Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation

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Children and Family Programming and Childcare for High Holidays 2024

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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

  • Thursday, October 3rd, 2024, 10:30am: Rosh Hashanah Children’s Service at the UU
  • Saturday, October 12th, 2024, 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 October 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 October 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.

Tu B’Av: Jewish Festival of (Self) Love

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This past Monday, as the Sturgeon Moon rose high in the sky, Jewish people around the world celebrated the love-focused festival of Tu B’Av.

Taking place a little less than a week after Tisha B’Av, a day of mourning and fasting, Tu B’Av provides an opportunity for lightness, catharsis, and celebrating the love in our lives.

Contemporary observances include anything from singles mixers to donning white clothing and dancing and singing around a fire.

This year, my observance was more subdued. I attended an intimate yoga class called “Release and Breathe,” and release and breathe we did. In tending to my own mind and body, and in feeling held by my teacher and classmate, I was able to hold myself in a space of true self love. I have grown to cherish these opportunities in which I can decenter romantic love, and focus instead on the many other avenues that fill my love cup.

No matter how (or if) you observed this year, Tu B’Av can serve a reminder of the love that exists within, around, and through us. The love that we experience in being around family, or friends, or plants, or paintings. Or perhaps the greatest love of all, the love of the divine. As we so often sing in services, we are loved, loved, loved by an unending love.

Tisha B’Av and Purifying the Heart

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Last Sunday evening we entered Rosh Chodesh Av and the Nine Days leading to Tisha B’Av, the holy day that marks the lowest point in the Jewish calendar.  During this 9-day period, we turn our focus to the pain and suffering in this world and in our personal lives in order to acknowledge the darkness and allow ourselves space to grieve.  It is not a time to reflect on how to fix things but rather to sit in the reality of darkness and despair with compassionate curiosity. 

According to our tradition, on Tisha B’Av, which begins this Monday evening, we fast, chant from the Book of Lamentations and grieve over the destruction of the first and second temples and many other tragedies in Jewish history, and reflect on themes of exile and brokenness.  The rabbis teach us that this is a time to open the gate of tears, to cry for the suffering in the world, to really feel it.  This does not mean that we don’t feel brokenness the rest of the year, but during the first nine days of Av, and particularly on Tisha B’Av, we are called to bear witness to that brokenness and in so doing we get to know ourselves and the world better. 

The kabbalah offers us special wisdom to help us through this intense emotional journey.  During the month of Av,  kabbalists ask us to pay attention to the power of listening.  They urge us to listen spiritually, with both our hearts and our minds, in an integrated way.  We listen for what makes us feel connected and disconnected, for what distracts us and what keeps us focused and aligned with what is good and holy. We are called to listen for when the heart is open and when the heart is closed.  This is the work of purifying the heart.

לֵב טָהוֹר בְּרָא־לִי אֱלֹהִים וְרוּחַ נָכוֹן חַדֵּשׁ בְּקִרְבִּי׃

Lev tahor b’ra li Elohim v’ruach nachon chadesh b’kirbi

Fashion a pure heart for me, O God; create in me a steadfast spirit.

(Psalm 51:12)

Rabbi Jeff Roth says that it is our job to purify the heart. Part of that task is recognizing that we have the capacity, the power, to consciously fill ourselves with love. One way to do that is through deep listening with no agenda other than committing to compassionate presence without judgement.  Through deep listening we are asked to acknowledge the truth of what is unfolding.  There is no erasure, no spiritual or emotional bypassing, just presence to what is — to the horror of October 7th and the aftermath of a devastating year of war, to what is troubling us in the United States and in other places around the globe, to the climate crisis, to the challenges in our own communities and in our own lives. 

The Nine Days of Av allow us space to cry, to moan, to sigh, to grieve without apology — all acts of purifying the heart.  We do this before we take the next step on our journey through the Jewish calendar and ready ourselves for teshuvah during Elul and the High Holy Days.  The nurturing aspect of deep listening is healing to the heart; it creates softening of tension and allows more room for compassionate awareness. Our cups become full and have greater potential to even spill over with love to the point that it becomes natural for us to share our blessings with others. 

