Each Friday in the month of Elul we focus on prayers of reflection (t’shuvah) that mark this holy time in our calendar. We use the special Elul prayerbook, Mishkan HaLev, at these services. The clergy will give sermons or a teaching appropriate for this season of renewal and reflection.
The service on August 14 will be preceded by a Family Shabbat Dinner at 5:30 pm. RSVP here.
Services on August 21 and 28 will be preceded by an oneg at 6:00 pm.
Selichot (a service of forgiveness) is your chance to get yourself in the right head and heart space for the High Holidays. The traditional Selichot liturgy is a series of penitential prayers. At Temple Sinai, we bring the themes of Selichot into our final Shabbat before Rosh HaShanah. At this in-the-round service we will begin to hear the familiar musical themes of the holidays and change the Torah covers to white as we mark our final Shabbat of preparation before the Days of Awe.
This service will be preceded by an oneg at 5:45 pm.
(approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes)
Start your High Holiday season with an unforgettable musical experience. Welcome in Rosh HaShanah with a service meant to open your heart to connection, expand your mind to new Torah, and fill your ears with song. Rabbi Goldstein will deliver the sermon, and the service is meant for congregants of all ages. We will use the Mishkan HaNefesh prayer book (copies will be provided).
(approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes)
Let the sound of the shofar fill your ears and the joyful experience of the full capacity sanctuary lift your hearts as we enter this new year together in song and study. Our sanctuary service will be led by Rabbi Roos and Cantor Rhodes along with the adult choir and Patrick Merrill on piano. Rabbi Roos will deliver the sermon. This service will use the Mishkan HaNefesh prayer book (copies will be provided).
(approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes)
This intimate and joyful service with opportunities for study will be led by Rabbi Melanie Aron and ritual music specialist Emily Groff Heilborn. Allow congregational, guitar-led melodies to lift your spirit and revel in the meaningful and thoughtful sermon. The services include a traditional Torah and Haftarah reading and has limited seating. Celebrate Rosh Hashanah in a tight-knit, haymish community, which will use the Mishkan HaNefesh prayer book (copies will be provided). We are excited to have this service option return to our congregation for 5787.
(approximately 75 minutes)
Rabbi Goldstein and Cantor Robins will lead this service with piano, bass, and percussion. The service will be interactive and casual in style. Families praying with their children will be comfortable here as will individuals who seek an alternative service appropriate for adults. Please be aware that these services will not include the full liturgy and ritual components found in the Sanctuary and Beit Am. These services will follow custom prayer books (copies will be provided).
Join Rabbi Roos and Cantor Rhodes for Tashlich on the afternoon of Rosh HaShanah. Bring your shofar and join the communal shofar blasts as we symbolically “cast our sins upon the waters.” This is an event for everyone – families with young children and adults of all ages are welcome.
(approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes)
Enter the drama and majesty of Yom Kippur with our Kol Nidrei service. Rabbi Roos, Rabbi Goldstein, Cantor Rhodes, and Emily Groff Heilborn will lead the service, along with our adult choir and cello. This service will use the Mishkan HaNefesh prayer book (copies will be provided).
(approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes)
Rabbi Goldstein and Cantor Rhodes will lead our reflective and meaningful morning service. As we reach the pinnacle of this season of teshuva, we open ourselves to the powerful messages of Isaiah and Deuteronomy alongside the traditional prayers of confession, repentance, and renewal. Rabbi Goldstein will give the sermon. This service will use the Mishkan HaNefesh prayer book (copies will be provided).
(approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes)
This intimate and communally connective service will be led by Rabbi Sarah Bassin and ritual music specialist Emily Groff Heilborn. Allow congregational, guitar-led melodies to lift your spirit and revel in the meaningful and thoughtful sermon and opportunities for chevruta (conversation). The services include a traditional Torah and Haftarah reading and has limited seating. Come together on Yom Kippur in a tight-knit, haymish community, which will use the Mishkan HaNefesh prayer book (copies will be provided). We are excited to have this service option return to our congregation for 5787.
(approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes)
Rabbi Roos and Cantor Robins will lead this service accompanied by piano, bass, and percussion. The service will be interactive and casual in style. Families praying with their children will be comfortable here as will individuals who seek an alternative service appropriate for adults. Please be aware that these services will not include the full liturgy and ritual components found in the Sanctuary and Beit Am. These services will follow custom prayer books (copies will be provided).
Yom Kippur is both an annual calendar observance and a life cycle event. The shofar is meant to awaken us to things we have ignored; prayers like unetaneh tokef with its refrain of “who shall live and who shall die” focus on our mortality and how we should use our brief time on earth. There are few topics more worthy of our attention like considering how we want to live and be cared for throughout our lives and especially in our final days, and few tasks more important than sharing those wishes with the people we love and who will care for us.
Please join us for this panel discussion and practical workshop led by our clergy and experts in end-of-life care. We will introduce The Conversation Project, whose goal is: “to help everyone talk about their wishes for care through the end of life, so those wishes can be understood and respected.”
This is not a program only for elders or those with illnesses. In fact, the time to have “The Conversation” is now, at any age but especially before the moments of necessary decision are upon us. Together we can make these difficult conversations easier – both to discern what matters most to us and to talk about it with our family and friends. We will offer tools, guidance, and resources to begin talking with those who matter most about your and their wishes.
Yom Kippur is a time of prayer and introspection, and it is also a day when we are asked to stand before God as our most vulnerable selves. Our afternoon healing service is open to all who seek a comforting and peaceful place to pray for healing of body, mind, and soul. The service will combine the traditional mincha liturgy and Torah service along with expanded healing liturgy and meditation, is led by Rabbi Roos, Cantor Rhodes, Rabbi Goldstein, and Emily Groff Heilborn.
On Yom Kippur afternoon, join Cantor Robins and Emily Groff Heilborn, together with your children, for a Family Yizkor observance that provides space for remembering in a developmentally responsive and liturgically sound way. Whether you and your family are remembering a parent, grandparent, friend, teacher, pet…join us to remember together, to grieve together, and to allow the wisdom of our tradition to mingle with the psychology of grief work for children in a beautiful, helpful, musical, colorful, and holy space.
Attendees must have Yom Kippur afternoon tickets to attend this service. We also invite you to share a bit about the loved one you are remembering in advance here.
This program is made possible through the Shomer Collective‘s Educator Fellowship, and is the final project of CR’s participation in this fellowship.
The Yizkor memorial service features heartfelt songs, poems, and liturgy that honor the memory of our loved ones and invite us into a space of reflection and connection. We will light candles to represent our collective and individual losses and memorialize our loved ones as we enter the New Year. The service is led by Rabbi Roos and Cantor Rhodes with the adult choir and will use Mishkan HaNefesh (copies will be provided).
The concluding N’ilah service of Yom Kippur marks the final moments of the day with urgent prayers, open-hearted reflection, and the symbolic closing of the gates of heaven. At the end of this musical and spirited service, we conclude with the final “Great Sounding (Tekiah Gedolah)” of the shofars and Havdalah, the ritual marking the conclusion of the holiday. The service is led by Rabbi Roos, Cantor Rhodes, Rabbi Goldstein, Cantor Robins, Emily Groff Heilborn, and our adult choir. Prayerbooks will be provided. We expect to end N’ilah and break the fast as a congregation at approximately 7:00 pm.
The congregational break-fast is sponsored by the Temple Sinai Men and Women of Reform Judaism.
(approximately 45 minutes)
Join Rabbi Roos and Emily Groff Heilborn for a special service designed and led for our youngest children (ages 0-5) and their loved ones in the Temple Sinai Sanctuary. This service will also feature a special welcome for all the new babies born in the previous year.
(approximately 2 hours)
Join the Temple Sinai community of young families for our Fall Festival! Featuring activities, crafts, treats, moon bounce, and more!
(approximately 45 minutes)
Join Rabbi Goldstein and Emily Groff Heilborn in the sanctuary for a service designed for our community’s youngest members (0-5 years old), featuring a special Yom Kippur story and engaging music to help our children grasp the meaning of this powerful day.