HOPE IN UNCERTAIN TIMES ROSH HASHANAH 5781 YOM KIPPUR September 18 - 19 2020 September 27 - 28 TABLE OF CONTENTS Welcome 3 A Psalm for These Times 4 Opening Intentions 5 Wrapping the Tallit 6 Who Should I Say is Calling? 7 Opening Songs 8 Candlelighting Invitations 9 Kol Nidrei 12 Songs to Get the Blood Flowing 13 Barchu: From Me to We 15 Expansive Love 16 Sh’ma V’Ahavta 17 Mi Chamochah / Who But You! 19 Hashkiveinu / Deep Rest 20 Sacred Intentions for the Amidah 20 Amidah for Rosh HaShanah 22 Amidah for Yom Kippur 23 Stepping Back 24 Torah Service 26 Blessings over the Torah 29 Torah Reading for Rosh HaShanah 29 Torah Reading for Yom Kippur 31 Blessings for Healing 33 Shofar 34 Returning the Torah 35 Unetaneh Tokef 36 Vidui / Confessions 39 Avinu Malkeinu 42 Aleinu 43 Mourner's Kaddish 45 Concluding Songs 46 Traditional Amidah 50 Yizkor 56 Neilah 65 Havdalah 73 Acknowledgments 74 Family Service 76 Judaism Your Way 83 Live On / Life & Legacy Recognition 84 WELCOME: YOUR PRESENCE IS A BLESSING We come to these High Holidays, each of us in our own spot on the continuum between extreme unease and openness to the unknown. Closing our eyes, we can almost feel the rush of sensation that comes with walking into the open tent: the greetings, the taking of seats, the voices joining with one another in song. Opening our eyes to the screens in front of us, we are woven together through technology, and through the shared experience of having journeyed through these months together. Rosh HaShanah celebrates the creation and re-creation of the world. May these services help us commit more deeply to the necessary re-creations we are in the midst of - personally, nationally, globally. Yom Kippur invites us to practice teshuvah, returning to what is most precious, meaningful, and true in our lives. As in past services, there will be lots of singing. We’ll hear the Torah speak to themes of struggle and transformation. We’ll evoke our breaking hearts with the cry of the shofar (ram’s horn). Kol Nidre calls us to forgiveness and release. If you are new to our community, don’t worry! Your service leaders will be your guides. Take care of yourselves during services. You are welcome to get up and stretch. May these High Holiday services be wells of hope from which you can draw in abundance in these uncertain times. L’shanah tovah! Blessings for a sweet new year. Rabbi Brian Field Rabbi Caryn Aviv Rabbi Amanda Student Rabbi Schwartz Kolby Morris Dahary 3 PSALM 27: A PSALM FOR THESE TIMES To the Beloved, The Infinite Presence is my light and expanse, Whom should I fear? The Infinite Presence is the strength of my life, What shall I dread? When forces come close seeming to devour me, When narrowness threatens, All that is menacing stumbles and falls. Even as an army of mistrust besieges me My heart does not fear. Even as thoughts and desires rise up against me I still have trust. One thing I ask, one thing I seek, To awaken to the beauty of each moment as I pass through this world. The Infinite shelters me as I encounter difficulty and pain. The Infinite holds me close in deep and hidden places. And lifts me high upon a rock. Now I can see through to what is true. And I will offer my gifts of thanks I will sing. Please, Infinite One, Listen to my voice, hear my call. Be gracious with me. Answer me. Please don’t hide from me. Please don’t let me turn away in frustration and despair. You are my help. Do not let me feel abandoned. Do not let me turn away. In You I am safe. It is you who gathers me in. Teach me Your ways. There is so much to lead me astray. Don’t let me give in to all that torments me, the lies, the illusions, the menacing threats. I must have faith that I can see through all of this I can see the good, the blessings, the ways of life. Let your heart be strong and filled with courage. Cultivate hope. Translation Rabbi Yael Levy 4 OPENING INTENTIONS Blessing for Anyone Who Wasn’t Born Jewish (‘Cause We Know This is a Lot) May everyone who shares in a Jewish life feel welcomed and integrated. We are deeply grateful to all who have cast their lot with the Jewish people, and for the love and support they give to their Jewish partners and families. We know families come in all forms. We offer special thanks to those who are raising their