The Music of N’ilah – Part One
By Cantor Barbara R. Finn
Shoah Memorial Prayer
This memorial prayer for those who perished in the Holocaust is the centerpiece of a six-prayer Yom HaShoah liturgy. It also appears in liturgist Alden Solovy’s book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.
Why a Reform Rabbi Became an Uber Driver – and What It Taught Him
To prepare for the High Holidays this year, I did what any rabbi would do: I went undercover as an Uber driver.
What Is the Zionist Message in Israel's Spring Holidays?
Thriving Reform Jewish congregations in Israel can help Israelis meet modern life and all its challenges in today's Promised Land.
How to Understand the Timelessness of Jewish Time
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.
Baal t’kiah
Literally, “master of t’kiah,” meaning “one who sounds the shofar.”
Bein adam laMakom
Literally, “between a person and God.” Refers to the religious or ritual mitzvot, or sacred obligations. The Mishnah teaches that the day of Yom Kippur atones for sins between a person and God.
Bein adam lachaveiro
Literally, “between a person and their fellow.” Refers to ethical, moral, or social mitzvot that govern relationships between and among people.
Cheit
A Hebrew term for “sin.” Cheit is a Hebrew archery term meaning “missing the mark.” A section of High Holiday liturgy is the Al Cheit, a confession of ways in which we “missed the mark” during the past year.
T’kiah
Literally, “blast” or “blowing of a horn;” it is a note of the shofar call.