Friday, October 25

• 6:30 pm - Shabbat Worship/Simchat Torah Celebration. To join services on Zoom, click here to join.

Grade level shabbats services are attended by Religious School students and their families. During the service students lead prayers they have learned in class. Join us for this special Shabbat and Simchat Torah Service. Dance with the Torah and help us roll it back to the beginning! And then schmooze with Religious School families at the oneg after services. All are welcome!

Join Virtually*

SIMCHAT TORAH

Featuring Ida Mae Specker on Fiddle with guest Rabbi Lee Moore

Shemini Atzeret/Yizkor Services
Thursday, October 24, 5:00 pm
Live and Virtual

Simchat Torah Service
Thursday, October 24, 6:00 pm
Live and Virtual

For more information, please do not hesitate to get in touch with the RJC Office or Rabbi Shemtov.

Israel Congregation Hebrew School

Wednesday, October 23

Simchat Torah

in person and via Zoom!

5:30 pm Celebrate Simchat Torah- Get ready to dance, sing, and celebratel Join us for a lively

Simchat Torah celebration featuring the incredible Ida Mae Specker, a masterful fiddle player whose music is sure to fill the room with joy. Bring your dancing shoes, your friends, and your family, as we come together to celebrate the completion of the Torah reading cycle and the beginning of a new one. Our Hebrew School students will be participating in the service.

Immediately following Sukkot, we observe Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, a fun-filled day during which we celebrate the completion of the annual reading of the Torah and affirm Torah as one of the pillars on which we build our lives.

As part of the celebration, the Torah scrolls are taken from the ark and carried or danced around the synagogue seven times. during the Torah service, the concluding section of the fifth book of the Torah D'varm (Deuteronomy), is read, and immediately following, the opening section of Genesis, or B'reishit, is read. This practice represents the cyclical nature of the relationship between the Jewish people and the reading of the Torah.

Calling all PJ and PJ Our Way Families! 

Save the date for a Pop Up Sukkah contest on Sunday morning, October 20th, 10:30-12:30 at Living Tree Alliance. Families will be given the simple guidelines of how to create a Sukkah. We will then use our innate creativity and ingenuity to construct a very fun, easy small sukkah. We will provide the natural materials for the Sukkot and you can add materials you find in nature. Afterwards, you and your kids can take it home and enjoy it for the rest of the Sukkot holiday! We will also learn why Sukkot is called the Festival of Joy, shake the lulav, hear a story, dance and sing songs. A light vegetarian lunch will be provided for eating in the Sukkah.

Admission is free, however, donations are greatly appreciated. Donations can be made ahead of time using this link or at the door during the event.

Joe Alpar, well-known musician and Bennington College professor*, along with his ensemble, will treat you to lively Jewish music from the Middle East, Balkans, Eastern Europe and more. Their music will lift your spirits, gladden your heart, and coax you out of your seat and onto the dance floor!

Come and celebrate Saturday night of Sukkot with Havdalah, food and dancing.

This event is a collaboration between Brattleboro Area Jewish Community and Congregation Beth El of Bennington, supported by a Covenant Grant from Jewish Communities of Vermont.

* More information on Joe Alpar.

Led by Rabbi Lee Moore and Cellist Aaron Fried

Join us for an inspiring, land-based, musical outdoor prayer ceremony! 

Greet the new year with a radical Jewish prayer experience in nature that weaves together traditional melodies with eco-poetics. At Living Tree’s fifth annual Rosh Hashanah celebration, we’ll tap into our roots as we soar with song—all while surrounded by the stunning peak foliage of the Mad River Valley.

When: October 4, 10 am–12:30 pm, with vegetarian potluck lunch to follow
Where: All activities held under the pavilion in the Living Tree meadow (rain or shine)

96 Living Tree Lane, Moretown, VT 

Suggested donation: $36–$360

Children welcome!

• Youth will join with adults for the first part of the service, where our woods, sandbox, and tree house provide a child’s wonderland within sight of our open-air pavilion.

• Partway through the program, kids under age 8 will be able to join our youth program, celebrating the earth’s birthday with interactive story and song—and snacks, of course!

• We’ll come back together for the awakening Shofar service.

 Tashlich

All participants are welcome to join us for a Tashlich ceremony in the afternoon, 2:30–4 pm. We’ll walk down to Living Tree’s private beach on the Mad River and together enact this High Holy Days ritual of casting away/releasing what no longer serves us.

REGISTER

Join us for a joyful Rosh Hashanah experience at a new location this year (inside Hula overlooking the beautiful Burlington waterfront)!

Enjoy Jewish stories, skits and songs, hear the shofar sound, dip apples in honey, and more in a warm, joyful setting! This event is co-led by OZ’s clergy, including our new Cantor Jessica Silverberg and  Rabbi Aaron Philmus, as well as a host of talented volunteer community members/story tellers.  (We need your help- interested contact us!)

Jewish? Adjacent? Curious?  Join us for this day of Awe-some! This friendly event is suitable for those ages 0 to 118.  Everyone is welcome! Questions?  Contact us.

All of OZ’s high holiday programs can be seen here.

This event will be followed by an outdoor lakeside Tashlich. We will provide pebbles for an eco-friendly option!

Register Here

Join our 20s & 30s Group for wine, cheese & Rosh Hashanah classics like apples and honey!

