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The Yamim Noraim (Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur) are here. We’re tasked with reflecting on our lives and practicing teshuvah (returning). Through teshuvah we examine our actions over the past year, seek forgiveness from ourselves, others, and the Divine and dedicate ourselves to do better next year. These sacred days provide an opportunity to ask ourselves the hardest questions and explore all the nooks and crannies of our thoughts, words, and actions over the past year. What’s beautiful about this process...

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Challah is special bread for Shabbat.  In the poor homes of Eastern Europe, the daily fare was rough black bread. But on Shabbos the bread was a special loaf of white flour and eggs, decorated with poppy or sesame seeds. In some homes the challah is torn apart (to avoid using a knife which can be a weapon) and pieces are handed or tossed around to each guest. For others, the challah is sliced and passed on a special Shabbat platter....

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Over the course of our Yom Kippur prayers, we recite the Al Chet over and over again. V’al kulam, Elo’ah s’lichot, s’lach lanu, m’chal lanu, kaper-lanu. “For the ways in which we have fallen short, oh God, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement,” we say. We take collective responsibility for our communal shortcomings, even for the ways in which we may not have failed individually. We acknowledge both our conscious and unconscious failings. Al chet shechatanu lifanecha b’imutz ha’lev v’al...

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.‬בָּרוּךְ‭ ‬אַתָּה‭ ‬יְיָ‭ ‬אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ‭ ‬מֶֽלֶךְ‭ ‬הָעוֹלָם‭ ‬בּוֹרֵא‭ ‬פְּרִי‭ ‬הַגָּֽפֶן Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melech ha’-olam borei p'ri ha-gafen. Blessed be You, the One who creates the fruit of the vine.

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In the sixteenth century, the small town of Safed, located in the mountains of Galilee in northern Israel, was a center of Jewish mysticism. Solomon ben Moses Halevi Alkabets was one of the many mystics who lived and studied there. On Friday nights, Alkabets and his colleagues would dress in white like bridegrooms and joyously dance and march through the fields outside town to greet the Sabbath, which is depicted in both Talmud and in mystical texts as a bride and...

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No matter what temper tantrum or adolescent rebellion marked the week that is past, we take a moment to place our hands on our children’s heads and to offer them words of pure love. The blessing for boys derives from Jacob’s blessing to his grandsons, Ephraim and Menashe, who are the first pair of siblings in the Bible who love each other rather than fight each other. The blessing for girls invokes the memory of our four matriarchs — Sarah, Rebekah,...

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Hear, Oh Israel, The universe is one. All humanity is one. Shma Yisroel Ha-olam echad! Ha-enoshiut echad! And you shall love your fellow humans With all your heart And all your soul, And all your might! These words inscribe on your heart And on your doorposts. Repeat them and teach them to your children By day and by night. Teach them to revere all life.

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It’s time to say thank you. To your host or to your guests. To the people who have supported you through the last year, and the people who inspire you going forward. Say a real thank you--be as specific as you can, because thank yous are like fuel--they power us for the year to come. And don’t forget to thank God (or the creator/the Universe/the mystical source of connection) one more time for the year you just had, and the one...

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Light one candle, and use that candle to light the others. Draw your hands up three times around the lights, toward your face, and then place them over your eyes to recite the following: ברוך אתה יי אלהינו מלך העולם  אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו להדליק נר של שבת Ba-rukh a-ta A-do-nai, Elo-hei-nu me-lekh ha-olam, a-sher ki-d’shanu b’mitz-vo-tav,  v’tzi-va-nu l’had-lik ner shel Shabbat. We praise God, ruler of everything, who made us holy through obligations, commanding us to light the Shabbat candles....