukkah)

4-5pm          Art and bruchot sign-making for the Sukkah! (Mollie and Marcy) ​Markers, cardstock, ​fun crafting items​​​

5-5:30pm     Dinner Prep with Marcy ​​​​compostable dishes and flatware two old tablecloths, your own mugs and bowls​

5:30-6pm     Kosher Fleshig Dinner Potluck (with hot dogs to roast, felafel, pita, salad, tahini, and homemade pumpkin muffins, apples for snack,​​​​ prepared dishes to pass, whole wheat bread with sunbutter and preserves)!

6-7pm           Active all-ages Games! (Otto and Mollie) ​a rubber ball, a kerchief​

7-8pm           Havdalah, S’mores and Jewish ghost stories (not too scary) around the campfire! (we could use parent talent for this!)​ ​Smore fixings, Bring your havdalah sets, candles, grape juice, spices, phones, cool stories

8-9pm           Flashlight reading and board games in the kids’ tents, bed!

9-10pm         Sweet shirot around the fire, with warmed wine for adults, bed! ​Box of wine, ​pot to warm it over the fire! Rise Up songbook​

Sunday:

7:00-8:30am       Early Riser Walks and Ad-hoc yoga! (Parents)​ That special morning person who would like to lead yoga ad-hoc

8:30-9:15am       Brekkie around the fire! (bring favorites– we’ll supply oatmeal, hot chocolate, (four gallons of milk and ground coffee, maple syrup, plus other goodies that can be eaten straight up or warmed over a fire in a pot that you bring )

9:15am-10am     Israeli Dancing with Drake!​ Your “dancin’ shoes”/ comfortable shoes

10am- 11am        Beit Sefer students meet in the barn! (Parents hang out, pack up, etc.) ​Pencil

11am- 11:30am   Beit Sefer kids and families decorate the sukkah! **Option to help the AARC help spruce up Carol’s farm* ​More construction paper, garlands, glue, string and tape ​​

11:30-noon          Dedication and first shake of etrog and lulav in the Sukkah! etrog and lulav

Noon                   Goodbyes! *Option to help the AARC help spruce up Carol’s farm, Shmita celebration​* ​Parents to join me in leaving 

Rosh Hashanah Kavanot 2022

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What a joy it was to learn from and enjoy our community’s teachings on Rosh Hashanah. If you missed it or would like to read the Kavanot that were shared by Emily Eisbruch, Seth Kopald, Anita Rubin-Meiller or Dave Nelson you are in luck! We have posted them here on our blog to read and cherish going forward. Mazel Tov to our Kavanah writers on your profound and heart felt teachings, your contributions are deeply appreciated.

Gratitude for Community
– by Emily Eisbruch

Welcome community of
sharing, being, caring
Music, chanting, praying, dancing
Group aliyot with meaningful themes
Acknowledging our struggles and naming our dreams

Helping with the mitzvah corps
Warm congregation we are working for
August picnic at Bandemere park
Breaking the fast, after havdalah, after dark

Being together through COVID blues
Telling our stories in the Jewish news
Building thoughtful bonds on our listserv Recon chat
Where we ask each other, how about that?

Terrific book group conversations
On jews throughout the generations
Holidays – latke versus hamentashen debates
and pondering of collective fates

Creating chuppah cover squares
A gorgeous collaboration where each one shares
Ner tamid, Magillah ark, Torah Table tapestry
Members manifesting their artistry

For our youth, environmentally and ethically aware
An innovative and bold Beit Sefer
At these days of awe, let’s take measure
Of the community we are together
With gratitude, let’s look at how to nurture, how to be
In the Hebrew year five seven eight three

Praying from the Heart 

By: Seth Kopald 

As we continue deepening into our Rosh Hashanah experience, I invite you to ask yourself: Who is praying? 

Take a look inside. Is it a part of you who is going through the motions because this is what we do on Rosh Hashanah, or one who thinks we “should” be praying on this Holy day? Is it a part of you who might want something from G-d: healing, forgiveness, even a sense of ease? You may notice how much of your attention is above your shoulders, in your cognition. 

