Sneak Preview of High Holidays (FREE EVENTS + MORE)

Sneak preview of all our High Holidays events, details on free tickets and more.

TICKETS AT KEHILLAHRVA.ORG

• Rosh Hashanah Evening Service | Sept 22 - 6:30PM
• Rosh Hashanah Day Service | Sept 23 - 9:30AM
• Shabbat Shuvah Dinner at Rabbi’s | Sept 26 - 6PM
• Shabbat at VA Pridefest | Sept 27 - Noon-8PM
• High Holidays Kids Event at Art Factory | Sept 28 - 5:30PM
• Kol Nidre Evening Service | October 1 - 7PM
• Yom Kippur Day Service | Oct 2 - 10AM
• Yom Kippur Yizkor/Neilah Service & Break Fast | Oct 2 - 6PM

Thank you to Rebbetzin Stefanie (tefillah), Robin, Sophia, Matt, Austin and Avi (service leadership and support), Pam (food and beverage), Jessica (kids), and all our volunteers. 

FREE TICKETS for volunteering. Just go to Kehillah Cares and fill out the form.

FREE ONLINE LEARNING! Use coupon code KEHILLAH for free downloads of some awesome High Holidays lessons.

Services held at the offices of Commonwealth Autism unless otherwise specified.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

I'm Rabbi Patrick, and welcome to Kehillah. I am so thrilled to be talking about High Holidays right now. I know, I know you're like, oh my gosh, I'm ready to just turn this thing off because that's a month from now and I don't want to hear about it, Rabbi Patrick, but I got to talk about it, right? Because here's the thing. Here's the Kahila thing. You got to tell people probably a million times about something so that they hear it on the like 999,000th time, right? That's just kind of the way it is. That's okay. We've got busy lives. We've got other stuff going on. So I'm here to tell you. All About High Holidays. Let's kick it off, actually, with our opening Kava note, our opening intentions. So what are your intentions? Are you trying to get some spirit into your day? Do you want to connect with Kehila right now? And maybe it's been a while and this is kind of your way of doing it when you can't come to stuff. Are you sitting in carpool and it's like, man, I need something to get me through the day, right? Or maybe you're ending your day and you're ending it on a high note. Let's do this. This comes from our High Holidays booklet. It's a meditation that's used for Yom Kippur. So take a deep breath. Relax into these words. Even as I regret my weakness, I rejoice in my accomplishments. Let these achievements lead to many others. May I be blessed with the sense of having grown in goodness and compassion and let my actions testify to my worth as a partner in the creation of goodness in life. Isn't that affirming, right? It is okay to be excited about your accomplishments even as you regret those weaknesses in your life. All right. Now, the fun stuff. Let's talk about high holidays. Oh, my goodness. So, Kehila, right? Hebrew word for community. So, let's talk about the team first. So, Rebbetzin, right? She was the last episode. Leading Tefillah. Kirtan is back and better than ever. And Robin's going to be helping out, of course. She'll be on guitar. Stephanie will be on harmonium. We got our buddy, Matt, who's going to be doing some Torah reading. We got Austin on the shofar. Sophia just signed up. She's going to be helping out with some music, too. And for Yom Kippur, we're going to have our friend Avi from Peace With. He's going to do some meditation stuff. I am excited. Now, our buddy Pam, oh my goodness, Pam Shaw, okay, as in like great food, amazing food. Like her and Brittany, it's just like we are so blessed in this community to have people who are great cooks. So Pam's going to be on it with the food and beverage stuff. Totally excited about that. And guess what? what? If you want to volunteer to help make that happen, I know Pam's going to need your help. And I'm going to talk more about volunteering in a bit. But Pam is on it. Fantastic stuff. We're going to do some kid stuff. And we got to thank Jessica for this because she's spearheading this whole thing. Oh, the kid stuff is going to be great. And preemptively, I want to thank, you know, Ashton and Sean and Carol and Don, all of these people who I know when we're trying to like get set up or when we're trying to, you know, pack it all up and go, they're going to be on it with cleaning right they're the people who sign up to do that stuff and it's just freaking awesome i love everything about it and what about you let's talk about you for a minute so um we got all kinds of events i'm going to tell you about the actual events themselves but um you know you can sign up to volunteer for all kinds of things so you just hit me up rabbi at rabbi patrick.com and if you're into the food portion of this if you're into the setup cleanup side of this if you're someone who wants to be a little more behind the scenes you know whatever it is that interests you, I am sure that we have something that you can do. So just let me know, rabbi, at rabbipatrick.com, and I will then connect