Rabbi Judah Dardik has a clever idea, how about a one hour dip-your-toe into Yom Kippur? He calls it The Greatest Hits of Yom Kippur and here’s how it works. Come to Beth Jacob on Park Blvd. at 8am on Saturday morning. Rabbi Dardik will cover the “greatest hits” that is the high points of…
Read More »High Holidays
Don’t Sleep Through the High Holidays
Many mornings my husband hits the snooze button – several times – leaving himself a narrow window of time before he has to hit the front door. Many of those mornings as his eyes pass over his beloved aquarium near the door he says, “Honey, could you feed my fish?” Of course I can. Now…
Read More »Free High Holiday Services
My friends, please don’t make the High Holiday services the ones you use to introduce your non-Jewish loved one to a Jewish service. The liturgy of the High Holidays has developed for hundreds of years to be intense. It is not a light hearted experience. There is lots of Hebrew and many dark messages. The…
Read More »High Holidays: I’ve been here before
I’m quite fond of Rabbi Raffi Asher of B’nai Tikvah in Walnut Creek. I have known him a long time. He is very tall and always seems to bend slightly forward to come closer to short people like me. I like what he wrote about the High Holiday experience – I’m a fan of the film…
Read More »Elul: a month of preparation
I love the Jewish month of Elul; we are in Elul now. Much as I hate to see the summer fade I love the renewal of communal life that comes with the fall. Now the synagogues rev up, there is the bustle to prepare for the holidays, the round up of volunteers who help with…
Read More »Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur begins Wednesday night I hate fasting. Let me count the ways. 1. I hate having to get off coffee and caffeine so that I won’t have a headache all day. 2. I hate feeling weak and lacking focus. 3. I hate being thirsty and that dry sound your mouth makes. 4. I hate…
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