Now, slowly allow your attention to drop into your heartspace. Notice, you can sense yourself and the people around you, from your heart. From this place, perhaps we can extend warmth and love to those parts of ourselves who think we should pray, and recognize their desires and their fears. 

–

From this place of deep compassion for ourselves, we can then turn to G-d. From our heart, notice how we feel in G-d’s presence, no matter how you sense or perceive them. Perhaps you feel, or have felt abandoned, by G-d. Yet, for a moment, see if we can feel the acceptance that is there, and how we are also a part of the Divine – the life force we all share that is our true Selves? 

–

Can we for a moment, if you choose, allow yourself to be held, to sense the presence of something greater than ourselves. See how our hearts respond, how our bellies respond, and how our full bodies want to respond. Perhaps ask G-d in this moment: What do you want me to know? And see what you sense. . . 

–

As we move forward in prayer, let’s commune with G-d from this place, alive, embodied, vibrant, compassionate, and from our hearts – let’s commence in prayer.

Kavanah on the Non-Duality of the Divine

David Erik Nelson

About two weeks into the pandemic one of my kids had a question about the Kabbalistic Tree of Life diagram. I don’t recall what the question was, who asked it, or if anyone’s interest persisted long enough for me to find an answer.

But that got me looking at kabbalah, and I kept returning to it, because in those claustrophobic early days of the plague it was definitely more reassuring to read commentaries on centuries-old rabbinic esoterica than anything I was likely to see in the Washington Post.

I’m one of those people who often prefers to follow “the words of your heart” instead of the ones in the siddur. So I’m sharing this, for those who are likewise inclined.

Just a warning: at first, what I’m gonna read will come off as kind of anodyne and hippy-dippy. Then, on reflection, it will begin to seem sort of awful. That makes me nervous.

But I’m still going to share it with you. 

It starts like this:

The essence of divinity is found in every single thing—nothing but it exists. Since it causes every thing to be, no thing can live by anything else. It enlivens them; its existence exists in each existent.

Do not attribute duality to God. Let God be solely God. If you suppose that God emanates until a certain point, and that from that point on is outside of God, you have dualized. Realize, rather, that GOd exists in each existent. Do not say, “This is a stone and not God.” Rather, all existence is God, and the stone is a thing pervaded by divinity.

I don’t think that’s too earth shattering, right? I mean, it sounds an awful lot like a combination of Yoda describing the Force and the first lines from that Beatles song “I am the Walrus” (♬♫♪ I am he as you are he as you are me / And we are all together … Koo-koo-ka’choo… ♬♫♪ )

But Rabbi Moses ben Jacob Cordovero—the 16th Century Kabbalist who wrote what I read—doesn’t leave it at that. He goes on, and that’s where things get potentially…uncomfortable. Cordovero says:

Before anything emanated, there was only God. God was all that existed. Similarly, after God brought into being that which exists, there is nothing but God. You cannot find anything that exists apart from it. There is nothing that is not pervaded by the power of divinity. If there were, God would be limited, subject to duality. Rather, God… is present in everything, and everything comes into being from it. Nothing is devoid of its divinity.

That’s a little more extreme than Yoda and the Beatles. 

Because Cordovero isn’t saying “All of the good things are pervaded by God” or “All of the righteous are children of God” or “Everything in nature is God.”

His claim–which you could derive just from the words of the Sh’ma–is that “Nothing is devoid of God’s divinity.”

That’s … problematic. If I say nothing is outside of God, then I’m surely saying that the squirrel is divine and the car is divine, the meat is divine and the bullet is divine, the victim is divine, the killer is divine, the rescuer is divine, the ambulance divine, diesel is divine, the kid watching it all on YouTube is divine–

That all quickly becomes overwhelming. 

Cordovero claimed that by “Contemplating this, you are humbled, your thoughts purified.”

I don’t know about that.

But I do know that contemplating this non-duality—this complete saturation of all of reality (good, bad, and ugly) in the divine—feels simple and honest and true, in the way the Sh’ma feels simple and honest and true. 

And, on a functional level, it helps me get past the bumpier bits of our liturgy. 