you with the right person. So thank you again, Stephanie, Robin, Matt, Austin, Sophia, Avi, Pam, Jess, Carol, Don, Ashton, Sean, all of these people, and you, and more. And, you know, thank you, Rabbi, because sometimes I do things pretty cool too. Okay, let's get to it. So high holidays this year are going to be held at Commonwealth Autism, unless we say otherwise. So this organization is fantastic. I love these people. Commonwealth Autism is a proud advocate for the autistic community in Virginia, providing innovative support through specialized programs. So they do life skills, employment skills. They run a grocery store, which is kind of cool. And they have a commercial kitchen that they've set up. And so they're going to do some stuff around that. This building that they have, they acquired it, I think it was couple years ago, and they're just now at a point where they're really going full steam ahead. So just absolutely love these people, and we're so excited. You know, it's wonderful to have partners of any kind, right? And we've got other people we need to talk about and other places we need to talk about. But to get to work with a nonprofit this year for the majority of our space, I am just all about that. That's just so freaking cool. Okay, so let's get to the meat of this thing. We have something for every day. So let's get started with Erev Rosh Hashanah. So that's going to be September 22nd, 6.30 p.m. We're going to do some light snacks followed by the service. I'm excited about, you know, the snacks because we're going to do food and beverage before as opposed to after. So when you show up to things, you can kind of schmooze, have a little wine, have something to eat. Your kids can do stuff. There will be little activities for everyone of all ages to do. So kind of have a It's a nice social component, and then we'll all work together after service to clean up and move out of there. So that's Rosh Hashanah evening, Rosh Hashanah day. Continental breakfast beforehand, 9.30 a.m., followed by the service. And like I said, we're going to do a Torah service. We're going to do Kirtan. It's going to be just lovely. So we'll have that September 23rd, 9.30 a.m. So let's say you can't do the 22nd or the 23rd, right? You're like, Rabbi, that's weekdays. And like, let's be honest, I'm going to be at work. And yes, it's great that you're going to have stuff for kids to do, but I need like a kid service. Otherwise, my kids are going to drive me crazy. So let's say that's not for you. Hey, no big deal. You could also come to the Shabbat Shuvah dinner. So we do this thing every year, and it's just kind of a quirky thing, but we do a high holidays themed Shabbat dinner in between Rosh Hashanah and Yom So that's not going to be at the Commonwealth Autism Center. That'll be held at my home. And, you know, I've talked about Hedor Meats, right? So this is this really great organic kosher farm outside of Charlottesville. So they are providing turkey and ground beef and brisket and all kinds of wonderful stuff. I'm so excited about that. Can you tell that I haven't had lunch? Right? But this is going to be really great. I want you to imagine you just come to the rabbi's home. Rebetzin's there. You're friends are there you just have a dinner we sing a few songs right and it's a spiritual experience for someone who doesn't want service right you want to be in community but that's happening very excited that's going to be in our home in midlothian that address is available after you rsvp so let's say okay but rabbi that's an evening thing i'm not an evening person i have to work or i go to bed at 5 p.m or whatever um high holidays kids event at art factor This is going to be a lot of fun. We've never done this before. So if you've gone to our big Hanukkah party that we had at Art Factory, or you went to the Shavuot Mountain of Ice Cream, the Mount Sinai Mountain of Ice Cream party, right? If you've gone to that kind of stuff, you're like, that's what I need. I need something where I can drop off my kids, basically. I can hang out with them, do an art project, have a little snack, do a ritual, meet other Jewish parents. Like maybe that's where I am. Okay. If that's where you are in your Jewish life, then let's thank the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond, who is bringing our friend Lisa and PJ Library. So here's what you can imagine at Art Factory. So you're going to come in. There's going to be a Rosh Hashanah themed, High Holidays themed, I should say, art project. Your kids can do that. We're going to have the bookstore, which is the free bookstore. We're going to have these Trader Joe's like grocery bags. And you can Fill it up with all the books you want. We'll have kids' books, adults' books, all kinds of stuff like that. Take it. We want you to have that. Jewish literacy matters. So fill up those bags. Take them home. That's our gift to you. Of course, we'll