High Holy Days 5787
For Now: Courage and Connection
Welcome to High Holy Days at Congregation Ner Shalom, which are always musical, engaging, and unorthodox.
In this season of taking stock, we look into what is required of us to move through and respond to the intersecting crises that we face, and nourish their evolutionary potential. How do we hold ourselves as fully-resourced, wise, and visionary people, meeting challenges designed to make us feel helpless? Together we will lean into the quality and practice of courage, and the nourishment of connection – to community, to the Divine, and to the earth that gives us life.
Join us to explore the concept of ometz lev – a Hebrew phrase meaning “courage,” made up of a word for strength and a word for soulfulness. Join us to explore how we might cultivate both.
Our very musical, creative, heartfelt services will include:
Evening and Morning Services on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
Shofar Service and Tashlikh Ritual on Rosh Hashanah Day
Gentle morning service for the second day of Rosh Hashanah
Daily offerings on the intermediate days
Yom Kippur offerings that include a Justice Service, a Healing Service, a Yizkor Service, and a Neilah Service
Family Services on both Rosh Hashanah morning and Yom Kippur morning
Discussion groups for High Schoolers
And words from Rabbi Irwin about all that is in front of us and how we might be courageous and connected enough to face the moment.
Join us to welcome the High Holy Days. Our ritual is musical, creative, and unorthodox. Services will take place at Ner Shalom, and all major services will also be available on Zoom.
Watch this Spot
for registration links and to download your machzor.
Schedule and Description of Services
Click on a highlight below for details.
greet the High Holy Days
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Free and Open to All – at Ner Shalom and on Zoom
Led by Rabbi Irwin 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.
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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.
Rosh Hashanah Services & Activities
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Registration Required. In person and in the High Holy Day Zoom Room.
We welcome the new year 5787 with joy and song and prayerful deepening. 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.
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[This offering is free, but you must register. Watch for a link.]
We invite families with children to join us to welcome the new year with song, prayer, and play, led by Reb Irwin and friends.
Following the service, there will be art and activities for kids.
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Join Leiah Bowden for a healing sound bath. Expect music, guidance, and deep breath to find the courage already in your bones.
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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 this year’s courage-inspiring Torah portion.
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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, to let go of attachments that no longer serve us.
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Ner Shalom does not typically celebrate a second day of Rosh Hashanah. But this year, in these times when we need community connection so much, we are feeling compelled to come together again.
The In-Between Days
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During the days in-between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Sally Churgel and Sheridan Gold will be leading us in a daily practice designed to cultivate our everyday courage.
Each day you will receive an email that will guide you. Watch for it!
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Free and open to all. Zoom only.
Led by Rabbi Irwin, Sheridan Gold, and Barbara Lesch McCaffry.
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.
Attending in Person
High Holy Day services will mostly be hybrid; that is, both in the building and online in our Zoom Sanctuary.
Your registration entitles you to attend either in person or on Zoom, as you wish.
Registrations are per person. If you are only attending on Zoom, and your whole household will be with you, there is a special Zoom Household rate.
If you are feeling ill in any way, we ask you to stay home, take care of yourself, and avail yourself of the Zoom link.
Scent-Free Policy
We Love You Just the Way You Smell
Congregation Ner Shalom is dedicated to creating community and ritual space that is safe and accessible to all, including people with severe environmental sensitivity. It's easy to do once you know how: Please don't wear cologne, perfume, or scented hair (or other) products when you come to Ner Shalom. Remember that wearing a little scent may seem trivial to you, but not to someone who may not be able to remain in the room at services because of it. Thank you for your compassionate cooperation!
High Holy Day Food Drive
As the High Holidays approach, we will be remembering those in need. So we continue our Ner Shalom tradition of collecting food donations during the High Holy Days. Please bring canned and non-perishable food items to Congregation Ner Shalom to benefit the Redwood Empire Food Bank. We will be collecting items in bags in the Sanctuary throughout the High Holy Days. If you are attending services in person, you can bring your donations then. Otherwise, contact Rob in the office to make arrangements for dropoff. You can reach him at info@nershalom.org or at (707) 664-8622. Office hours are typically weekdays 10am-2pm.
Help us continue this wonderful mitzvah!
Yom Kippur Services & Activities
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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, and have candles ready to light.
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Free and open to families with young children. On site at Ner Shalom’s outdoor courtyard. Watch this spot for a registration link.
Led by Rabbi Irwin and friends, we explore Yom Kippur themes in kid-friendly ways, using song, story, and activity. Art and activities will follow.
For information on our Nitzanim Family Learning Program, click here.
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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.
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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 what these connections require of us at this moment of the world.
The service will include beautiful music, traditional and familiar Yom Kippur prayers, and a lively, interactive Torah reading.
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Join Basha Hirschfeld for an exploration of the Book of Jonah, the traditional Yom Kippur afternoon text. What does this story say about courage and connection? In person only.
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Led by Rita Rowan, Jill Rose, and Jane Lawhon. 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.
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Registration Required. In person and in the High Holy Day Zoom Room.
Led by Suzanne Shanbaum and Sheridan Gold.
Suzanne and Sheridan and friends lead us in a musical healing experience – a veritable mikveh of sound. Together we will breathe into the healing we need.
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Registration Required. In person and in the High Holy Day Zoom Room.
Led by Gesher Calmenson and Doron Hovav.
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.
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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. What courage do we emerge with? What new covenant do we make?
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.
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After Neilah, we make havdalah together. Then, after motzi, we will enjoy a potluck break-the-fast under the stars or in the sanctuary, whatever your preference. (Potluck offerings must be vegetarian / kosher fish only, and ready to serve, i.e. pre-cut.)
Sukkot & Simchat Torah
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6:30 pm in the Sukkah
In-person OnlyWe come together in the Ner Shalom Sukkah to welcome Shabbat, to welcome the ancestors, and to offer our prayers that the coming year might harvest a better world. And – we begin to pray for rain!
If you have any branches of beloved trees or citrus from your own trees, bring some to share as we craft our own lulav and etrog wands to wave!
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Join us for potluck dinner (vegetarian please), talent show, and the waving of the lulav and etrog. Watch for special registration link.
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On this night of Sukkot we celebrate our trancestor Joseph. Join us for music, dancing, games, and queer found poetry. Sponsored by the “Becoming More” Committee of Ner Shalom.
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Join us to welcome Shabbat in the Sukkah and to mark Shemini Atzeret, the festival that closes Sukkot.
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Join us to dance with the Torah scroll, to unroll it around the room, and to chant the end and the beginning as we launch our new cycle of Torah text-wrestling.
Families!
For families with children through 8th grade, Ner Shalom’s Nitzanim Program offers High Holy Day morning services including music, story, and activities. These take place on the mornings of Rosh Hashanah Day and Yom Kippur Day at 9 am in our outdoor courtyard. These services are free, but you must register by clicking here. The Family Services are followed by additional learning and activities. Additionally, families have the option of joining the full congregation in the morning service after the conclusion of the Family Service. To find out more, visit Nitzanim.
Come One, Come All
Our services are open to all. Like most synagogues, our gathering together on High Holy Days is also how we support our community financially. If you would like to attend services and are not able to pay the full fee, there is a low/fixed-income rate available.
Some additional scholarships may also be available. Read our scholarship policy by clicking here. Full or partial scholarships must be requested at least five days prior to Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur.