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Women 'off' the Wall: In Search of Cracks at the Wall

Sukkot Study Session with Anat Hoffman

Sunday, October 4 @ 1:30 pm

For over 30 years, Women of the Wall has been working toward equity and equality at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. They are striving to achieve the right to wear prayer shawls, pray and read from the Torah collectively and out loud at the Western Wall. More at: https://www.womenofthewall.org.il/

Join us Sunday via Zoom.

More details.

HHD Donation Drive

This year, in order to help keep everyone as safe as possible, we have turned the Food Gatherers Collection Truck into a very big Tzdakah Box! Instead of shopping for bags of food to drop off, please consider making a monetary donation and have Food Gatherers do the shopping for you. They can really stretch your dollar.

Click here to donate now, or if you prefer, you can mail a check or call 734-761-2796 (press option 2). Checks should be made out to “Food Gatherers “(please write “Temple Beth Emeth” in the memo line) and mail to: Food Gatherers, P.O. Box 131037, Ann Arbor, MI 48113

There are many other ways you can contribute to our community during the High Holy Days:

General Support | Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund | Cantor’s Discretionary Fund | Women of TBE | TBE Brotherhood

To make your donation to TBE today, please click here: http://bit.ly/5781-TBE-HHD

Virtual Scrapbook

To celebrate the High Holy Days this year, we’re planning something. We’re creating an online scrapbook, and we want to see how our Temple Beth Emeth community celebrated the Days of Awe 5781.

But we need your help! Please send any photos, videos, and songs that you’d like to share by Sunday, October 11, and we’ll add them to the gallery. Submit Items Here.

Questions? Contact tbe@templebethemeth.org

If you have made donations to the Back Door Food Pantry in previous years, the volunteers at the pantry have asked to have the donations go to Food Gatherers this year. The need for your support is now more important than ever.

As a family, you can use our Virtual Shopping List below to help calculate your donation!

Please help us reach our goal of raising $18,000 during the High Holy Days. This can provide up to 54,000 meals to those in need in our community. Thank you so much for your support.

Food Gatherers
P.O. Box 131037
Ann Arbor, MI 48113

Download PDF Donate Now!

The High Holy Days are just around the corner, and we’re planning something special this year. We’re creating an online scrapbook, and we want to see how our Temple Beth Emeth community is celebrating the Days of Awe 5781.

But we need your help! Please send any photos, videos, and songs that you’d like to share by Sunday, October 11, and we’ll add them to the gallery.

Questions? Contact tbe@templebethemeth.org

Fill out my online form.

Click “Submit” to upload your file.

To download a PDF of the entire High Holy Days Guide 2020/5781, click here.

Services begin promptly at the times listed. All services are on Zoom and Streaming at www.templebethemeth.org unless listed otherwise.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27

Kever Avot | 11 am | Arborcrest Cemetery – the TBE section

In order to maintain a properly distanced and safe experience, Rabbi Josh and Cantor Regina will lead a brief service for all but will not be joining you in close proximity at your loved ones graveside to offer individual prayers. However, in order to assure that even under these circumstances you can enjoy a meaningful visitation experience, please consider bringing with you a stone from your own garden or perhaps a special token that you can use to mark the grave of your loved one(s). You may also wish to bring a favorite reading or poem to offer as you spend private time in remembrance after the service. Masks are required.

Kol Nidre Service | 8 pm | via TBE Live Stream

YOM KIPPUR: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28

Reminder: HHD Food & Donation Drive

Yom Kippur Family Service | 9 am | via TBE Live Stream

AARTY Service | 10 am | via Zoom

Yom Kippur Traditional Service | 10:30 am | via TBE Live Stream

**Yom Kippur Study Session | Chuck Warpehoski | 1:00 pm | via Zoom

In a dynamic zoom program, we will begin the process of inner anti-racism work. Chuck brings a breadth of experience in this field and will help us explore white privilege, racism within the Jewish community, and how we can learn to be better allies. This is a stand alone program for Yom Kippur, but will be followed up with a 7-part series beginning in October. More information about the series will be shared in our session on Yom Kippur.