A lot of us feel weird begging the forgiveness and protection of “Our Father, Our King” in Avinu Malkeinu. I feel less weird about it when I reflect that I am singing to a paternal majesty in which we all co-participate, that I’m begging me to forgive me, and for us to forgive each other, and to protect each other (and all of everything) from pestilence, sword, famine, captivity, destruction, iniquity–and all the other very unpleasant things that dwell together with us in the divine.

Zichronot

By Anita Rubin-Meiller

When my mother died in 1986 at the too soon age of 64, 3 months after my wedding, I made a decision to remember God. I was acutely aware of my choice…would I see God as this distant, all powerful entity that just took my mother’s life; or would I turn to the God of my still evolving understanding…a Divine presence shining through the loving and comforting presence of friends and family.  I chose the latter and remember gathering in my childhood bedroom with 3 of my dearest friends, sharing memories, laughter and tears. The blasts of the shofar in this Zichronot section of the Shofar service are a calling from God to us to remember we are never unseen, never forgotten; to remember the God that took care of Noah and saved the species of the Earth from total extinction; to remember that we too, are tasked with seeing the holiness in each and every living and breathing life form; that because we are remembered our actions matter.

There is an old fable, recounted in M.Scott Peck’s book…A Different Drum. It tells the tale of a monastery that had “fallen into hard times.” With only 5 monks remaining, its order was dying. Desperate for new possibilities, the aged Abbot makes a visit to the Rabbi from a nearby village. The Rabbi too was experiencing a dispirited community and so the two faith leaders conversed and commiserated. As the Abbot readied to return to the monastery, he asked if the Rabbi could offer any advice. The Rabbi responded, “ I have no advice to give, but the Messiah is among you.” You might guess what happened then…perhaps it would happen here, or anywhere…the monks, thinking that the Messiah could be any one of them started treating each other with immense kindness; started seeing the particular sparks of God each one manifested; started creating an aura of love and respect that began to attract visitors and even young men desiring to join the Order.

In my nascent meditation practice with the Awakened Heart community, I have been learning over and over again how reality is defined by what we bring our attention to. The shofar blasts of Zichronot ask us to bring our attention to God’s covenant; to the God whose image we are created in; to a God that is not only Sovereign but in the words of Rabbi Samuel Barth“a parent who has time and love for each child”. Through the teachings of Ram Daas, we are being asked to bring our attention to a God who bids us to “love, serve and remember.” What would it look like if what we were paying attention to and remembering was the Divine unfolding in the universe through the interconnection of everything? At the Awakened Heart August 2020 retreat, Sylvia Boorstein, a beloved Jewish Buddhist teacher, offered this drash to introduce the prayer: Hah-raynee m’kah-bel ahleye et mitzvat haboray Ve-ahavtah l’ray-ahchah k’mochah; translated by Rabbi Jeff Roth in this prayer chant as: I take the mitzvah upon myself of loving all who cross my path, offering kindness from my heart, loving you and loving me:  She said,“My choice of the most important commandment might be fixing a mezuzah to the doorposts of your house because when you go in and out and touch the mezuzah you are sensitive to this passage, “to love God with all our soul, all our might, all our heart”. If you took it really seriously you can’t just kiss the mezuzah and leave, you can’t take any grudges with you, so you have to stand in the doorway and think about it for a while – Ok, I can do this; Ok, heart clear – Go! And when you return, you pause, I can’t go in until I’m sure that my heart is free of negativity…may I be free of negativity and the danger it would pose to me of confusing my mind. You have to check yourself everytime you go in and out, am I fulfilling the commandment…I’m going to love everybody indiscriminately…May I have no ill will in my heart, may I have an unmortgaged heart.”

Perhaps for some of you, as it has been for me, this idea of keeping the heart clear of ill will has become particularly challenging amidst our political climate and escalation of hateful, provocative speech and actions. It has been surprisingly difficult to restrain my own hateful speech and violent wishes, albeit usually expressed under my breath or in the privacy of my own home. Still, I can feel its impact on my heart and spirit. So recently, I returned to Sylvia’s teaching and added mezuzahs to 2 other entranceways of our home. I have an earnest desire to follow her suggested practice, knowing the peace that can come to my body, mind and heart from doing so. Knowing it will help me remember that Everything, and everyone, is God. Perhaps the shofar blasts about to come will awaken the capacity to bring that intention into action; to remember to remember.

