High Holidays Resource Page
This will be a very strange High Holiday period. We will not be together. We cannot rely on each other as before for a spiritual experience. Instead we will be praying and singing a bit over the Internet and coming together in small groups for short periods. The spiritual experience will need to come almost exclusively from our own hearts. To make this experience deeper, we have created this page for you to use as a library of knowledge for your own learning
Preparing for the High Holidays
For a “primer” on the High Holidays, CLICK HERE. This gives you a general reminder of the major themes and put you in the mind frame of the high holidays.
Books and other reading material for adults to prepare for the period
Lectures by Rabbi Shai Held:
Turning towards Chesed - Compassion and the Heart of Jewish Spirituality
This is a very readable book by Alan Lew, z”l. He was the original “Bu-Jew” combining his earlier adoption of Buddhism with his rabbinic training.
Lew, Rabbi Alan THIS IS REAL AND YOU ARE COMPLETELY UNPREPARED, Back Bay Books, Little Brown, 2003
Teshuvah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJjStwS07aY
Why don’t people ever seem to change and how we could. Lecture by Shai Held
How can we really change? Lecture by Elie Kaunfer
When Repentance is (im)possible? podcast by Ethan Tucker
Tzedakah
Tzedakah is not charity. The word tzedakah derives from the word tzedek, צדק , which means justice. When you perform tzedakah, you are repairing an injustice. This implies, of course, that poverty is injustice. Maimonides (the Rambam) wrote about tzedakah in the Mishna Torah, tractate “Gifts to the Poor” Ch 10:7-14:
Deep learning on the High Holidays from Hadar click here
PLAYLIST
The Fountainheads “Rosh Hashanah”. Kind of a kids song, but it always gets me in the mood!
A beautiful version of Ufros Aleinu. This is sung every Friday night, part of Hashkieveinu.
A silly mashup of High Holyday tunes. Enjoy!
An even sillier mashup of melodies through history, mostly concentrating on the 20th century.
Yehuda Meir sings Hayom Harat Olam to the tune we all use for Avienu Malcheinu
Feeling meditative? Here’s an alternative prayer for healing “El Na Rafa Na La”. Nothing to do with the high Holydays, though.
Especially for Rosh Hashana: R Zimmerman, “Highway 61 Revisited”
Especially for Yom Kippur: Nina Simone “Sinnerman”
Avodah
If you’re like me, the Avodah service, which comes in early afternoon traditionally, has been a time for taking a little nap. After listening to this Shiur, I’ll stay awake in future! This lecture is about an hour long and explanation and interpretation of the Avodah service. CLICK HERE.
This song, Seder haAvodah by Ishay Ribo, is referenced in the above lecture, Here it is with English translation. Just a few minutes, but worth it to reinterpret the Avodah service.
How to blow a Shofar – CLICK HERE for video.
The moment we wait for! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k_Orlkk9Ww&t=64s