Free and Open to All – at Ner Shalom and on Zoom

Led by Rabbi Irwin, Reb Mia Zimman, and Shoshana Fershtman

Selichot is one of the most beautiful rituals of our year. Not a traditional prayer service, it is an opportunity to begin the High Holy Day flow, moving as a community into a deeper place of gentleness, forgiveness, expansiveness and beauty. The service will include short teachings, meditation, some of our favorite High Holy Day songs and chants, and a blast of the shofar. About one hour, soup to nuts.

Free and in person only.

Join us to visit the Ner Shalom section at Pleasant Hills Cemetery, honoring members of our Ner Shalom community buried there, and offering songs and prayers.

Meet at Pleasant Hills Cemetery, 1700 Pleasant Hill Road in Sebastopol. The Ner Shalom section is in the far northwest corner of the cemetery. Parking available on the gravel lane near the Ner Shalom section.

Consider bringing a folding lawn chair if you would like to sit during this visit.

Read more about the cemetery by clicking here.

RSVP required.

Our beloved Celebrations Program, now starting its 19th year, offers Jewish ritual, song, and celebration to kids and adults with disabilities, and their families. Find out more about Celebrations by clicking here.

Registration Required. In person and in the High Holy Day Zoom Room.

We welcome the new year 5786 with joy and song and prayerful deepening as we sink our roots deeper. Expect melodies from around the Jewish world, words of inspiration from our rabbi, music from the Good Shabbos Band and the Ner Shalom Singers, and creative contributions from many members of our Ner Shalom community.

This offering is free, but you must register by clicking here.

We invite families with children to join Nitzanim to welcome the new year with song, prayer, and play, led by Reb Mia, Rabbi Irwin, and friends.

Following the service, there will be art and activities for kids; parents and kids are also invited to join the congregation for the morning service (select that option in your registraiton).

For information on enrolling in Nitzanim for the rest of the year, click here.

Registration Required. In person and in the High Holy Day Zoom Room.

With the guidance of Reb Irwin and our spiritual leadership and musical teams, we continue leaning into the sacredness of this day and the new year. This morning service includes High Holy Day prayers, the awe-inspiring blasts of the shofar, and lively engagement with Torah.

When we finish the morning service, stick around to picnic with us in the Courtyard. Bring your own brown-bag lunch. We will supplement with challah and beverages and apples and honey!

After lunch we will walk together to Cotati Creek for our ritual of tashlikh, led by Leiah Bowden, to let go of attachments that no longer serve us.

Led by Reb Mia Zimman, Leiah Bowden, and Gesher Calmenson. In person and on Zoom.

Ner Shalom does not typically celebrate a second day of Rosh Hashanah. But this year, in these times when we need community so much, we are feeling compelled to come together again.

This service will feature a torah study led by Cyndi Norwitz.

Following the service, those who are interested will head to Doran Beach for a second tashlikh.

Over these High Holy Days, we are encouraging Ner Shalomers to adopt a Jewish practice that they can do at home – morning blessing, mindful eating, Shabbat rest, bathroom blessing, bedtime Shema. We have many suggestions and can help you choose one to make your own.

In a time when it is complicated and even controversial to be a Jew, rooting in a you-friendly piece of the tradition can help give substance and ancestral connection to your Judaism.

Watch for more details about this project!

During the days in-between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Sally Churgel and Sheridan Gold will be leading us in a daily practice of hitbodedut – individual spoken prayer in nature.

Each day you will receive an email with the description of a local native tree, and different symbolisms associated with it. You will also receive a thought-prayer prompt to spend time with, preferably outdoors, preferably face to face with a tree.

Free and open to all. Zoom only.

Led by Rabbi Irwin, Reb Mia, Sheridan, and Barbara.

Being in the middle of the Days of Awe lends depth to everything we do, even a very simple welcoming of Shabbat. We will rest gently with each other, breathe, sing, and pray. We will notice the special additional prayer language added during these Ten Days of Awe. Expect this evening to be sweet and especially deep.