Afternoon Yom Kippur Service | On Your Own | Download DIY Afternoon Service

Yom Kippur Tot Service | 3 pm | via Zoom

***Eile Ezk’ra/Generations After | 4pm | via Zoom

Yizkor Service | 5:30 pm | via Zoom

Neilah Service | 6:30 pm | via Zoom

Final Shofar Blast | 7:30 pm | via Zoom

Zoom Break-the-Fast | Open to all | via Zoom

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11

Submission deadline for the Virtual Scrapbook  

*Judy Freedman will facilitate “Traveling Through the Days of Awe: Using forgiveness as the Vehicle,” a workshop to help you navigate the Days of Awe. We will meet for one hour prior to the 10:30 am service, with time for meditation, personal reflection and journaling. Have a comfortable chair, a notebook that you can separate into three sections or loose leaf paper and pen.

**Chuck Warpehoski has decades of experience bringing people together across differences in the nonprofit, government, and religious sectors. He served for sixteen years as the Director of the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice in Ann Arbor and for six years on Ann Arbor City Council.

***The Generations After Group, the children of Holocaust Survivors, will lead a program teaching us that even in the darkest hour in modern day history for the Jewish community, we still are able to seek that Oneness with God and renew ourselves for blessing before the book of life is sealed.

This is a non-traditional year but you can still join in our traditional New Year’s greeting!

Women of Temple Beth Emeth (WTBE) sends cards to all members of our congregation to celebrate Rosh Hashanah. Donations of as little as $36 will support this beloved custom and have you listed as a signer on the card. The proceeds are used to help sponsor special projects during the period of the High Holy Days.

Click here to donate now.

Friday, September 4 is the firm deadline for submitting the form and payment so the cards reach their many destinations on time.

If you have any questions, contact Pat McCune at phmccune@gmail.com or 734-355-0316.

One important way to enrich your High Holy Day experience is to own your own set of prayer books. Although pages from the machzor will be shown during the services, having your own copy on hand will allow you freedom to explore beyond what is presented on-screen.

Online versions are also available.

Members of the Pulpit Committee have offered to drop off copies of the new machzor, Mishkan HaNefesh, at people’s homes.

If you have any questions, contact Bobbi Heilveil at bobbiheilveil@gmail.com.

If you would like to purchase Mishkan HaNefesh, simply visit: https://bit.ly/HHDPrayerBooks or call the Temple office at 734-665-4744.

Order deadline: Monday, September 14

To make the Days of Awe a transformative experience for all members of our congregation, Temple Beth Emeth has assembled numerous ideas for new rituals and traditions as well as guidelines for creating your own meaningful rituals. Explore as many of these ideas as you like. Document your new traditions and share some of your favorite moments with our community through the Virtual Scrapbook.

Here are a variety of ideas for new traditions and rituals and activities to make this holiday into a transformative experience. Consider adopting one or more. Think also about creating one or two of your own new rituals for yourselves, your families, or with a group of friends. Whether you create your own rituals, incorporate one or more of the ideas suggested here, or some combination of the two, consider using the following, suggested by Rabbi Laura Geller and Richard Siegel, authors of Getting Good at Getting Older (2019):

What time of day do you want to do your ritual?
Will this be an indoor or an outdoor ritual?
Do you want to do this alone or invite others to participate as well (either in person or virtually)?
What tone do you want your ritual to take (somber, reflective, joyous, or all of the above)?
Do you need any physical objects with which to carry out your ritual?

We encourage you to document your rituals with photos, videos, or songs. TBE will be collecting these artifacts to share with our community in the Virtual Scrapbook, so that we all may be enriched by our collective celebrations.

Assembled by the TBE Task Group Members: Susan Harris, Joan Cohen Jones, Deborah Katz, Wendy Lawrence-Morgan, Jackie Lonn, Marty Ludington, Beth Pearson, Martha Weintraub, Elaine Yeglic

An Invitation

Let’s get creative, have fun, study and do some good as we celebrate the new year.

Choose what works for you and your schedule.

Choose what will enhance your own celebration.

How do I participate?