Sign Up For This Years Yom Kippur Break Fast!

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With the guidance of our Health and Safety Committee, we have decided to host our community Break Fast this year after sundown and the Final Shofar. Attendees can enjoy their meal inside the social hall at the Unitarian Church, or can bring the meal into the courtyard and eat outside.

In order to make sure that we have the appropriate amount of food, please be sure to sign up today! Menu Below!

Please RSVP by September 5th.

Sign Up to Attend the Break Fast Here!

Yom Kippur Workshops 2022

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The War in Ukraine: Empire, War, Refugees, and us with Debbie Field 1:30-3pm

Our own family histories, and Jewish history in general, have been shaped by empires and their wars of conquest. In this interactive session, we’ll learn a little about the war in
Ukraine, its impact on civilians, and the creation of refugees. We’ll make some comparisons with our own experiences as Jews, and end by considering actions we might take as individuals and as a community.

Movement Workshop with Alison Stupka. 1:30-3pm

People will gain a reconnection with their bodies during their fast.

Jonah Workshop with Rabbi Debra, 3-4:30pm

During this breakout session, we will read the book of Jonah together, and share informal discussion about its themes and why the rabbis chose such a seemingly silly story for the Yom Kippur afternoon Haftarah.

Sing and Connect with Deb Kraus, 3-4:30pm

Deb Kraus will hold space outdoors if weather permits to sing together and connect.

Thoughts on Elul By Rabbi Debra

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Rabbi Debra Rappaport will be leading this year’s High Holidays services

Greetings! As I write to you, we are at the beginning of the new moon of Elul, the month that precedes the new moon of Tishrei – also known as Rosh Hashanah. ELUL is known as an acronym for the phrase Ani L’dod v’Dodi Li – I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine. Who or what is the Beloved to whom we need to return this season? 

The work of this season is called cheshbon ha-nefesh – taking stock of our own souls and our relationships. Where have my actions not been true to my values? Where do I need to make amends and/or change course? Teshuvah – making amends where appropriate and returning to our best selves, to the ineffable Beloved, is the other part of our season’s work.

Though we are new to one another, we may share some of the same sentiments… for example, wondering as the season approaches, How have I changed? What difference did all of last year’s resolve make? Or, What more can I do to stem the destruction and injustices I see around me?

Believing that we can change, and that repairs can be made, matters. It forms how we choose to show up to every moment. The Talmud (Pesachim 54a) describes teshuvah as a possibility created even before the world itself was created! The possibility of choice and change exists in our very essence. Not just regarding the big things but in every moment. Not just as individuals but collectively. Think of how a tiny course correction on an ocean liner leads a ship to a different landing place. Likewise, tiny moments of showing up differently in our own behavior can change our life’s trajectory – and hopefully our country’s and our planet’s – for the better.

MyJewishLearning.com offers some ideas for practice for the month of Elul.  If you’d like to do some learning and reflecting together, please do join one of the High Holy Days workshops starting September 18.  Sign up here!

In any event, I am truly looking forward to meeting you in person, and making the journey of the holy days together. In the meantime, may all have a nourishing Elul.

L’shalom,

Rabbi Debra Rappaport    

Children and Family Programming and Childcare for High Holidays 2023

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AARC offers an engaging and flexible series of High Holidays learning opportunities and services for children and families. To take part, please fill out the Childcare & Children’s Services Signup form below.

Childcare & Family/Children’s Services Signup

High Holidays Family/Children’s Services Schedule

  • Saturday, September 16th, 2023, 10:30am: Rosh Hashanah Children’s Service at the UU
  • Monday, September 25th, 2023, 10:30am: Yom Kippur Children’s Service at the UU

If you have any questions about this programming, please email us. We looking forward to sharing this sacred time together!