Rooting More Deeply
10:30 am – 1:30 pm
In Person at Ner Shalom
Led by Sheridan Gold and Sally Churgel 

This collage process invites you to play with images, opening the door to insights that words or prayer alone might not reveal. You will create two small collages—one Challenge Card, exploring how we navigate inner conflicts or divisions within ourselves and the world, and one Resource Card, discovering the inner strength that helps us stand tall and blossom, like a deeply rooted tree.

The creative imagining of this workshop supports you to nourish your soul in a surprising and elegant manner. Carl Jung noted that it was only by first taking a thing apart, getting to know these parts intimately, and then letting the parts come back together that transformation occurs. In this way, a new and more precious element is created. 

Join us for a morning of insight about your strengths, forgotten or unacknowledged, or ways you might want to practice rooting deeper.

Watch for a registration link here.

Registration Required. In person and in the High Holy Day Zoom Room.

Led by Reb Irwin and our spiritual leadership and musical teams, this is a serious night, in which we contemplate the mark we each make on this world and on each other, and whether it is all that we would wish. We chant the Kol Nidre prayer and touch into traditional and new music from around the Jewish world.

It is customary to wear white, and to wear a tallit if you have one. If joining by Zoom, consider planning your physical space: tidy it, put out photos of loved ones or ancestors, have candles ready to light.

Free and open to families with young children. On site at Ner Shalom’s outdoor courtyard. To register for our Yom Kippur Family, please click here.

Led by Reb Mia, Rabbi Irwin, and friends, we explore Yom Kippur themes in kid-friendly ways, using song, story, and activity. Art and activities will follow. There is also an option for families to join the morning service in the sanctuary.

For information on Nitzanim, click here.

Registration for Yom Kippur morning required. Not available on Zoom.

Led by Basha Hirschfeld.

Between judgment and compassion lies the heart we tap on to awaken during Yom Kippur. Come and awaken the heart of longing and connect to Source through meditation.

Registration Required. In person and in the High Holy Day Zoom Room.

We move deeper into our practice of teshuvah, finding the path back to our hearts, repairing our relationships with self, others, and Earth. We look at how we may be better rooted to respond to the demands of this painful world.

The service will include beautiful music, traditional and familiar Yom Kippur prayers, and a lively, interactive Torah reading.

Led by Rita Rowan and Susan Levine.
In person and on Zoom.

We gather to sit in compassion and solidarity with those who are suffering in the world and those whose lives and safety have been jeopardized by the current political climate. Expect song, prayer, and silence, as we feel in deeply and recommit to our work in the world.

Registration Required. In person and in the High Holy Day Zoom Room.

Led by Leiah Bowden.

Leiah leads us in a healing experience, employing chant, visualization, and movement. Together we will breathe into the healing we need.

Registration Required. In person and in the High Holy Day Zoom Room.

Led by Stephanie Brown and Sharon Ziff.

Together and individually we hold and honor the memory of our beloveds who played such key roles in our lives. Join us for memory, story, and song.

If you wish your loved ones' names to be included in our annual Yizkor list, be sure to select the Yizkor item when you register and offer us the names you want included in this year’s ritual.

Registration Required. In person and in the High Holy Day Zoom Room.

The climax of Yom Kippur, the Neilah service is our last communal opportunity to make amends, to reach new resolve, to write our intentions in the Book of Life. The service. led by Reb Irwin and our Musical Team, is followed at 7:00 PM by a short havdalah in the courtyard and a vegetarian/kosher fish break-the-fast potluck.

After Neilah, we make havdalah together. Then, after motzi, we will enjoy a potluck break-the-fast under the stars or in the big room, whatever your preference. (Potluck offerings should be vegetarian / kosher fish only, and ready to serve, i.e. pre-cut.)

6:30 pm in the Sukkah
In-person Only

We come together in the Ner Shalom Sukkah to welcome the ancestors, offer our prayers that the coming year might harvest a better world, and to begin to pray for rain!

Join us to dance with the Torah scroll and to unroll it around the room and witness it – black fire on white fire! We will chant the end and the beginning and launch our new cycle of wrestling with the text.