We invite you to participate with Aitz Hayim this New Year.
Through our years of isolation, we have developed new ways of delivering an authentic and meaningful High Holiday experience. Our prayer books have been replaced with a readings packet to augment the prayers, which appear on a large screen along with meaningful graphic commentary. As ever, we are fully interactive, whether you are in person at the Highland Park Community House or on Zoom anywhere in the world.
Rabbi Elan Babchuck returns in person when Rosh Hashana begins on Friday night, September 15. We are proud that he is assuming leadership of CLAL for the next generation and spearheading work of national significance, with partners ranging from Columbia Business School to the Department of Defense. Here at Aitz Hayim, he will bring his trademark insights, modern interpretations of ancient wisdom, and engaging facilitation of the many ways that our learning will unfold over the holidays together.
David Landau will be back with Judith Golden with prayer that expresses personal, poignant, and spiritual qualities.
Howard Levy, Kalyan Pathak, and Chris Siebold will be with us, not just with music that integrates the traditional with the contemporarily improvised, but also with spiritual sounds that draw even the most “rational.”
Our guides and our adaptive process enable us to use our traditions to express the themes of the holidays and relate them to our challenges. They are extremely personal, dealing with our vulnerabilities, fears, and yearnings. They are communal, choosing from conflicting perspectives to decide which Jewish values we will follow and how we will advocate for them. We are not afraid to deal with disturbing issues that must be faced.
We are an active community that helps resettle immigrants, critique our own values and behaviors, and respond to the changes in the world with the way we act.
The High Holidays bring us all together to build on our last year and prepare for the future. Gather your friends and family to share in our extraordinary approach.