have, like, apples and honey and all the little, you know, snacks. Cheese pizza from Sergio's, all that. And then we're going to have, instead of ritual, we're going to have a really cool reading. Now, I can't even believe that we're doing this, but for some time now, Rabbitson and I have been joking about this idea that we should have some kind of book, like a book series that has our cats, Maggie and Toes, as the main characters. And it's, what's it like for Maggie and Toes to live with the rabbi and Rabbitson and be part of Kehillah? Because the number of people that come over to our house, and the thing they're just so pumped about is Maggie and Toes. I mean, this is a very pet-friendly community. So we've got this book that we're working on, and we're going to do story time. And you're going to have to be there. Like, this thing. I mean, it's so fun. We're going to blow up these pages like on gigantic foam board. So it's not like reading a little book to the kids. It's like a big thing. And the theme of the book is the high holidays, so the kids get to learn about the high holidays through Maggie and Toes. And it's just so stupid in like the coolest way. So that's what we're going to do for that. And we're going to do a special giveaway. And I can't tell you what that is, but if you come, you get to be part of a special giveaway. On top of that, our buddies at PJ Library, they're going to do a giveaway of some kind. They're going to be promoting their thing. We're just so excited. Thank you, Lisa. This is going to be so cool. Okay. So that's what you have to look forward to for like Rosh Hashanah and I should also add, so September 26th, Friday night, is the Shabbat. September 28th, the Sunday, 530, is the High Holidays Kids event. In between those, truly Shabbat Shavuot, September 27th is Virginia Pride Fest, right? We have a booth at Pride every year. We are the first and only Jewish presence at Pride. So why don't you come hang out with us? We do need a few volunteers. You can send us an email and we'll kind of slot you in. It's a small booth this year. Normally we do like two booths and it's this big spectacle. I won't get to be there this year, which is a little disappointing, but it's going to be fun. We've got some great volunteers who are helping out and we'd love you to be one of those volunteers. So shoot me a message. We'll talk. We'll get you connected. Super, super cool. We'll be giving away info about the community and all the stuff we have going on. We'll have stickers. We'll have all kinds of little goodies. So if you're going to Pride anyway, swing by, you know. Say Shabbat Shalom to whoever is working there. Come hang out. You don't have to volunteer. You can also just come see us. So that's going to be a lot of fun. Okay, so to recap, Erev Rosh Hashanah, light snacks, followed by service. Rosh Hashanah Day, continental breakfast, followed by service. That's at Commonwealth Autism Center over in Bonaire. Tickets are available High Holidays Shabbat Dinner at the Rabbi's. Thank you, Hedor Meats, for the delicious food. Friday, September 26th. That's going to be at 6 p.m. That's going to be at Midlothian at our house. September 27th, Pride. Very excited about that. Come see us at Virginia Pride Fest. And then Sunday, September 28th, 5.30 p.m., we're going to have the High Holidays Family and Kids event at Art Factory with our friends at PJ Library. Thank you, Jess, for making that possible. Thank you, Lisa, for making PJ Library possible. Are you full yet with all these things we have going on? Okay, so a little bit of a break for a few days, and then we have Kol Nidre. Yom Kippur evening service featuring our buddy Avi Calhoun from Peace With. Avi's a meditation teacher. If you went to Avi's Jewish meditation class that we had over in Scott's edition, it was awesome. It was awesome. So you're going to get a little of that. That's going to be October 1st, 7 p.m. Okay, that's our Kol Nidre. Next day, Yom Kippur day service, again featuring our friend Avi Calhoun from Peace With, October 2nd. That's at 10 a.m. All right. Break for a few hours, and then we have our Yom Kippur concluding service. This is a combination of Yizkor and Ne'ilah. And that's going to be October 2nd, 6 p.m., followed by Breaking the Fast. And thank you again, Pam, for making the Break Fast possible. So my goodness, like so much to do. You can't say we aren't doing enough because we have so many things going on. I'm trying to actually count like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight events. Right. Eight things you can come to and tickets are available for all that. Now, let's let's get into the ticket thing. Right. Because people are going to say, look, like I can't. can't afford a ticket to everything. Well, okay. Come to what you can. We'd love to have you. Come to what you can. Come to what you're most interested in. Come to what's most convenient for you. It's okay. It's