High Holidays 5781

The Main Services for all of our High Holy Days observances will be available for public (non-member) viewing via Youtube Live. Below is the full schedule of all Main Services via livestream for non-members.

Erev Rosh Hashanah Main Service

• Friday, September 18 at 7:30 pm

Rosh Hashanah Day 1 Main Service

• Saturday, September 19 from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm

Rosh Hashanah Day 2 Main Service

• Sunday, September 20 from 9:30 am -12:15 pm

Kol Nidre Yom Kippur Main Service

• Sunday, September 27 at 6:30 pm

Yom Kippur Main Service

• Monday, September 28 from 9:00 am – 7:30 pm

Rosh Hashanah Day 1

• 9:00 – 9:45 am: Preparing Body & Soul for the New Year led by certified yoga instructor Andrea Didisheim

Join us for meditation and gentle yoga to help settle our minds and open
us to gratitude and blessing.

• 9:45 – 10:30 am: Renewal & Remembrance through the Lens of Poetry led by UNC Professor Emerita of American Studies Joy
  Kasson

Using our liturgy and the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost,
Marge Piercy and others, we’ll explore what it means to seek renewal and
regeneration on these sacred days.

• 11:45 am – 12:30 pm: Torah study and discussion led by holocaust educator Steve Goldberg

Together we’ll reflect on two key moments in the narrative of Genesis 21 — God
“taking note” of Sarah, and Abraham and Sarah’s casting out of Hagar. What do
these pivotal events teach us about the world of our ancestors, and about us?

Yom Kippur

• 9:00 – 9:45 am: Vulnerability & Self-Compassion led by UNC Lineberger Cancer Center IAYT certified Yoga therapist Doreen Stein-Seroussi

In this time of self-reflection, we are aware of our vulnerability and the need to not just forgive each other but ourselves as well. Join us as we let go of the stress held in our bodies, and then turn inward for self-compassion.

• 9:45 – 10:30 am: Contaminating & Purifying People, Things and Nations led by Ziggy Rivkin-Fish

What can Yom Kippur teach us about demonizing and decontaminating others? How is COVID-19 related to controversies over people who have migrated here? What does Yom Kippur tell us about dehumanization and decontamination?

• 4:30 – 5:15 pm: The Temple as Fallen Monument – Rewriting History as an Act of Penance led by Kehillah founder and historian of Jewish Heritage Leonard Rogoff

Witnessing the fall of the Temple the ancient rabbis rewrote history and demanded our penance, personally and collectively. What does the Avodah liturgy (the re-enactment of the High Priests’ Yom Kippur rituals of atonement) teach us about truth, reconciliation, and reparations?

You are welcome to download or print the following Machzorim in preparation for services.

Renew Our Days (for all members and guests)

Tot’s Service Machzor (Tot – Kindergarden)

Kid Service Machzor (1st – 4th grade)

Liturgical Offerings for Rosh Hashanah Day 2 Morning

• Tashlich

Sunday, September 20th at 4:00 pm

Come join this beautiful ritual of tossing breadcrumbs/fish food into moving water to symbolize releasing sins and purifying our souls for the New Year. For Kehillah members, we’ll have a few outdoor sites in Orange and Durham Counties for gathering, keeping our numbers to a maximum of 25 at each location. Masks and social distancing required. You’ll receive an e-mail to sign up in advance. For a self-guided ritual, click here.

• Yom Kippur Food Drive

  1. Five Ways you can Help from the Interfaith Council
  2. Porch Chapel Hill
  3. Mazon
• Creating a Sanctuary Space in your Home
• The Shofar Project — Meditation, Yoga and Torah Study to prepare for the New Year

The upcoming High Holidays will be unlike any most of us have known. We have woken up to our deep interconnection to all people and our own fragility. We have seen more clearly the deep injustice of systems and power structures in our country. We have heard voices pleading for life. Perhaps we are awake in a way we have not been before. How can we maintain and even deepen this awareness as we enter a new year?

The Shofar Project is a free program open to people of all backgrounds who want to make this a year of continued awakening, responsiveness, renewal, and transformation. It takes place during the Hebrew month of Elul, the month preceding the Jewish High Holy Days, a traditional period for intensive spiritual reflection, introspection, and moral accounting (August 21 – September 18, 2020).

• Connection Points: A High Holiday Reader from Mechon Hadar in NYC

*Please note that the time of our first parallel program on Rosh Hashanah Day 1 is listed wrong in the brochure. Body & Soul will be from 9:00 – 9:45 am.