Dear Kol Rinah Family,
Please read to the bottom for important info!
I found myself yesterday around noon repeatedly updating the news apps on my phone. Maybe you were doing the same, or texting and calling friends and family who were in their shelters. Missiles from Iran were in the air, headed toward Israel.
It seems, thank God, that again, this catastrophe has been averted.
We're supposed to approach the High Holidays with awe and trembling, but not with actual, physical fear--not for ourselves, and not for the people we care about.
So much about these Days of Awe feels a little too on the nose, more uncomfortably real than safely metaphorical. Which is all to say, we need these holidays, our Jewish community, and each other, more and differently than last year.
The holidays--the symbols and sounds, the words and liturgy, can comfort us, remind us that what we're feeling is (sadly) familiar to Jewish experience, and offer us hope of a safer year, a secure future. They can also challenge us to love more deeply, to care about more widely, to see and understand more and be reactive less.
Jewish community and Jewish space (aka shul) can allow us to breathe, to not need to check our Jewish selves at the door, to be proudly and loudly (but please not too loud right outside the sanctuary or community hall) Jewish, to live in Jewish holiday time.
Seeing faces familiar and new, reuniting with friends and family, greeting and being greeted with smiling countenances, joining our voices together in song and study--this is a balm that we need.
May we cry out our need this Rosh Hashanah.
May we hear what we need this Rosh Hashanah.
May we hug who we need this Rosh Hashanah.
Here are a few reminders for you throughout Rosh Hashanah:
1. If you are coming in person, please bring your nametag, and wear it. (We'll have extras, and we have the lanyards!)
2. Complete service schedules are available here. Checking out different services is ok!
3. Parking is complicated! Please check details here, and allow extra time to park.
4. At 10:15am on Thursday (first day of Rosh Hashanah), Prof. Nancy Berg will be teaching in the chapel area on:
"Exile: A Jewish Story"
We'll be looking at the roles exile has played in the formation, history, and practice of the Jewish people through a few selected texts.
At 10:15am on Friday (second day of Rosh Hashanah), Prof. Fannie Bialek will be teaching on:
“What does it mean not to understand?”
No one describes “understanding” the story of the Akedah. What does it mean to read, every year, at a high point of the Jewish calendar, a text we struggle so much to understand? Is it good to be so confounded? This discussion will consider the kinds of understanding we might seek in a story like the Akedah, and the kinds of understanding that seem out of reach—and maybe rightly so.
5. In addition to all the kids and family services, there will be a teen gathering on Thursday (first day of Rosh Hashanah) in the courtyard at 12:00pm.
6. If you are volunteering or working at Kol Rinah on the holidays, be kind, be patient, be gentle, be appreciative. And if you see someone volunteering or working here, or if you see anyone here at all, be kind, be patient, be gentle, be appreciative!
7. Livestreams of all indoor services will be available from our website.
8. Please do not wear perfume or cologne, as some people are allergic, and get migraines!
9. Always feel free to bring an appropriate book to read at shul.
10. Usually, one is permitted to cook on a festival day only for that day, and not for the next day. However, since Shabbat comes right on the heels of two days of Rosh Hashanah, we are permitted to cook on the second day of Rosh Hashanah (Friday) to prepare food for Shabbat, as long as we begin our preparations before the festival begins, by making what is called an eruv tavshilin. Click here for instructions.
Wishing you and all of us a Shana Tova uMetukah--a good and sweet year.
See you in shul,
Rabbi Noah Arnow
ZOOM AND STREAMING LINKS
To join our Zoom Minyanim or classes, click on the desired meeting link, or call into either of the following numbers:
+1 312 626 6799
+1 646 558 8656
Then, when prompted, enter the Meeting ID of the desired minyan/class then press #. Then, when prompted, enter the password then press #.
Services (all times Central)
Evening Minyan on Zoom
Sunday-Thursday evenings at 6pm (but not on Jewish holidays)
Morning Minyan on Zoom
Monday-Wednesday and Friday mornings at 7am; Sunday mornings and national holidays at 8am (not including Jewish holidays)
(Please note that Thursday morning minyan is now being held in-person at 7am (8am on national holidays) and is not on Zoom)
Friday nights and Shabbat mornings
Fridays, 6pm in the chapel (no streaming)
Saturdays, 9:00am (9:30am when we are doing our musical Kol Chadash service)
Click the link below, for the stream, as well as for additional instructions:
https://www.kolrinahstl.org/kr-streaming
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Phone: 314-727-1747