okay if there's only like one thing you can come to. No big deal. Come to all of it. We'd love to have you at all of it. Maybe you're like, look, gosh, I want to come to something. I just can't afford. This economy stinks. Like, what do I do? Well, we'll pay for your high holidays tickets. We'll give you a free Rosh Hashanah and Yom you poor tickets. Kehila cares, right? Thank you, Pam. Thank you, Adam, making that possible. So you fill out the form on our site and we get you some free tickets. Now we're going to ask you to volunteer. We need you to come a little early, stay a little bit late. Maybe there's a different project. Maybe it's not about event setup. Maybe there's something else we're going to need your help with. And we're going to need that help. And we're going to need you there, right? Kehila's community. So without you, there's a space that's empty and a free ticket. Hey, who cares? Like, no big deal, because we need your help in other ways than financially. So let us know. Go on our website. Go to Kehila Cares. Let us know what you need tickets for. We're going to get you taken care of. Thank you, Kehila Cares, for sponsoring all of those free tickets. Now, on top of all of that, you're like, okay, can't come to Rosh Hashanah evening, can't come to Rosh Hashanah day, can't come to the Shabbat dinner, can't come to Pride, can't come to the kids event, can't come to Kol Nidre, can't come to the days service, can't come to the concluding service, or, you know, can't afford it or any of it and don't want to ask for a free ticket, what do I do, Rabbi? Oh my goodness, we got you covered. We have online high holidays classes. It is free content. Normally you kind of pay to download that stuff. Nah, it's free. So we have a link here. It's tinyurl.com forward slash hhdpodcast. Tiny And the link is here. You can learn just some takes on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and on the Torah readings for those days. So maybe you just play that in the background while you're baking around challah bread, right? Maybe you just kind of listen to it when you're washing the dishes after you have the Rosh Hashanah dinner with your family or your friends. You know, whatever you need. It's right there. And that's totally free. No big deal. You can have that in the background. So yeah, so we've got a little something for everybody. And I'm just so thrilled. And I can't wait to have you there. I've been working on lots of different themes for the sermons that I'm going to give. I've been thinking a little bit about the idea of what is a Jewish community. I've been thinking about, you know, what is the power of prayer? How do we build a spiritual life? Who are we? Like, what does it mean to be the Jewish people. I've been thinking about what's been going on in Israel and different ways that we can think about how we can have a Jewish and democratic state and how those things aren't in competition with one another after all. And I've been thinking about this idea of Doakite, meaning, you know, making your world better where you are. Yeah, I'm just, I'm pumped. And there are so many things and I'm probably going to blow a gasket because it's so overwhelming. This year is a year of letting go for me. I've made a very direct decision that we're going to decentralize a lot of this. We're going to get a lot of you involved. You know, no one wants dad controlling everything, right? I've been referred to as dad like three times in the past two weeks. So I'm like, oh, you know what? That's some wisdom there. Yeah, maybe it's time. Back off a little bit. You know, you have to hand over control to others because this is Kahila, right? It's not Congregation Stephanie and Patrick, right? It's about Stephanie and her tefillah and Robin and her music, right? It's also Matt, Austin, Sophia, Avi, Pam, Jess, Carol, Don, Ashton, Sean, you, everybody. Yeah, this is going to be like the year. This is the year where we all work on this together. This is going to be a barn raising. This is going to be all of us just trying to, you know, make it happen. And it's going to feel at times like the wheels are falling off the bus. You know, we're going to have people RSVPing for tickets in like the parking lot. I just know it. I know it. And it's going to be great. It's going to be chaotic and there's going to be goof ups and there's going to be all kinds of things. And it's just, it's just, it's us. And I want you to be part of that. So go on the website, RSVP. You can't afford a ticket. We'll take care of it. We've got a couple of events where you don't even like have to pay anything, right? You can come to the, you know, kids event at our factory, even if you don't have a kid. Like, so what? It'd be fun either way, right? Schmooze, get some books, go home, right? Come to Pride. That doesn't cost anything. Come hang out. Get some spiritual wisdom from whoever's volunteering. Doesn't have to come