This High Holy Day Season is all about Community

The Jewish New Year

It has always felt right when Rosh Hashanah falls near the beginning of September. For those of us with children or grandchildren, who are students or teachers, or who otherwise feel the newness of a school year, Rosh Hashanah dovetails nicely with this fresh school year. This year, however, Rosh Hashanah falls at the beginning of October, a full month after the start of school. Don’t worry: the Jewish New Year is not “late”! It always arrives right on time — on 1 Tishrei — but it can travel quite a bit around September and October from year to year.

So, perhaps this Rosh Hashanah might feel like a second start, or a second beginning to you. What a blessing and gift that is! Have you ever loved something so much that you wished it would happen for the first time again? Let Rosh Hashanah be that for you. And what a beginning it will be at the DJC.

Community is our strength

Let our tefillot — worship services — move you, providing comfort and inspiring you to new ways of thinking, being, and action. Hear the cry of the shofar. Following our Rosh Hashanah morning service, stay for apples and honey, shmoozing, and connection. Join me on Rosh Hashanah Day 2 at 10:00 am for a study session as we explore themes of the day. The following week, on Yom Kippur, be in community for tefillah, study, Music & Meditation, and our wonderfully moving Neilah service to conclude the sacred day.

Do not separate yourself from the community (Pirkei Avot 2:5)

The Jewish people are a family. Families stay together (Rabbi Jonathan Sacks)

These simple yet profound directives remind us that our community is our strength no matter what is happening within us or around us. To separate from it is to weaken the collective, and to weaken ourselves. Being part of a Jewish community means standing together in times of joy and sorrow, in times of certainty and in times of doubt.

To that end, please join me and your DJC community for commemorations marking one year since the horrific events of October 7. We need one another more than ever. We belong. Together.

October 6

1:00 pm online: The New Israel Fund Canda (NIFC), JSpace, and Canadian Friends of Peace Now will hostan October 7 Commemoration titled Holding Our Pain, Fighting for Peace. “We come together, to remember those lost, displaced, and taken captive on October 7 in the horrific Hamas attacks in Israel, those lost and displaced in Gaza since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, and begin to build a future of shared hope, healing, and compassion.” I proudly share this event as a new member of the NIFC Rabbinic and Cantorial Cabinet. Register here.

5:00 pm in Withrow Park: Your DJC community will be marking yahrzeit (one year/anniversary) for every soul who was murdered by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Together, we will gather for a solemn remembrance, sharing niggunim, song, poetry, and moments of silence to mourn the thousands killed. (rain location: Rafos Hall)

October 7

7:00 pm in person (location TBA): UJA-Federation is hosting a gathering “as one united community, to mark this dark day. Together, we will cherish the memory of those who were murdered. Reaffirm our solidarity with the hostages and their families. And honour the resilience of the wounded and all who survived the deadliest attack on Jewish life since the Holocaust.” Register here.

Shana Tovah!

 יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶךָ, יְיָ אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ וֵאלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵֽינוּ וְאִמּוֹתֵֽינוּ, שֶׁתְּחַדֵּשׁ עָלֵינוּ שָׁנָה טוֹבָה וּמְתוּקָה

Y’hi ratzon milfanecha, Adonai Eloheinu v’Elohei avoteinu v’imoteinu, shetchadesh aleinu shanah tovah um’tukah.

May it be Your will, O Source of All, that this be a good, meaningful, and sweet year for all of us.

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From Rabbi Ilyse Glickman:

This is our ongoing blog series to introduce the DJC community to podcasts, books, websites, and other offerings that may expand our understandings of the current war in particular and Israel/Palestine more broadly. I hope you listen/watch/read these recommendations with curiosity, openness, and empathy. Please let me know what you think about today’s offerings: rabbiglickman@djctoronto.com. I look forward to the conversation.