High Holidays Childcare Signup

  • Childcare is offered for children 2 years of age and older.
  • The childcare room is located in the hall behind the registration table. Vaccinated teens over 12 can be supervised in the teen room across the hall.
  • Both rooms will be staffed by qualified caregivers.
  • Members: Childcare for members who sign up by September 1 is free of charge. Members who do not sign up by the deadline will be asked to pay $10 per child per day. Without advance reservation, childcare will be offered on a space-available basis only. Sign up online below.
  • Non-members: The cost for non-members is $20 per child per day.
  • Payment is due by September 1. Payment can be made by mailing a check or using the Donate link to pay online.
  • Please note that children under 13 must remain in childcare or be supervised by an adult at all times; children are not permitted to roam on their own while on the Unitarian Universalist Congregation premises. Children may leave childcare only if an adult picks them up.
Childcare & Family/Children’s Services Signup

Elul Workshops with Rabbi Debra Rappaport

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We approach the High Holy Days during the Hebrew month of Elul. ELUL is referred to as an acronym for Ani L’Dodi V’Dodi Li (Song of Songs 6:3) “I am drawn to my Beloved and my Beloved is drawn to me.” And so we begin with love as the foundation and container of the hard work of teshuvah, aligning our actions with our values.

Here are three invitations, three moments, to learn and reflect in community with Rabbi Debra Rappaport. Each one stands alone; each speaks to a different big question of the season. Each session support participants in preparing our hearts to arrive at the High Holy Days with clear(er) intentions. The focus is on text-based reflection (in English), so the sessions will be inclusive of all, regardless of Jewish background. Please rsvp to attend HERE.

Thursday, September 15: 7:00 – 8:15 pm Turning inward, Teshuvah (turning, returning)

How can the teachings of the season support our cheshbon ha-nefesh (taking an account of the state of our souls) and our teshuvah (making reparations and returning to our highest selves)?

Thursday, September 22: 7:00 – 8:15 Reaching outward, Din V’Rachamim (Justice/Judgment & Mercy/Compassion)

What are the implications of the Rosh Hashanah image of a heavenly court in which perfect justice is weighed against compassion and forgiveness?

Thursday, September 29: 7:00 – 8:15 Confessing together, Al Chet

By Yom Kippur, we are to have made amends with those whom we’ve harmed. What, then, is the significance of the confessional words we recite together on Yom Kippur? Why do we recite as a community when we didn’t necessarily commit all the transgressions? Do the traditional words convey all we need to say at this moment in history?

Observe Tisha B’Av This Year Outdoors with Lauren Zinn!

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19th Century Painting of Tisha B’Av Observance by
Léopold Horowitz
 (Hungarian, 1838–1917)

As predicted, this year brings new opportunities for learning and growth! Encouraging members to bring their ideas and traditions to the congregation has allowed for this exciting opportunity to learn about the observance of Tisha B’Av!

Lauren Zinn will be hosting up to 10 participants at her house on Saturday August 6th at 7:15. There will be an optional outdoor BYOB picnic meal together before the listening/chanting of the first chapter of Eicha alongside a recording at 8pm. Lauren says “… Tish B’Av can be an opportunity to express sorrow not only for the historical event it commemorates but for our current collective angst as well as any personal sadness folks might want to share. Sometimes letting the grief out makes room for the joys.” If you would like to attend, please SIGN UP HERE! Lauren’s address will be sent out to participants who have signed up.

What is Tisha B’Av?

Tisha B’Av is a day of mourning for the loss of the first and second temples in Jerusalem. Tisha B’Av is translated literally as the ninth day in the month of Av. It is believed that other occurrences of loss have happened on or around this day involving the persecution of Jews in Europe amongst others therefore the observance has been expanded to include a mourning of loss in general.

On Tisha B’Av the book of Eicha is read, which grapples with how we as Jews deal with catastrophe, pain, and loss. It explores the role of G’d in suffering and how we may contribute to our own suffering or loss.

Similar to Yom Kippur, some Jews fast and refrain from perfumes, sex, bathing etc. There is traditionally a light pre-fast meal that does not include meat. Once the sun sets, participants begin reading the book of Eicha while sitting on the floor or a low stool.

