Time to really CELEBRATE! Whew! The big days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are over. You trekked to synagogue for more hours in a row than some people go in a year! It’s easy to let Sukkot go by the wayside. We’re tired; enough already! But now that you’ve put in the serious time,…
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Making Positive Memories for the High Holy Days
I love summer and I hate to see it go but I am comforted in knowing that the High Holy Days are coming. I love these holidays – for many non-religious reasons. At the top of my list is going to services in which EVERYONE from my congregation is present. Yup, more than a thousand…
Read More »Tisha B’Av is observed this Weekend
Tisha B’Av marks the destructions of the Temples in Jerusalem, the first by the Babylonians in 586 BCE and second by the Romans in 70 of the Common Era. Each is said to have occurred on the same day, the ninth of Av on the Hebrew calendar. The day is commemorated as a fast day…
Read More »Shavuot: What is it?
I love Shavuot. It is one of the three pilgrimage holidays when Jews in ancient times traveled to Jerusalem to offer a special sacrifice at the Temple. If you read Arthur Waskow’s Seasons of our Joy, you’ll learn about the activities that took place in the ancient Temple. It was magnificent and makes you want…
Read More »Tu Bishvat Seder
A number of years ago I experienced my first Tu Bishvat Seder. It was led by Claire Sherman at the Berkeley JCC. I loved it. It inspired me to return to my women’s group and start doing seders with them. Below is a seder we created. Copy, borrow, change. Have your own fun and…
Read More »New Year of the Trees
The next holiday on the Jewish calendar has interesting roots. Tu Bishvat (spelled many different ways, just make the sounds as best you can) has it’s roots in the Torah. Among the laws given for living in the land of Israel were the ones that outlined sacrifices given to the Temple. A portion of the…
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