from me. We all have some spiritual wisdom. We all have something to share. So let's do this thing. Let's make this high holidays thing freaking amazing. Let's think about what an accomplishment it is that we get to pull this off, right? We live in what Carl Sagan called the pale blue dot, right? We're Just floating along in a galaxy. And, you know, we're just a tiny little speck. And yet the world was still created for us, right? There's a famous Hasidic idea of the rabbi who has two pieces of paper, one in each pocket. And on one, it says, you know, for you, the world was made. And on the other one, it says, I am but dust and ash, right? In other words, this whole thing is this huge miracle, right? You can even hear, like, I've got some birds chirping in the background. Yeah. Like, all of it. Even, like, the annoying cicadas. Like, all of it. All of it's a miracle. And you get to be part of it. And it's temporary, right? We have short lives. But for right now, you get to be part of it. And you get to be part of this wild thing we do, this Kahila thing. And you get to be part of this new year that we're going into. And I know, look, it's been stressful. Like, we're all going through a lot right now. And people feel like they're just being burned at all ends, right? Yeah. Like, you feel like you're inclusive enough, but then someone tells you you're not. You feel like you're working hard enough, and then someone tells you you're not, right? You're told to do self-care, but don't be greedy with your time, right? Don't be self-centered, right? You're told that, you know, this world is democratic, and there's a place for everybody, and yet you're told, no, we're doing too much for those people, whoever those people are, right? It's just you always feel like from one direction or another, you have to care about your kids and other people's kids, but don't care too much, but don't here too little. I get it. I get it. It's overwhelming. So let's take all that nervous, anxious energy. Let's take all of that I'm failing, I'm failing, what do I do energy that I can barely keep my head above water energy, that frenetic energy that's in all of us right now that's exhausting, and let's pour it out. Let's pour it out into these high holidays. If you like to help cook, Pam's got a spot for you. If you want to help with the kids, now you want to help with setting up that event, Jess has got you. You want to help with cleanup? Goodness, we always need help with setup and cleanup. There are volunteer tickets waiting for you, right? Just so many cool things going on. So many ways to connect. So many ways to do so many things. And we want you to be part of it. And in advance, I want to thank you for it because I know I'm going to listen to this. I mean, I don't really listen to these because I'm the one recording them, but I know I'm going to listen to this and I'm going to think, wow, boy, I was right. I was absolutely right there because so many people wanted to volunteer. So many people saw themselves in this space. So many people connected to the divine. And it's going to be remarkable. And I don't want you to miss it. And here's the thing. After High Holidays, right, like we'll get through it. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be introspective. It's going to be spiritual. It's going to be delicious. It's going to be community. It's going to be music. It's going to be meditation, right? It's going to be parties. It's going to be morning, right? Because we do that too, High Holidays. It's going to be all that and more. And then you're going to make friends. You know, you're going to hang out with some of the women who are kind of co-creating a women's group that's kind of secretly happening right now. Or you're going to hang out with like Ray and Joel and all those people who do the older adults group, right? And that's going to be awesome. Maybe you're going to schedule a coffee with the rabbi and we're going to talk about ways that you can be involved. Because, you know, we didn't have Kahila Cares until we started it last year, last year. high holidays, right? And we didn't have some of the volunteers we have now until high holidays. This is the time. This is the place. So today is Tuesday, August 19th, and you got a while. But I hope you'll sign up. Please, please do me a favor and sign up early. I know that it's tempting to wait until the last second. People oftentimes don't even remember if they signed up. I had a coffee with someone today who was like, I'm volunteering and I don't even know if I signed up. So I get it. We're all overwhelmed right now. But do me a favor. Go on ahead. Go on our website and go on ahead and RSVP for what you can, for what you're interested in. Ask for free tickets if you need it. We're going to give you a volunteer job. But in advance, thank you. Thank you for making Kehila possible. And I bet I will see you in a month. Take care. God bless.