2024/5785 High Holiday Information
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Message from President - Dorrit Lowsen
Dear Friends,
As we head into High Holiday season, I am thinking about joy. The last year has been a tough one as the war dragged on in Israel and we faced rising antisemitism here at home. We have come together as a community to support each other through troubled times and that is wonderful and important. But it shouldn’t, can’t be, isn’t the only reason to come together.
This year as much as we support each other through hard times, I hope we can focus on finding joy. What is it about being Jewish that brings you joy? I find joy in my Jewishness in so very many ways – in the smell of baking challah and the light of Shabbat candles, to the way that marking a Yahrzeit reminds me to be intentional about remembering the beauty in grandmother’s final smile and the lessons my grandfather taught me about learning from everyone around me, to the celebration that always, always brings happy tears to my eyes as each new B’nei Mitzvah chants their Torah portion and shares a lesson with our community in a tradition that has been handed down for thousands of years.
I would like to challenge each of you as we move through the High Holiday season to really think about Jewish Joy. How do you derive joy from Judaism. How can you share that joy with someone else in our community? How can you spread that joy beyond the walls of Beth El or use it to invite someone else in? How can we elevate Jewish Joy at Beth El? Share your ideas with me. Let’s make this year one that centers the joy of being Jewish, not to ignore the hard stuff, but because when we are filled with joy, the burdens feel lighter. Let’s find our Jewish Joy together.
Please join the conversation by sharing your Jewish Joy in our lobby!
L‘Shalom,
Dorrit Lowsen
Message from Rabbi David Spinrad
The Synagogue is in the Center
In time measured according to the Gregorian calendar, the High Holidays come late in 2024. Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown on Wednesday, October 2, and Yom Kippur at sundown on Friday, October 11. But to be a Jew is to live with a foot in two worlds. We have one foot in real time, in 2024. And, when we welcome the New Year, we will be also standing in Jewish time. In deep time. In 5785. The High Holidays won’t be late; they will be right on time and they will again arrive with their powerful messages of reconnection, repentance, and renewal.
Is it possible to experience Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur anywhere? It is. God is everywhere. We sanctify both time and space. But we live Judaism communally, not individually. As I teach to every one of our b’nei mitzvah, Judaism is a “team sport” in which we join together for a higher purpose. And while the Eternal hears our prayers in any language and in any degree of sophistication, our set liturgy elegantly guides our paths with inspirational prayers, readings, and music that combine to elevate the themes of the day. While the coming days of the First and Tenth of Tishrei will happen everywhere, I truly believe that these dates, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur respectively, can only be fully lived in the synagogue.
More than I’ve ever felt it in my entire life, the events of the past year have shown me that the synagogue is in the center of Jewish life and that Jewish time is most fully experienced when we are together at Beth El Hebrew Congregation.
To paraphrase the wise words of Rabbi Sidney Greenberg, the synagogue is the ideal place for worship, where our most noble selves reach upward and outward to draw nearer to God. The Hebrew word for synagogue is “bet knesset,” a house of assembly for so many of our ages and stages of life.
The synagogue is the institution that preserves our heritage and most effectively transmits Jewish wisdom from generation to generation. Beth El Hebrew Congregation keeps alive our people’s most beloved memories and our greatest hopes and dreams. It is the Jewish people’s most powerful force for our continuity, providing us with occasions for Jewish joy and instilling within our hearts the will to survive when times are tough.
Beth El Hebrew Congregation is where our hearts burst open with joy when we celebrate the milestones of birth, b’nei mitzvah, weddings, and conversions. It is also where we allow our hearts to break with sorrow over illness and death. And when they do – and in life, they must – we reaffirm that we are a part of something greater than ourselves when we allow a Beth El friend to comfort us.
The synagogue holds the spark of our faith in the coming of an age of justice and lasting peace, teaching us that we are God’s hands in the world and that the Holy One looks to us as partners in the work of tikkun olam.
The synagogue offers dignity and honor to each soul, offers a bridge to a more meaningful life, and insists that there is both higher purpose in our world and that the destiny of the Jewish people is inextricably interwoven with that higher purpose.
It has become fashionable in recent decades for the “experts” to opine about the inevitable demise of Jewish institutional life. From where I sit, I could not disagree more. Synagogues are indispensable. We need Beth El Hebrew Congregation and all synagogues to thrive as sacred, Jewish communities for all who seek connection, meaning, and healing. There is simply nothing like our synagogues and their noble threefold identities as “batei knesset,” houses of assembly, “batei midrash,” houses of learning, and “batei tefilah,” houses of prayer.
Order Rosh Hashanah Baked Goods for Pick-Up at Beth El
Order Holiday Baked Goods
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Throughout the year we partner with Sunflower Bakery, an inclusive workforce-training organization guided by Jewish values that provides skilled job training and employment for adults 18+ with learning differences in pastry arts. Ordering baked goods from Sunflower is easy - just use the menu and ordering button below to pre-order delicious baked goods for Rosh Hashanah by Wednesday September 25. Please note that only orders from the Rosh Hashanah menu are available for free delivery. Orders will be available for pick-up at Beth El on Wednesday, October 2, starting at 3:00. You can also get your items when you come to Rosh Hoshanah services. |
Make sure to choose Beth El Alexandria for your pick up location!
