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The High Holidays remind us of our natural state of human imperfection. Let's remember, though, we are striving to be better, not perfect, in this New Year,
Although my husband, Don, and I have lived in Jerusalem for six years, I can’t tell you much about the High Holidays in Israel because we’ve been spending them in Milan.
After his father died, 9-year-old Leonard Cohen folded a message into one of his father’s bowties and buried it. All his work, Cohen later said, grew out of that act.
Whether hosting a holiday meal causes stress or you revel in creating warmth and hospitality around Jewish traditions. here are some tips to host a fantastic gathering.
Recuperating from a broken ankle this summer, I had time to catch up on my binge streaming. One of my current favorites is the popular Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, which began...
Elul, the Hebrew month that precedes the High Holidays, is traditionally a time of both rejoicing and somber reflection when we take stock of our spiritual selves and our lives. Starting this year...
The “Days of Awe” is a good name for the High Holiday season because when we are in awe of something, that's a good thing, but I like “Awesome Days” so much better.
As Rosh HaShanah approached last year, I was living in southwestern China, where I celebrated by eating apples and explaining the Jewish New Year to my Chinese roommate.
If you attended worship services at a Reform congregation anywhere in North America during the last month or so, chances are good you heard a sermon about Mister Rogers.
This poem was written by a freelance writer, dreamer, and poet who is currently exploring the story of her Jewish ancestry and identity.
Who shall live, and who shall die? During this season, it is a topic to which we give much thought.
The central theme of the High Holiday season is t’shuvah (turn, response), an expression of hope that the way we are today need not be who we remain tomorrow.
The Days of Awe offer us opportunities to consider how we spend our days and what brings us joy. This work is precisely what we need to be doing at this season.
Read a new poem Stacey Robinson created for this High Holiday season.
Recently, I dusted off my shofar and have been brushing up on my shofar-blowing skills to prepare for the upcoming High Holidays.
I wondered recently about the patriarch Abraham’s Facebook page. Would he have posted selfies with Isaac? What would his page say about him? What do ours say about us?
Learn the backstory of how a new song, “Creation Sings,” grew from the collaboration among two musicians and a liturgist.
For more than 50 years, High Holiday sermons were consequential both for the rabbi and the congregation. Why has the Reform preaching tradition waned?
We spend a lot of time coordinating High Holiday worship, but when we strip away the particulars, our experience strongly resembles an AA meeting.
The waning of summer's warm days signals the arrival of the Hebrew month of Elul. It's a time to contemplate the approaching Days of Awe and how best to prepare for them.
Although we may think time moves in a linear fashion, Jewish holidays insert themselves in unexpected moments and places, seemingly out-of-sync with our expectations.
On Rosh HaShanah it is written; on Yom Kippur it is sealed. But there’s an awful lot that happens in the middle.
As the blast of the shofar awakens our souls this High Holiday season, so, too, can it awaken us to the pleas of people who suffer with mental illness.
For one rabbi, silence at this season of renewal is an appropriate way to start to rebuild and shape our world after Hurricane Irma.
At recent years’ Days of Awe services, I could swear I saw index fingers popping out all over the place – fingers of accusation, not of ownership or responsibility.
S’lichot, penitential prayers said before the High Holidays, offer us opportunities for personal reflection and to seek forgiveness from those we wronged during the year.
We want you to come to High Holiday services, but we want you to come back, too -- when it’s less crowded and when we can welcome you and show you what we’re all about.
I don’t want to raise my children in a home with yelling. And yet, when I slip in a way that’s human and understandable, I fail both myself and my children.
The real preparation for the upcoming Days of Awe is the work I need to put into myself. To be the best model for my congregants, I must practice what I preach.
As we turn to the start of a new Jewish year, perhaps we can be inspired by the all-too-familiar customer satisfaction survey to evaluate our spiritual lives.
In theory, no one wants to be that person who can’t let go, who refuses the request for forgiveness. But is it really possible, or even right, to forgive everything?
Earlier this week, we marked the first day of the Hebrew month of Elul when it is customary to take stock of our actions and behaviors in an effort to do better in the year to come.
Aside from a date, what can these two events possibly have in common? Strange as it may seem, there are a few points of comparison.
Rosh HaShanah, the new Jewish year arrives in two months... and they’re two months that will pass quickly. It is time to get ready.
As the High Holidays approach, Rabbi Ruth H. Sohn explains the importance in Jewish tradition of holding up the mirror of truth to others and to ourselves. She also offers 10 pointers on mastering...
I'm uncomfortable entering unfamiliar synagogues - solely because I am mixed race, and people assume that I am not Jewish.
I often use the imagery of a bullseye when teaching young children the complicated concepts related to the High Holidays and Yom Kippur. Each day when we try to do our best, it’s like we’re aiming...
Elul is our time to connect to Israel – for ourselves, for our people, and for our land.
Anyone can open the door to Judaism for another, but will those standing at the door be intimidating shomrim (guards) or welcoming mezuzot (encased Torah texts on doorframes)?
I'm often asked, “Now that you’ve written about lying, do you tell fewer lies?” What nerve!
Every year, I set out apples and honey on our holiday table even though I don’t like traditional bee honey. This year, I have a solution.
Stories are a great way to help children and young adults prepare for Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. Here are 10 High Holiday-themed books to share with the kids in your life.
Ah, autumn! The crisp air. The pumpkin-spice everything. The relief of no more sweat dripping down my entire body. The ever-stylish knee-high boot and leather jacket combination. The High Holidays....
Fans of “Seinfeld” may recall an exchange between Jerry and Elaine in which they discuss the appropriate timeline for delivering new year greetings. “I once got Happy New Year'd in March … it’s...
Season three of Transparent premieres September 23, and it couldn’t come at a more appropriate time: in the middle of Elul, the day before we begin reciting Selichot.
So how does one begin the process of forgiveness?
Ushering in the High Holiday season, Selichot – which falls this year on Saturday night, September 24th – is the warm-up stretch that precedes the spiritual workout we give our souls during the...
Elul is famously a month of t'shuvah, returning and atonement, and these five films anticipate the penitential prayers.
If on Yom Kippur we rehearse our own death, then on Tishah B’Av (observed last month), we begin the annual process of preparing for death. The seven-week period from Tishah B’Av to Rosh HaShanah...
In advance of the new year, people often ask rabbis, “Are you ready for the High Holidays?” I, for one, never know exactly how to answer. Is readiness measured in sermons written? In liturgy...
