Home for the Holy Days: Area Synagogues Open Up Doors
Afraid that you can’t afford to “pay to pray”? Don’t let that fear keep you from high holy days services. Local shuls are ready to welcome you.
Tag: "Yom Kippur"
Shaking Up High Holiday Tradition
This high holiday season, my family is going to do something different, and it just might be both at odds and in alignment with the tenants of Jewish custom.
Aug 30, 2010 | 2 comments | View Post
A Bent and Curved Shofar
A bent and curved shofar for Rosh HaShanah. A straight shofar for Yom Kippur. What does it mean? At the dawn of a new year, what keeps you bent over?
A worse block than Cholesterol
Cholesterol blockages, drainpipe blockages – none of that compares to the hard times we’re all in for in the month ahead as we each personally start preparing for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Aug 17, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
Five famous apologies: lessons learned for Yom Kippur
Between now and the last shofar blow of the holiday of Yom Kippur, Jews are supposed to sit down, flip out their cell phones or little black books to call, write, or otherwise contact those they have wronged to ask forgiveness. These days are officially called the “Ten Days of Penitence.”
Noshin’: Praying and fasting culinarily during the High Holy Days
During this most sacred of weeks (OK, sacred ten days), we oscillate between copious eating and no eating at all. Chances are, if you’re reading this, you enjoy your food more than the average bear. If you need some tips on fasting, Google provides no shortage.
Sep 24, 2009 | 2 comments | View Post
Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby (roughly translated from the Aramaic)
Depending on where you attend services the afternoon of Yom Kippur, you will hear either Leviticus chapter 18 or Leviticus chapter 19. The traditional reading, Leviticus 18 – on forbidden sexual liaisons (incest, adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, etc)- was replaced in most Conservative and Reform shuls by Leviticus 19: “The Holiness Code.”
Sep 23, 2009 | 5 comments | View Post
A meaningful Yom Kippur: a Jewish educator’s take on the holiday
I feel that there is something artificial and forced about setting aside one day every year for us to admit our mistakes and ask forgiveness from others. This should be done every day! Just feeling that I am “required” to sit in synagogue, pray with more intensity than normal, and pour out my soul to God (or maybe just acknowledging my soul’s existence to myself) makes me feel less motivated to do just that. Yet, this is what Yom Kippur asks us to do.
Sep 21, 2009 | 3 comments | View Post
Ask Shuli: Are e-mail apologies kosher?
The operative word is BEFORE Yom Kippur. On the “Day of Atonement,” we ask God for forgiveness, to wipe our slate clean for the New Jewish Year. Our sages have said—and this 21st century yenta heartily agrees—that it’s crucial to ask forgiveness from friends, associates and loved ones we’ve wronged, before we can ask for divine leniency.
Sep 20, 2009 | 0 comments | View Post
10 ways to stay awake during Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur services
1. Think of all your sins. Can you really atone for them in one week? Were any of them worth it? Which ones? 2. Be a Jewish fashionista. Count the diamonds and the rolexes in your row. Comment on the skirt lengths. Be judgmental. You have until the last shofar blows to repent. Like this [...]
Sep 15, 2009 | 3 comments | View Post
