Blog

Welcome home, dear friends. For two and a half years, we have been caught in a whirlwind where change and adaptation were the only constants in our lives leaving us feeling rocked to our foundations. Now, as the year turns to 5783, we are beginning again and building strong foundations to sustain ourselves and our sacred community.

Now is the time to come home to Temple Israel. To find each other and to find God. To embrace and be embraced by the community. To find connection and to rejoice in our blessings. To question and to be challenged. To create spaces of bravery and vulnerability. To build and renew lasting relationships. To nourish our souls.

As we approach the High Holidays of 5783, we want to invite you, personally, to experience the joy and wonder of these Days of Awe. Join us as we turn and return to Temple Israel.

This year is a time of transition. As a sacred community in transition, we acknowledge and honor these moments of change. This year, we will return to our machzor, Mishkan HaNefesh, to guide our prayers. There will be moments of familiarity and moments of innovation woven together. We will hear the comforting melodies that harken back to the generations that came before us even as we embrace newer, yet equally powerful pieces of music.

Our clergy team has carefully crafted our High Holiday worship experiences to include an array of connection points for our community. The changing world of pandemic life has challenged us to think differently about everything we do, including prayer. For the past two years, our community engaged in creative, thematically-based services, which allowed us to do a deep dive into the liturgy and motifs of the High Holidays. And yet, we found that we missed key pieces from pre-pandemic worship – responsive readings, the Torah service, Haftarah readings. This year, we strive to blend the best of both of these approaches.

While not every service will contain every element, the arc of the High Holiday worship experiences, we hope, will speak to everyone in our community.

Welcome home, dear friends. We look forward to celebrating this season of reflection and renewal with all of you.

Shana Tova, 

Rabbi Batsheva Appel        Rabbi Deana Sussman Berezin             Cantor Joanna Alexander