High Holy Days 5781/2020
Dear Fellow Congregants,
A few months ago, we sat around our Passover tables, Zooming with family and asking the traditional four questions. But a fifth question has been on our minds: How will Temple Beth El hold its High Holiday services?
We finally have an answer! Click below to watch a special video.
Temple Beth El has been deliberating on this decision for months. We assembled a High Holiday Task Force to carefully consider every scenario and the factors that might allow us to gather together in person. We consulted with medical and health professionals, always with the health of our community as our utmost priority. For a number of reasons, including research linking singing (particularly with a raised voice) to the spread of infection, we’ve concluded that this year it is safest that our High Holiday services be predominantly virtual.
We are leaning into this challenge to make this year’s High Holidays especially uplifting and spiritual. Rabbi Hammerman will still guide us through prayer and reflection; Cantorial Soloist Kaplan will inspire us with song and introspection, accompanied by Beth Styles. And, as always, you and your family are central to the energy of these services.
The Task Force has two main goals: One, to create services that are meaningful and conform to the Conservative halacha as best we can; and two, to involve as many congregants as possible.
Our clergy will be in the sanctuary, leading us through services, some of which will be pre-recorded and some of which will be live. Congregants will be able to borrow machzors from the synagogue and all the parts of the service that are required to make it halachic will be observed. We will also make electronic files of the services available for those who don’t have the book. There will be the honors, aliyahs, Torah readings, prayers, songs and sermons that mark a traditional service, although we will highlight them in some untraditional ways. We are excited to debut our very own TBE virtual choir that will sing “2020 style” through beautifully produced videos, inviting us to join them in song.
Your participation is key. Each family is invited to send a brief “Shana Tova” greeting to the congregation which will be sprinkled throughout the service. In addition, we have lots of ideas for spotlighting inspiring stories of congregants, sharing photos of loved ones who we’ve lost, and creating montages honoring different groups of congregants. You will hear more about this as the summer proceeds.
As always, there will be separate services and age-appropriate programming for children, featuring special musical guests and meaningful activities for children to do. We are also hoping to have a live “drive-by” shofar blowing and Tashlich on the second day of Rosh Hashanah in our parking lot. Stay tuned for more details on this.
In the meantime, we wish you a healthy, happy summer, and we look forward to creating this beautiful High Holiday experience with you.
B’Shalom,
Lisa Manheim
TBE President
P.S. If you didn’t watch the video before, here it is again! Click here.