The High Holy Days help us strengthen our relationships, renew our souls, review our ethics, find challenge, encounter enlightenment, enjoy comfort and joy, and restart our spiritual lives. This is why we call these 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur the Yamim Nora’im, the Days of Awe. We take 10 days each year to review our souls, to ask ourselves who we want to be and to create new lives and new worlds.

This year, each Friday of Elul, we will gather to study how rabbis before us thought about these days and see if we can glean meaning from their writing for our own lives.

Join us for Talmud of the High Holy Days with Rabbi Holzman, Fridays September 6, 13, 20, 27, and October 4 from 8:00-9:15 am. If you can’t make the class, we’ll also have workbooks with which you can follow along from home. (coming soon!)

This class will focus on reading and understanding the prayers and the prayer variations that are unique to the High Holy Days. We will look at key vocabulary words, the meaning and contact of the prayers, as well as practice reading in Hebrew. Prayers covered will include Avinu Malkeinu, Zokreinu, Untaneh Tokef, Kol Nidre, and Pitchui Li. (note: you should be familiar with the Hebrew alphabet and able to read Hebrew phonetically for this class).

We will meet Thursdays, September 5, 12, 19, and 26, from 6:00-7:00 pm. Registration is required; click here to register.

Each year, just before the High Holy Days, we prepare ourselves intellectually and spiritually for the coming of the New Year through Selichot worship and reflection. We examine our deeds of the past year, seeking forgiveness from God and contemplating teshuvah – repentance – to turn toward our best selves in the coming year. Join us for Selichot Havdalah and a Movie on Saturday, September 21 at 7:30 pm in the Multi-Purpose Room. We will watch Won’t You Be My Neighbor, share our thoughts in a clergy-led discussion, nosh on some dessert, and take part in a worship service. No tickets or security passes required.

We offer Erev (evening) and morning Rosh Hashanah services, as well as a morning Tot and Family Service, geared towards families with children up to the age of 11. All Rosh Hashanah services are at home – NVHC. Security passes are required for all services.

Tashlich

Tashlich comes from the Hebrew word meaning “to cast,” referring to the intent to cast away our sins via this meaningful and ancient Jewish custom. It involves symbolically casting off the sins of the previous year by tossing pieces of bread or another food into a body of flowing water. Just as the water carries away the bits of bread, so too are sins symbolically carried away. In this way the participant hopes to start the New Year with a clean spiritual slate. Join us at Lake Fairfax Park on the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah, Monday, September 30, 2019 at 4:00 pm, for this wonderful ritual. Bring bread crumbs for casting, and then stay with the community to enjoy your own picnic!

We offer Kol Nidre adult and family services on Tuesday, October 8, and numerous services the entire day of Yom Kippur. Our morning Tot and Family Services are geared towards families with children up to the age of 11. All services are held at home – NVHC. Security passes are required for all services. We continue our daylong observance with an afternoon discussion and study on the themes of these Days of Awe, a time for deeper exploration and reflection. The day continues after the study session with our Yom Kippur afternoon, Yizkor, and Neilah services. No security passes are required for the Yizkor or Neilah services.