Throughout the week between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, join us in doing some of these activities! You can choose just one item or try to complete them all!

Share your experiences with TBE: Post pictures, reflections, rituals to the Virtual Scrapbook.

Who can participate?

Everyone! You can do this alone or with a friend as a meditative journey, with your family for some creative bonding, or with a larger group for a reflective community!

GATHER, STUDY, REFLECT

Learn to be an Anti-Racist

“One is either racist or anti-racist. There is no room for neutrality, and there is no such thing as a ‘non-racist.’ ” Ibram X, Kendi, racism scholar. Strong words? Discover what it means to be an anti-racist and how to effect changes that result in justice. https://www.projecthome.org/anti-racism-resources

Rethink Rituals

Embrace the difference of this year’s High Holidays by creating or embracing a new personal or family ritual. Document your observance of this ritual with photos, artwork or words. Send this to the Virtual Scrapbook.

T’Shuva (Turning)

Complete Rabbi Alter’s Cheshbon Hanefesh (Inventory for the Soul). Think about how this influences your decisions in the coming year. If you choose, write a reflection and send it to the TBE High Holidays 5781 Memory Book. Inventory for the soul for Adults, Kids, and the Family.

CREATE AND SHARE

The Next Jewish pop hit

Write the new Jewish pop hit! Choose any popular (or not) song and rewrite the lyrics. Perform with as many family members and as many instruments as possible. Record the song and send the video to the Virtual Scrapbook.

Apples and Honey

Display your apples and honey beautifully or chaotically or just plainly. Snap a pic of your family enjoying the sweetness of the New Year! Send it to the Virtual Scrapbook.

Apple tasting

Celebrate the diversity of the apple community. Do a taste test. Tally votes and display the results in the most creative way you can think of! (Excel graph? A line-up of actual apples? A list of their names in your best calligraphy? Anything goes!) Send us a photo!

Build a Birthday Box for Food Gatherers

Celebrate the birthday of the world by helping other people celebrate their birthdays! Check out these instructions from Food Gatherers.

LEARN BY DOING

Enjoy Rabbi Daniel’s Book of Family Activities

Download his activity book and have fun!

Color in one of the coloring sheets in the HHD Activity Book as a family, take a picture of it, and send it to Rabbi Daniel by Wednesday, September 16. He’ll use them to create a wall for the family HHD services!

Love

Everyone receives love in different ways. Ask everyone in your family how they would like to receive your love. Do they want a hug? Ask and then give them one! Take a picture of the way you share your love! Send your photo to the Virtual Scrapbook.

Overcoming Fear & Finding Hope

What is something you are afraid of, but wish you weren’t? What can you do to overcome that fear? Choose some friends or family to talk with about this.

Why do we need food banks?

Why do people need food? Watch this kids’ video about Kate (2 minutes) and talk with your family about ways you can help fight hunger in our community. Draw your ideas on a paper plate, take a photo of the plate to send to the Virtual Scrapbook!

Feed the hungry. Donate to the TBE High Holy Days Food & Donation Drive

Complete the Donation Drive Shopping List. Total up your “purchases” and donate through the TBE website.

Making Amends (Recommended for preschool age)

View the Daniel Tiger song “Saying I’m sorry is the first step” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oICZVpmtL4c. As a family, talk about how you can help after someone makes a mistake.

I’m Sorry: More than Words

Talk with a friend or family member about a time when an apology didn’t work. What was unhelpful about this apology? How could the apology have been more effective? Take turns modeling meaningful apologies.

EXPLORE AND CONNECT

Apple-Picking

Go apple-picking with friends or family and take a picture for the Virtual Scrapbook.

Outdoor Scavenger Hunt

Go Exploring. See if you can complete all of the challenges. Document your excursion with photos and send the best ones to the Virtual Scrapbook.

TBE Community Scavenger Hunt

“How To Connect” Live Sessions on Zoom
Thursday, September 10 @ 12pm

Monday, September 14 @ 5:30pm

To join the training, please click here.

Hosted by Jim Keen, longtime TBE member, who started Keen Focus back in 2013. He has a BA in Communication at the U-M and while working on his MA in Education, he became involved in educational technology. He has used it in the classroom and in the homes of his clients to help teach them how to use their technology.

