Elul 2023: Getting Ready for the High Holidays
In the month of Elul, we have 29 days before Rosh Hashanah to start reconnecting with our inner life and realigning with God and with those around us. FTJC offers multiple ways in to this fertile period of time. Let's really use Elul to enter the atmosphere of the High Holidays, to do our spiritual work, and to set ourselves up for a powerful experience of this year's Days of Awe.
Learning and Conversation
Lev Shome'a: Talking and Listening in Community
Thursday August 31, 8:00-9:30 PM
Tuesday September 5, 8:00-9:30 PM
Sunday September 10, 8:00-9:30 PM
Three facilitated conversations (two in living rooms, one over Zoom) about Jewish values and skills for listening, talking, and learning from each other in a spiritual community. We'll explore a short list of five Jewish values about conversation, and dig in together to generate our own commentary, and perhaps to produce a resource we can use in the future. "Lev Shome'a" (a listening heart, see I Kings 3:9) is an initiative that's intended to help us build resilience for discussing and differing while appreciating each other as fellow community members. It is led and facilitated by our board members Jonathan Wasserman and Rabbi Lisa Goldstein together with Rabbi Guy. Please register here by Monday August 28 to reserve your spot in the session you'd like to attend.
Prayer and Ritual Experiences
Elul Singing Circles
Three Shabbat afternoons in Elul
One hour before Minchah prayers in the Atrium
Saturday August 19, 6:45 PM
Saturday August 26, 6:30 PM
Saturday September 2, 6:15 PM
Join FTJC prayer leaders and community members for 45 minutes to sit, sing, and settle into this time of reflection. We'll be using nigunim (wordless melodies) and piyutim (liturgical poetry) from Elul and the High Holidays to enter the season and become more familiar with some of the holiday music. Also a great opportunity to see each other and be in community.
Fellowship Hall
A powerful late-night intensification of our preparations for the Days of Awe: a singing, swaying service that brings us closer to the poetry and passion of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Our weekday minyan will conclude each morning with blasts of the shofar and the Psalm for the Season of Repentance. These services begin with an abridged Selichot from the week before Rosh Hashanah.
Rimonim Welcome-Back Ice Cream Social
Saturday September 9, 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
The Garden
Please join us immediately after shul for ice cream, schmoozing, and reconnecting after our long and eventful summers! Tables with ice cream will be outside during kiddush for children and their grownups. Also a great chance to talk with our new Director of Youth & Family Learning, Reyzl Geselowitz.