Feel free to join us for Erev Rosh Hashanah services following the event!

Register Here

Please join Rabbis Aaron Philmus, Jan Salzman, and Cantor Jessica Silverberg for the first night of Selichot, an evening of learning and music to kick-off the High Holiday season. Composed by the greatest paytanimand medieval poets, these ancient prayers direct our hearts and minds towards the process of teshuvah(repentance).

Are you living a life that you love guided by your values and your soul’s wisdom?

In Judaism, during the month of Elul, we are called upon to prepare for the High Holidays through a process called Cheshbon HaNefesh, an Accounting of the Soul. We are encouraged to do a personal inventory or self-assessment of the different aspects of our life and ascertain what areas we feel good about, where we are missing the mark and what we would like to change.

Rabbi Yafa Chase, a Spiritual Life Coach, will be leading a workshop to help us do our own inner work to personally prepare for the New Year. She will guide participants through self-assessment and intention setting exercises and share Jewish wisdom that can support us in creating a life that is guided by the wisdom of our tradition and our soul.

Click here to access the Zoom link. 

JOIN US IN THE FRESH SEPTEMBER AIR FOR A SUNDAY MORNING OF BAGELS, SCHMEAR, AND A SIDE OF TEFILLIN WRAPPING FOR THE GUYS. THE KIDS WILL GET TO CREATE A ROSH HASHANA CRAFT AND THEIR OWN SHANA TOVA CARDS FOR FRIENDS. WE'LL BLOW THE SHOFAR AS IS CUSTOMARY IN THE MONTH OF ELUL AND ENJOY PLENTY OF ROSH HASHANA SWEET TREATS, PRETTY VIEWS, AND GOOD COMPANY

Tisha be'Av Gathering
Tuesday, August 13  
10:00 am

Tisha be’Av (9 Av) is a somber commemoration that recalls the two times in Jewish history (586 BCE and 70 CE) when our holy Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed (first by Babylonian, then by Roman armies) and Jews sent into exile.  The occasion is marked by a 25-hour fast (this year starting at sunset on Monday, August 12 and lasting till nightfall on Tuesday, August 13), liturgical passages of lamentation, the recitation of the Biblical book of Eichah/Lamentations, and further expressions of grief.  Tradition tells us to refrain – the way we do on Yom Kippur – from finery and festivity.  The date is also associated with many other tragedies:  the start of the Crusades, Jews’ expulsion from several European nations during the Middle Ages, the start of World War I and of the Holocaust, and later attacks on Jews.
 
This year our Tisha be'Av gathering will occur against the backdrop of present, ongoing sorrow for the Jewish people as, after ten months of warfare with rising military and civilian casualties, Israelis remain hostage in Gaza.  The occasion will provide an opening for discussion of and reflection on parallels between those tragic events from ancient Jewish history and what is happening in Israel and the Jewish world today.  The session, also including readings and prayers, will take place in our sanctuary.

Tisha B’av Evening Services

Tisha B’Av- click for virtual

The ongoing persecution of Jews across millennia has been commemorated every year on this one important day: the 9th of the month of Av, when the first and second Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed. In the light of October 7, we join again this year in remembering, mourning, and healing. Together, we will reflect on the personal and communal consequences of anti-Jewish hatred, then and now.

8pm Learning and mindfulness practice

8:45pm Special prayers and reading of the mournful Book of Lamentations/Eichah

This year, our day commemorating the destruction of the Temple seems particularly relevant given the events of October 7 and the war that followed.  To honor this day, we will combine traditional chants and prayers with a study of some of the powerful Israeli poetry written since October 7 on the themes of loss and destruction.   Come chant, be together, and hold the loss and grief of those events last fall.   

In-person ONLY.

8:00 pm Tisha B'av is the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, commomorating the destruction of the Ancient Temples of Jerusalem and other tragic events. It is a day of reflection, mourning and learning. A significant highlight of our service will be the reading of Eicha, the Book of Lamentations. The haunting melody of Eicha is moving and beautiful even as it evokes the deep sorrow of this fast day. We will offer prayers and reflections drawing upon the lessons of a Jewish commemoration which still speaks to challenges we face in our own time.

RSVP to attend Tisha B'av Services in Person

Or click here to join via Zoom! 

Usher in the holiday of Torah with an evening of study and discussion. Join us for fascinating presentations that tackle some of the most relevant and hot-button topics.

Join us Tuesday June 11th 6:30-9pm for brief Mincha (afternoon) and Festival Maariv (evening) services, followed by a workshop with Kulanu where we will study classic definitions of antisemitism. In chevrutah pairs and through group discussion we will explore the Torah’s perspective on this oldest form of hatred and consider how we might build alliances with non-Jews. After that we will take a break for some cheesecake and then conclude the evening with some chanting of niggunim (wordless melodies) and learning with Rabbi Aaron about the mystical origins of Shavuot rituals.

Come celebrate Shavuot and the promise of a land of milk and honey with a scoop of ice cream from the Lake Champlain Chocolates Ice Cream Truck! Join us for one or both events!

Live Shavuot Service with Rabbi Ilene Haigh Blessing new babies & 12th graders

Tuesday, June 11 6 pm

Join us as we celebrate the blessing of the "first Fruits" and bless all of our children. Please bring the first cuttings from your garden and a dairy treat for oneg.

In the Sanctuary and on Zoom. Click here to join.