We learn this from Leviticus 7:15, which says that the “thanksgiving sacrifice of well-being shall be eaten on the day that it is offered; that none of it shall be set aside until the morning.” In his book Judaism is About Love, Rabbi Shai Held sees in this verse that “Torah implicitly requires a person who brings a thanksgiving offering to invite others to dine with them.”  In other words, what we are grateful for is to be shared.  Sharing is another pathway to purifying our hearts.

May we be gentle with ourselves as we deeply listen and express our love through compassionate presence.  May our cups runneth over with love.

B’ahavah,

Rav Gavrielle

Poem on Deep Listening:

Start Close In (David Whyte):

Songs and Niggunim on Purifying the Heart:

Pure Heart (Nava Tehilah) – Psalm 51:9:

Cosi Revayah (Shefa Gold) – “My Cup is Full,” Psalm 23:5:

My Cup Runneth Over With Love (Harvey Schmit and Tom Jones): https://youtu.be/TPlJd3m2K5Q?si=lpp-1wNeWkRgj2Q3

Welcome Emily Ohl, New AARC Program Manager

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Note: A version of this article appeared in the August 2024 Washtenaw Jewish News. See page 20 HERE

The AARC is delighted to welcome Emily Ohl as our new Program Manager. Emily steps up as Gillian Jackson, the AARC Events and Communications Coordinator for the past five years, moves into a new phase of her career journey as a social worker.

Emily brings an outstanding background and enthusiasm. She is already a cherished part of the AARC community, both as a congregant and as a teacher in our AARC Beit Sefer. Emily also teaches at the JCC of Ann Arbor Early Childhood Center, working in the Duck Room.

Emily graduated from the University of Michigan in 2022 with a major in American Culture, and minors in German and Museum Studies. In addition to everything else, she’s a certified lifeguard and a yoga teacher!

Emily led a wonderful early morning yoga session at the Spring 2024 AARC retreat at Camp Tamarack!

Emily comments:

“Hello! I am so grateful and excited to be stepping into this role and to be a part of this community. I look forward to working with those I have met and getting to know those I haven’t yet as we move together through the cycles of our lives and the Jewish calendar.
Thank you! Toda raba!”

As we welcome Emily Ohl as AARC Program Maanger, we are incredibly glad that Gillian and her family (husband Alex and sons Wesley and Wade) continue to be a part of our AARC community. We can’t thank Gillian enough for all her amazing work. We appreciate the care and love that she gave to our community in her role as Events and Communications Coordinator.

Chag Pesach Sameach

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Each and every Passover we are taught to see ourselves as being liberated from slavery in Miztrayim (Egypt), which in our tradition is understood as the “narrow place,” derived from the word meitzar.  Mitzrayim is not about a specific location, but rather a narrow state of mind or set of circumstances that obstructs our ability to live healthy, fulfilling, and peaceful lives. 

On the seder nights, we are invited to draw inspiration from the Passover story and dream a journey of freedom that applies to our own lives and the societies in which we live.   Redemption is not a one-time occurrence that happened to our ancestors thousands of years ago; it is an ongoing experience that requires our utmost attention.    

Unfortunately, at this time, many of us are experiencing Mitzrayim on many fronts: the ongoing violence in Israel and Gaza, fear of further escalation of tension between Israel and Iran, worries regarding the outcome of the presidential election in November, the climate crisis, etc.  Some of us have health issues, some of us have lost loved ones recently and some of us are dealing with painful situations in our personal lives.   

These are very stressful times.  Because of that it is my wish that we all remember to take care of ourselves – physically, emotionally, and mentally.   Let us hold fast to our most loving and supportive relationships.  Let us choose to love whenever possible.   Let us choose to be grateful for the life that we have.  Let us reach out to friends, family and to those in need.  Let us enjoy what we can — the purring of a cat, the tweeting of a bird, the sprouting of seedlings, the flowering of trees, a good book, a beautiful piece of music, a prayer, a seder, the smile of a beloved, a gathering with like-minded people.     I promise that I will try to do the same.

Chag Pesach Sameach.

B’ahavah,

Rav Gavrielle