sons and daughters as Jews and with Judaism. We are a very small people and history has made us smaller. Children mean hope, life and future. We pray with all of our hearts that the gifts and blessings you have given to your family, to the community, and to the Jewish People will come back to you and fill your life with joy and fulfillment. Adapted from Rabbi Janet Marder Experiencing the Divine as an unfolding process, a verb rather than a noun, we are more likely to experience ourselves and all of reality as changeable, and continually unfolding. Estelle Frankel Welcome is one of the signs that a community is alive. To invite others to live with us is a sign that we aren’t afraid, that we have a treasure of truth and of peace to share. Jean Vanier You filled me with hope about the next chapter of the great American story when you used your power to make a difference in our society. Millions of people motivated simply by human compassion laid down the burdens of division... When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression and war. So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide. John Lewis 5 WRAPPING OURSELVES WITHIN THE TALLIT A tallit represents the world Its four corners are the outer reaches of the known Its fringes are the subtle teasing of the unknown To stand wrapped in a tallit is to take your place in the world To stand wrapped in a tallit is to take responsibility. Rabbi Rami Shapiro As you gather the tzitzit to the center, Open to your own fringes, the edges, margins and knots. Open to immerse in wholeness, in shalom. As you hold the tzitzit, open your heart wide. Open yourself to welcome, to offer shalom for all beings At the edges, the margins, and those in exile, refugees. Open to all beings at the fringes of our worlds. Open to the wisdom Of compassion and courage. Breathe deep, and honor the powers of sacred presence. Sharon Shosh Lulyanit Blessed are You, Life Unfolding, our God, in this place and this time, wrapping us in holiness and love within the tallit. בָּרּוְך ַאתָּה יהוה אֱֹלהֵ ֽינּו מֶ ֽלְֶך הָעֹולָם אֲשֶר קִדְּשָ ֽׁנּו בְּמִצְֹותָיו וְצִוָּֽנּו לְהִתְעַטֵּף בַּצִּיצִת: Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav vitzivanu l’hitateif ba-tzitzit. 6 WHO SHOULD I SAY IS CALLING?* An Invitation to the Many Jewish Metaphors for the Sacred Many people struggle with the dominant image of divinity in western religion - God as a big, powerful man. When we encounter the metaphors that point to this image, it can be helpful to remember that they are intended not as statements of belief but invitations into an experience. Instead of asking, “Do I believe this?” we can ask of an image, “Where is this trying to take me?” There are many other Jewish possibilities for spiritual language and experience besides King and Father. In fact, our ancestors enjoyed a much broader palette of metaphors to express their experience of the Sacred than is offered in most Jewish prayer books. Take, for example, the metaphor of water. Psalm 92 reads: “My soul thirsts for God.” Psalm 36: “You give us drink from the stream of your delight.” The prophet Isaiah describes God as that which will “satisfy your soul in drought … and you shall be like a watered garden.” Unlike King or Father, the metaphor of water does not command or judge. It flows, irrigates, nourishes and sustains. It may take some effort to dislodge the GOD IS A BIG POWERFUL MAN metaphor from our consciousness and make room for different ways of imagining and experiencing the divine. As we engage the other metaphors in Jewish spirituality (Place, Presence, Voice, Fire, Cloud, Oneness, Wholeness, Love, Emptiness, and Water), we open more widely the truths of our own experience and to the possibilities of what is next.** *From “Who by Fire?” by Leonard Cohen **We are grateful to Rabbi Toba Spitzer for her insights about water as a divine metaphor. 7 OPENING SONGS Pure Heart (Psalm 51.12) Create a pure heart in me, Great Spirit, Create a pure heart in me And renew a true soul within me, and renew a true soul within Nava Tehila I Call In the Light I will lead with light, I will lead with love I will lead with the strength of the sky above I will lead with light, I will lead with love I will lead with the strength of the ground below.