This past Sunday began the 10 day celebration that is the High Holy Days in the Jewish faith. Our holidays begin the evening before they are typically indicated on a calendar because our days start in the evening. This comes from Genesis where G-d separated the light from the darkness and there was evening and morning a first day. Because evening was mentioned first, our days start in the evening. But that's off topic.
What I want to describe is the high holidays from a Jewish professionals perspective. This is not necessarily the time for deep contemplation and reflection, like it would be for any lay-service-goer. The days are filled with stress and chaos as the new Jewish year begins. As religious co-chair for the Hillel student board, I was responsible for coordinating all of the student aspects of the high holidays this year. This meant interviewing and hiring the rabbinical students that would be leading our services, working with them to find the places where students could participate, gathering the materials necessary to allow students to be comfortable participating, keeping track of who was saying what when, and passing out service parts the day of the service. This process started in May when my co-chair and I decided we wanted to look for new rabbinical students.
It is always a struggle to fill in all of the holes on the spreadsheet. Students are not comfortable reading Hebrew out loud, they fear they don't have sufficient time to practice, and they don't know how long they will be at the service before they have to leave for class. These problems make it challenging to include students in the service. Yet we didn't want the rabbinical students to be doing everything. Now finished with Rosh Hashana, and half of our responsibilities are complete, things seem to be going well.
Sunday night, we had the pleasure of hearing Dean Brady speak for the sermon, asking us to consider that we can only be G-d-like when we work together and take care of this wonderful gift of creation we have been given. The most complicated part of the evening, was not the service however--it was coordinating dinner for 300+ people. Luckily 300 people paid, but only 250 people showed up. After three years on board, we finally figured out how to smoothly run dinner--the lines weren't very long at the buffet and clean up was done in under a hour!
Monday and Tuesday services were lovely. I loved having two leaders, constantly keeping you engaged in the service. We made a small little community there, blocking off the back half of the worship hall at the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center forced everyone to be close to each other instead of spread out in all corners of the Worship Hall. It was wonderful and a nice change from the services we've had in the past.
I hope you all take some time in the next week and think about the person you want to be in the next year. Think of your struggles and the hardships you've overcome. Think of your accomplishments and what you can do to better your self. Shana tova u'metuka--have a good and sweet new year!
What I want to describe is the high holidays from a Jewish professionals perspective. This is not necessarily the time for deep contemplation and reflection, like it would be for any lay-service-goer. The days are filled with stress and chaos as the new Jewish year begins. As religious co-chair for the Hillel student board, I was responsible for coordinating all of the student aspects of the high holidays this year. This meant interviewing and hiring the rabbinical students that would be leading our services, working with them to find the places where students could participate, gathering the materials necessary to allow students to be comfortable participating, keeping track of who was saying what when, and passing out service parts the day of the service. This process started in May when my co-chair and I decided we wanted to look for new rabbinical students.
It is always a struggle to fill in all of the holes on the spreadsheet. Students are not comfortable reading Hebrew out loud, they fear they don't have sufficient time to practice, and they don't know how long they will be at the service before they have to leave for class. These problems make it challenging to include students in the service. Yet we didn't want the rabbinical students to be doing everything. Now finished with Rosh Hashana, and half of our responsibilities are complete, things seem to be going well.
Sunday night, we had the pleasure of hearing Dean Brady speak for the sermon, asking us to consider that we can only be G-d-like when we work together and take care of this wonderful gift of creation we have been given. The most complicated part of the evening, was not the service however--it was coordinating dinner for 300+ people. Luckily 300 people paid, but only 250 people showed up. After three years on board, we finally figured out how to smoothly run dinner--the lines weren't very long at the buffet and clean up was done in under a hour!
Monday and Tuesday services were lovely. I loved having two leaders, constantly keeping you engaged in the service. We made a small little community there, blocking off the back half of the worship hall at the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center forced everyone to be close to each other instead of spread out in all corners of the Worship Hall. It was wonderful and a nice change from the services we've had in the past.
I hope you all take some time in the next week and think about the person you want to be in the next year. Think of your struggles and the hardships you've overcome. Think of your accomplishments and what you can do to better your self. Shana tova u'metuka--have a good and sweet new year!
RSS Feed