High Holydays

Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and the season surrounding these "days of awe" are times of remembrance, repentance and renewal – when we deeply examine our actions during the past year, seek and offer forgiveness, and commit ourselves to change in the coming year.  At Leo Baeck Temple the High Holydays offer a time of community, celebration, and contemplation.

The Month of Elul

The final month of the Jewish year – the month of Elul, which directly precedes Rosh Hashanah – is intended to usher in a period of deep self-examination … the kind of self-proving that is best achieved when we can strip away some of the obligations that blur our vision of the ”bigger picture” in our lives.  We are taught that the High Holydays can be truly efficacious only when we have thoroughly prepared for them by peering intently and honestly into our souls.  The final days of Elul are our last chance to prepare.

Jewish tradition holds that, on the High Holydays, one atones for sins committed against God. However, for wrongs committed against one's neighbor, one's co-worker, one's parent, one's children, one's spouse ... one must seek forgiveness directly from the offended. Many Jews devote the month of Elul to taking this practice seriously, seeking, through introspection, conversation, and correspondence, to make ammends. Elul provides us with the opportunity to think about the previous year and make plans for what we would like to do differently, to look at where we have lost track of ourselves over the past year, and to reset our course.

On the Saturday evening prior to Rosh Hashanah, our congregation gathers together for a special Selichot program and prayer service. It is an evening of learning, prayer, reflection, and return.  We prepare not only ourselves for the serious work of the High Holydays, but also our Torah Scrolls, as they are taken from the ark and dressed in the white mantels specific to the Days of Awe. 

Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish new year. The shofar, the ram's horn, wakes us from our stupor and demands that we face ourselves and our wrongdoings. The liturgy of the holiday stresses that life is short, our days our numbered, and our chance to change, do good, repent, accomplish the things we dream of, and treat the people we love as they deserve to be treated, is now.

The High Holydays, unlike most Jewish holidays, are heavily focused on the synagogue. Many Jews who rarely or never attend synagogue will do so on these days. Although the process of teshuvah, repentance, is highly personal and introspective, we do it in the presence and solace of one another. The liturgy focuses on the themes of judgement, repentance, God's majesty and memory.

At Leo Baeck Temple, Erev Rosh Hashanah services are offered at 6:00 and 8:45pm.  Rosh Hashanah morning services are offered in the main sanctuary at 9:30am, at the same time a Family Rosh Hashanah Alternative service is offered in our “Tent of Meeting” on the temple’s main lawn for adults and school-aged children.  A children’s service for pre-schoolers and toddlers is offered at 2:00pm.

As the sun goes down on Rosh Hashanah, we offer a Tashlich experience at Will Rogers State Beach in the Pacific Palisades.  This short service including the “casting-off” of our sins (in the form of breadcrumbs) into the ocean’s waters followed by a “bring your own” picnic dinner has grown into one of the most popular “new” traditions at Leo Baeck Temple.

To learn more about Rosh Hashanah click here.

Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, falls ten days after Rosh Hashanah. When the Temple stood in Jerusalem, the High Priest effected atonement for the entire people through an elaborate ritual. Today, in the absence of the Temple, each of us stands, alone, together, naked as it were, before God.

Yom Kippur is the dramatic culmination of the entire season of teshuvah, repentance.  It begins at sundown with the prayer of Kol Nidre, whose haunting melody marks the start of the fast and sets the tone for the next 24 hours. Referred to as the “Sabbath of Sabbaths,” Yom Kippur holds a crucial place in the Jewish calendar.

At Leo Baeck Temple, Yom Kipppur begins with Kol Nidre services at 6:00 and 8:45pm.  On Yom Kippur morning, traditional services are offered in our main sanctuary at 9:30am with a Family Yom Kippur Alternative service running concurrently on the temple’s main lawn for adults and school-aged children.  Following the morning service, a study session is conducted for adults in the main sanctuary.  The temple campus remains open throughout the day, and the park-like grounds provide moments for quiet reflection.  A children’s service for families with toddler and pre-school aged children begins at 2:00pm.  The afternoon services begin with a Musical Meditation at 3:30pm.

To learn more about Yom Kippur click here.

 

2010 dates:

Rosh Hashanah - September 8th and 9, 2010
Children’s service - 2:00pm
Tashlich - 5:00pm at Will Rogers State Beach

Yom Kippur - September 17 and 18, 2010
Children’s service - 2:00pm
Musical Meditation - 3:30pm
Afternoon Service - 4:00pm
Yizkor Memorial Service - 4:30pm
Neilah (Closing) Service - immediately following Yizkor
 

Download Cantor Kates singing Kol Nidre (coming soon)

Click here for our clergy’s High Holyday sermons from Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur 5770.