Learn more about the Reconstructionist approach to the holiday, explore their website here!

Transitions at AARC’s Beit Sefer (Religious School)

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It is a summer of change and transition at AARC as we have said goodbye to Rabbi Ora and now our Beit Sefer Director, Clare Kinberg. As you may know, Clare is the publisher and editor of the Washtenaw Jewish News. In her short tenure as publisher and editor, Clare has taken the paper in a new direction that provides our community with critical insight into the local and wider Jewish community. In order to more fully support this effort, Clare has decided to pass on the directorship torch of the AARC’s Beit Sefer program.

But as they say, when one door closes, another one opens! The AARC leadership has encouraged us to use this year as one of growth and opportunity. Not just in terms of service leadership, but in terms of redefining what is important to us as a community and strengthening our community’s participation in their spiritual home. In line with this view, bringing in new leadership to our Beit Sefer program brings the opportunity to reinvigorate our program of learning for our young families. Although we cherished our time with Clare, we know that we will find new and bright opportunities for the years to come.

With that said, we invite you to spread the word about this job opportunity to your networks in the greater Jewish Ann Arbor area. The job posting is listed on our website HERE. As always, please let us know if you have any questions, and enjoy the photos below that spotlight the years of Clare’s heartfelt and inspiring leadership!

Take Part in This Year’s Participatory High Holidays Services!

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By Deb Kraus

This year the high holidays are later in the fall:  Rosh Hashanah lands on Sunday night, Sept 25 and Monday, Sept 26, and Yom Kippur will be on Tuesday night October 4 (Kol Nidre) and Wednesday, October 5 (Yom Kippur day).  We hope you are making plans to join us for the full time, but as always you are welcome to join for any part.  This gives us lots of time to plan.

We are proud to announce that this fall we will welcome Rabbi Debra Rappaport as our High Holiday rabbi for 5783.  One of the many things she brings to us is a desire to empower us to participate broadly—through music, poetry, storytelling and of course, torah and haftarah readings.

As her partner in this endeavor, I want to include everyone in this process.  Please read below to see how you can contribute your words, your voice, your presence.  I’m dividing this into four “teams;” please respond to as many of these suit your interests and abilities:

Musical team:  We will NOT have a cantorial soloist this year.  Instead, we will divide up those cantorial pieces (Kol Nidre, Unetaney Tokef, HaMelech, Hineni, Ya’aleh, some of the Kaddishes) to those who can take these on.  We will also have a group of singers with hopefully guitar accompaniment, who can lead us in communal song (all our old favorites plus some new selections).  Let me know asap if you would like to be in the group (our own personal “davening team”!) or would like to do one of the solos.  If you want to contribute with an instrument, let us know this as well, and because I don’t know where else to put this, please know that we are always looking for shofar blowers, both for RH day and for Ne’illah at the end of YK.

This team will be meeting to practice outdoors in Ann Arbor on:

Wednesday July 20
Thursday July 28
Wednesday August 3
Thursday August 11
Wednesday August 17
Thursday August 25

Kavanot team:  We will be looking for poetry, your own or something that you already love or that you find, stories and liturgy.  The initial meeting of this team will be July 31, from 1:30 – 3:00.  Please let me know if you are interested!

Torah/haftarah team:   We will have an opening for a Torah reader for both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, so let me know if you would like dibs on one of these.  And once again, haftarah for Yom Kippur will be done by the post B mitzvah teens.  Several of these young adults have also moved on, so parents, please “voluntell” your kids to do this?

Workshop team:  Once again, there will be workshops on Yom Kippur afternoon.  If you have something that you would like to present for discussion, please let us know as soon as you can, with a blurb that explains your goals, along with what format (discussion, lecture, etc.) you plan to use.  If there is competition for these slots, we might have a survey to determine which have the most likelihood of attendance.

We will also be needing our standard High Holidays Volunteers to help set up, staff the welcome table, and schlep the Mishkan to the Unitarian Church etc. Sign up to volunteer for these volunteer spots here.

If you would like to join any of the teams mentioned above, please email Deborah Kraus!