The High Holiday season begins with Elul, the preparatory month leading up to Rosh Hashanah. This year, Elul begins on the evening of Thursday, August 13th. During this month, we have an abundance of offerings to help our bodies and souls land more deeply in this moment, as we begin to turn ourselves toward Rosh Hashanah.
Rosh Chodesh Elul Shabbaton
Aug 14th, 7pm – Aug 16th, 10:30am | Alliance, OH
Join us for a shabbaton at the farm, as we enter the month of Elul, the preparatory month leading up to Rosh Hashanah, and begin to orient ourselves toward this sacred season.
✨✨ Join us for part or all of the retreat ✨✨ Everyone is welcome! ✨✨ Kids can run around and explore the farm! ✨✨
Kabbalat Shabbat with Nariya
Friday, August 21st | 5:00pm Kids Dinner | 6:00pm Service | 7:15pm Dinner | Register HERE for dinner only | Heights Theater (Coventry Village) | ADA accessible | All ages
Join us for our monthly musical Kabbalat Shabbat with Nariya Cleveland! Afterward, join us for a vegetarian shabbes dinner with DF and GF options.
Registration required by August 18 at 5pm only if you plan to stay for dinner.
Questions? Contact Rabbi Micah.
Co-sponsored by CJC, Kol HaLev, and Mitsui Collective.
Note: There will be an early pasta dinner for kids and their families beforehand at 5pm. During dinner, kids will also be able to get glitter, face paint, and glow sticks in preparation for Kabbalat Shabbat.
Interested in joining the prayer leadership circle? Whether you want to sing or play an instrument, everyone is welcome to join the leadership circle. We meet the Thursday evening beforehand to rehearse. Contact Rabbi Micah for more info.
CJC Meetup @ Tomato Tasting Festival
Saturday, August 22nd | 10:00am-12:00pm | Cuyahoga Valley Farmers Market
Join CJCniks at the annual Tomato Tasting Festival at the Cuyahoga Valley Farmers Market, as we honor the earth’s harvest near summer’s end.
Taste your way through 35+ varieties of locally grown tomatoes — from sweet cherry tomatoes to colorful heirlooms and everything in between. Discover new favorites while enjoying chef demonstrations, vendor tastings, family-friendly activities, live market energy, and plenty of summer flavor. We’ll meet up near the Festival entrance at 10am – if you arrive later, text Louise to find out where we are.
(The festival begins at 9am, but we’ll be meeting up starting at 10am)
Coming Up on September
Marge Piercy
The New Year is a great door
that stands across the evening and Yom
Kippur is the second door. Between them
are song and silence, stone and clay pot
to be filled from within myself.
I will find there both ripeness and rot,
What I have done and undone,
What I must let go with the waning days
and what I must take in. With the last
tomatoes, we harvest the fruit of our lives.
Elul Magic: Ritual, Relics, and Ruach
Saturday, August 29th | 3:00-9:00pm | come to part or all | River Grove, North Chagrin Reservation (map)
Registration is closed but you are still welcome to join us — we cannot guarantee tallis-making materials for folks who didn’t pre-register, but there will be plenty of amulet supplies!
As we near the threshold of the New Year, we will learn about Rosh Hashanah Magical symbols and create an altar with these symbols. We will then have the opportunity to create our own amulets and/or tallis to help us enter the new year with protection and blessing. We will close with dinner and havdalah.
All magic/ritual/craft materials will be provided. We will provide 10 sets of diaspora tsitsis (tallis fringes) hand spun by Kohenet Ori Zusha, as well as yarn that can be used as tsitsis. You are also welcome to bring your own scarf/fabric and/or yarn to turn into a tallis (you will need to sew small button holes into the 4 corners in advance). (Please note that tsitsis are only for Jewish adults age 13 or older.)
- 3:00 Create altar
- 3:30 Learning
- 5:00 Make amulets & talleysim
- 7:00 Dinner
- 8:30 Havdalah
Please bring a vegetarian side dish if you’re able, to supplement the entrees provided by our potluck hosts. Thank you!
- To fit with the theme of the day, we invite you to bring dishes that have spiritual or emotional significance for you, or that you associate with Rosh Hashanah.
- Symbolic foods for Rosh Hashanah include: apples, honey, carrots, pomegranates, dates, sesame seeds, legumes such as green beans/lentils/black eyed peas, leeks, beets, round challah, eggs, anything round or circular
Access:
- Wheelchair accessible pavilion and park
- Romtec ADA vault toilets (non-flushing)
Soul Candles & Selichot
Saturday, September 5th | come to part or all | Adult oriented
4:30 measure wicks | Lakeview Cemetery (meetup here, near the bathroom & marker 24 – see map & access info below)
6:00pm dinner & make candles | 8:00pm Selichot Service | The Cultural Arts Center at Disciples Christian Church | wheelchair accessible
A week before Rosh Hashanah, join us as the doors of tshuvah (returning/repentance) begin to crack open. We will orient our hearts and bodies toward the Days of Awe in a few different ways. You’re welcome to join for any or all parts.
4:30pm – We will begin in Lakeview Cemetery (meetup here or see map below) in order to reclaim the Ashkenazi women’s folk practice of measuring wicks for soul candles. (All genders welcome!) Annie Cohen explains, “for centuries, Jewish women in Eastern Europe measured cemeteries and graves with thread [during Elul]. They used the threads to make special neshome likht [soul candles] [for Yom Kippur].” This practice acknowledges our fragility and vulnerability, and embodies our hopes and fears for the coming year.
Access:
In the cemetery, we will be in an area where there is access both to flat grassy fields with tombstones, and to paved paths. We will mostly be standing for this portion, with a few chairs available.
6:00pm – After measuring wicks, we will head to the courtyard of Disciples Christian Church in Cleveland Heights for dinner (provided by CJC) and to create our candles. As we do so, we will call on our ancestors (literal and spiritual), set intentions, and invoke blessings. We’ll also have a chance to get creative, as we design and decorate our candles.
8:00pm – We will close with a Selichot* service, full of yearnful song and soulful prayer, as we bring ourselves into this sacred time of year. During this service, we will light our soul candles and dress the Torah in her white mantle for the High Holiday season.
*In Ashkenazi tradition, we begin saying Selichot prayers the Saturday night that is between 1/2 and 1 week before Rosh Hashanah. Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews begin this practice at the beginning of Elul.
What to Bring:
- A photo, trinket, or anything else that reminds you of an ancestor (biological, chosen, spiritual, political). We will use these items to help us connect with these people. (Don’t worry if you don’t have something to bring, you will still be able to make candles and connect with ancestors!)
- A journal for journaling prompts during Selichot (we will have paper and pens too)
- We’ll provide everything else!