Yom Kippur Edition

Newsletter October 7th, 2024 Together, we're #keepingitsacred...

Yesterday, members of the Keeping It Sacred community gathered online and in person for a beautiful Tashlich ritual of casting physical representations of our spiritual heaviness from the past year into the ocean. Many thanks to all who participated.

The Holiest Day of the Year begins this Friday night. It is not only Shabbat but Yom Kippur is also known as the Shabbat of Shabbats. Meaning: if we reflect on how our actions align with our purported values on Shabbat each week, on Yom Kippur we reflect upon our entire past year- how have we been living up to our standards? It is a day dedicated to pause and reflection. 

Please join us for the four Yom Kippur services we have planned- online or in-person. That’s right! This year, our amazing Cantorial Soloist Rachel Rothman will be joining me in person in Los Angeles for all four of our Yom Kippur services. 

A few notes about them: 

If you plan on joining us in person, please email me at rabbimiller@keepingitsacred.com so I can make sure you have directions. Also- you will likely want to have the silver Mishkan HaNefesh prayer book with you. It may be too late to order a physical copy but it is available as a digital book HERE. 

For those tuning into services online, we will have the pages available on screen (we paid a special licensing fee for that ability) and as always you will be invited to participate in the service via chat and on screen. Yes, it is interactive and not just a service to “watch” via livestream.  It is important to us that you know you are every part as much of the service as our in-person community members. 

It is not customary to wear a tallit at night throughout the year but- there is a beautiful teaching that says that the holy gates of repentance are open the entire day of Yom Kippur, and thus celestial lights illumine everything. Therefore it is custom to wear the tallit even at night on Yom Kippur. Feel welcome to do so. 

And, Halloween has nothing on Yom Kippur! On Yom Kippur, there is also a custom to wear white, and actually those in conservative and orthodox communities sometimes even wear their kittel- which is their burial shroud- to services. Why? We are in some ways enacting our own deaths. We are trying to remind ourselves that our time is limited and so dressing in white, and not eating helps us to cultivate a sense of closeness to our own death- and that creates urgency. The moment that we take the Torah out of the ark for the recitation of the Kol Nidrei, and we stare into the open empty wooden box, we may feel as if we are staring into our own coffin which prompts further reflection. All of this is in service of the idea that we have limited time so we should not wait to tomorrow to make the changes in our lives we need today. 

And speaking of the Kol Nidrei, this is probably the most central prayer of the High Holy day liturgy and is repeated three times back to back right at the beginning of the Erev Yom Kippur service. It originates from medieval times in the Rhineland. It is haunting and soul-stirring. So you won’t want to be even a couple minutes late to the Erev Yom Kippur service- in person or online, lest you miss it. It begins right at 7pm PT. (Under 75m) Register HERE.

Yom Kippur morning features a Torah Reading and begins right at 10am PT. There will be an opportunity to lift up beautiful blessings we have celebrated this past year, so please consider sharing those when it is time for the reading. (About 75m) Register HERE.

Our Yizkor service is a service dedicated to remembering loved ones who have passed. Please be sure to email our Digital Marketing Director, Molly Flanagan at mflanagan@keepingitsacred.com, with names of your loved ones to remember. If you send their date of death as well, we will add them to our Keeping It Sacred Yahrzeit list and we will lift up their names around the anniversary of their death when it comes up throughout the year. We begin at noon PT  (About 45m) Register HERE.

Finally, our Ne’ilah service is known as the Closing of the Gates service (neilah means “locking.”) Though the gates of repentance are always open, this is the service where we close up this year’s observances. We begin at 5:45pm PT. Following the service, we will celebrate with the havdalah ritual and a traditional break-the-fast nosh. (About 45m) Register HERE.

As always, we do not set a charge for services. It is our fervent commitment to be radically inclusive (known as keruv in Hebrew) where all are welcome regardless of financial capacity. That said, if you have means and want to help us affirm a space where all are welcome, your financial contributions are much appreciated. We welcome your partnership.  Contributions help cover the costs for all of our staff, licensing, accounting, equipment, website, zoom, insurance, partnerships, supplies, and other costs associated with running the community. If you would like to make a contribution, please do so at: keepingitsacred.com/our-future 

Thank you for ensuring we can continue this sacred work. 

This is how we’re Keeping It Sacred. 

Truly together, we’re #keepingitsacred...

Rabbi Heather Miller

Founder, Keeping It Sacred

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The above is an excerpt from a Keeping It Sacred newsletter. If you want to read the entire newsletter or any from our archives, please head over to: keepingitsacred.com/news 

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Thanks for your interest, and thanks for #keepingitsacred...