How to download Zoom and join your first meeting

Zoom will download automatically when you start or join your first Zoom meeting. However, it is also available for manual download here: https://zoom.us/download

To join a Zoom meeting, click on the link (in blue) in the invitation/listing. Example:

Topic: Technology Lessons with Jim Keen
Time: Sep 10, 2020 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://templebethemeth.zoom.us/j/96516833142

Meeting ID: 965 1683 3142
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,96516833142# US (Germantown)
+13126266799,,96516833142# US (Chicago)

Dial by your location
+1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
Meeting ID: 965 1683 3142
Find your local number: https://templebethemeth.zoom.us/u/acn4MPN5yS

Jewish mourning is both private and public. When we visit a grave or observe a yahrzeit (anniversary of a person’s death) we generally do so in private. Yizkor is the public observance for the community of the bereaved.

Yizkor means “may (God) remember,” from the Hebrew root zachor. Originally, Yizkor was commemorated only on Yom Kippur. Its primary purpose was to honor the deceased by giving tzedakah (charity) in their memory, on the theory that the good deeds of the survivors elevate the souls of the departed. It also enhanced the chances for personal atonement by doing a deed of lovingkindness. Since the Torah reading on the last day of the pilgrimage festivals (Sukkot, Passover and Shavuot) mentions the importance of donations, Yizkor was added to these holiday services as well.

Around the time of the Holocaust, the publication of Yizkor books was one of the earliest ways in which the Holocaust was communally commemorated. A memorial book about the Jewish community of Lodz was produced in New York City in 1943. It was the first of more than 900 of this type that were subsequently published.

The Jewish family history website, JewishGen, established a Yizkor Book Project in 1994 to make the contents of Yizkor books more accessible to researchers, historians and geneologists. For more information, please check the following websites: Yizkor Books (https://www.nypl.org/collections/nypl-recommendations/guides/yizkorbooks at the New York Public Library and the Yizkor Book Project (http://jewishgen.org/yizkor/) (English translations) at Jewish Gen.

At TBE, including the names of our deceased loved ones in our Yizkor Memorial Book is a meaningful tribute to them and a tangible reflection of their impact on our lives.

Please fill out the form below to make changes and additions.

View the 2019 Yizkor Memorial Book here: http://bit.ly/yiskor-book-2019

Submissions are due by Sunday, September 20.

To make a donation to Temple Beth Emeth in memory of your loved ones, please click here.

If you have any questions, please call or text Laura Wallace, TBE Pulpit Committee Member, at (734) 453-5966, 10 am – 7 pm daily.

Fill out my online form.

May the memory of our loved ones always be for blessing.

For the first time, we are going to give special recognition during the streamed Yizkor service to congregational members who died in the past year, as well as other family members that our congregation wishes to remember at this time. In this special format, we will be able to display their name, photo and a short epitaph.

Please fill out the online form below, or contact TBEYizkorVideo@gmail.com for more details and how to share your information for this special memorial.

Submissions are due by Tuesday, September 15.

To make a donation to Temple Beth Emeth in memory of your loved ones, please click here.

Fill out my online form.

There are many ways you can contribute to our community during the High Holy Days:

General Support | Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund | Cantor’s Discretionary Fund

Women of TBE | TBE Brotherhood | The Yizkor Book

To make your donation today, please click here: http://bit.ly/5781-TBE-HHD

Tashlich (“you shall cast”) is a ceremony both symbolic and personal. On the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashanah, or the second if the first falls on Shabbat (as it does this year), it is customary to go to a flowing body of water and recite prayers while “casting away” our sins, (represented by bread crumbs) into the water, asking for forgiveness.

Since we can’t gather together this year to perform this ritual, we are providing the means to help you do it yourself at a time and place of your choosing.

Background
How to – suggested practices and some alternatives
Sample service both printed and video
Music

Performing this ceremony can be a meaningful experience. We hope you’ll give it a try this year.

Background

In Hebrew, tashlich means “casting off.”
The Tashlich ceremony developed around the 13th century, and is customarily performed on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, although you can do it anytime in the holiday season until the end of Sukkot.
It includes reading the source passage for the ritual, the last verse from the prophet Micah (7:19)

God will again have compassion upon us; God will subdue our iniquities; and you will cast all
their sins into the depths of the sea.

We cast breadcrumbs representing sins into a body of flowing water to be carried away with the current. With each item we cast into the water, we remember and name, aloud or to ourselves, an aspect of our behavior we want to “cast away.”
The rabbis preferred that Tashlich be done at a body of water containing fish (“man cannot escape God’s judgment any more than fish can escape being caught in a net”) Fish don’t have eyelids and their eyes are always open, so they aren’t in danger of succumbing to the “evil eye.” Their open eyes also symbolize God’s constant protective watch over the Jewish people.
This is a symbolic ceremony so any body of water will do, even water running out of a hose or a faucet.
Because Tashlich is not explicitly mentioned in the Torah or the Talmud, there’s no formal liturgy.

Do it Yourself

Use the service available on the TBE website.
Try a Social Justice theme: Use or adapt “Tashlich for a Just City” https://rac.org/tashlich-just-city. Or come up with your own social justice-themed service based on the issues and topics that matter most to you.
If you live near a near a natural body of water, consider doing a Tashlich ceremony at that location.
If you can’t make it to a flowing body of water or don’t have one nearby, think outside the box: Make up a Tashlich service at a nearby local pool or even with a sprinkler or hose in your own backyard.
Think of the ecosystem. Whatever you cast away should dissolve easily, as you hope your sins will, so if throwing breadcrumbs into a natural water source seems not ecologically sound, consider substituting more nature-friendly elements like leaves, pine needles, birdseed or fish food. Maybe you can put your sin in a bubble and watch it float away and disappear!
Consider different crumbs for different sins. This fun and silly list has been floating around the Internet since the 1990s. (i.e. For ordinary sins use white bread. For particularly dark sins, use pumpernickel. For sins of indecision, use waffles). http://www.bricklin.com/crumblist.htm

“Ritual, at its core, enables us to connect on a physical level with a spiritual idea, to guide our thoughts from the
motion of the ritual itself to the teaching it embodies. To go beyond the annual exercise of thinking about the
bad things we’ve done, we need to have the strength, the will, the determination, and the oneness of mind to
swim into the darkness and sink our sins lower and lower until we know for certain they are lost forever. And
then……..we will hopefully break above the surface, stronger, purer, wiser than before.”
https://reformjudaism.org/tashlich-deep

References:
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/tashlikh/
https://www.ritualwell.org/categories/496
https://www.jewishboston.com/do-it-yourself-tashlich/

Download Background and Do it Yourself as a PDF.

Tashlich Service

Download the Tashlich Service here.

A video of the service is available here:

Saturday, September 19

Come together as a community for this in-person, drive-in blowing of the shofar!

Washtenaw Farm Council, 5055 Ann Arbor Saline Rd.

Gates open at 12:45 pm; Shofar blowing at 1:30 pm

All visitors are required to stay in their vehicle through the duration of the event. There are no restrooms or food available on site.

**In lieu of the traditional “Break the Fast” congregational meal normally sponsored by WTBE, we will be safely packaging and passing out holiday gift bags at the shofar service.

Any questions, email tbe@templebethemeth.org

Live stream will be available. Details forthcoming.

*no movie will be shown

‹ ›

“The Jew does not stand before God;
it is as a member of the community that [we] stand before God.
Our relationship to God is not as an I to a Thou, but as a We to a Thou.”

-Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man’s Quest for God

‹ ›

Women 'off' the Wall: In Search of Cracks at the Wall

HHD Donation Drive

Virtual Scrapbook

An Invitation

GATHER, STUDY, REFLECT

CREATE AND SHARE

LEARN BY DOING

EXPLORE AND CONNECT

How to download Zoom and join your first meeting

May the memory of our loved ones always be for blessing.

Background

Do it Yourself

Tashlich Service

From the Union For Reform Judaism / Reform Movement

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