High Holy Days 2020

Dear Chevri/Friends,

We made it!  We experienced Elul, Selichot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah during a pandemic.  Although I am sure you found it to be weird, hopefully you also found some of it to be meaningful, enlightening and maybe even sacred.  Alan and Eileen have said so many times, it takes a congregation to pull off High Holy Days at CJC.  To all those behind and in front of the camera, thank you!!!!!!!  We could not have done any of it without you.

Along the way I must admit I discovered a few advantages, we would not normally have had.  The biggest being the amount of material that is recorded and now housed on our website.  So if you missed it the first time or if you would like to revisit it throughout the year it is there for you to enjoy and send on to others for them to enjoy as well.

If you click on High Holy Days recordings on CJC’s website, https://www.columbiajewish.org/high-holy-day-recordings/, you will discover:

*songs, (many of whom are meaningful all year around), 

*the early morning service for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (the same early morning service we do every day of the week), 

*a round table discussion of Trauma (including but not limited to primary, secondary and historical trauma as seen through the eyes of the Akedah), 

*Cantor Kintisch’s rendering of Isaiah and Jonah, 

*the president’s addresses.  

* the live streamed services, including Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Simchat Torah

If you click under staff you will find my sermons, https://www.columbiajewish.org/rabbi-starrs-sermons.

It is never too late to connect with our community, each other or Gd.  If you have any thoughts of how we can use this technology during the upcoming year, please let me know.  If you would like to be our ambassador to the community by passing this email on to others, please feel free. 

Truly sacred communities connect us to each other and Gd every day of the year not just during the High Holy Days.  May we continue to make some of the best lemonade out there during this strange time.