Shabbat Shuvah/Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur is a day of turning inward. But it is also a day of turning outward to community, when the barriers that isolate us from each other gradually melt away. Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter of Ger explained that, since those barriers are symptoms of our sins, atonement causes them to disappear. As we are purified from sin, we recognize our deeper unity with others, which was always there beneath the surface.

The opposite is also true. Not only does atonement bring us closer to each other, but our closeness to each other helps us in the process of atonement. The work of teshuvah, of changing course, is too hard for anyone to do alone. We find the strength to meet that challenge in the knowledge that we stand with others doing the same work. It is as members of a sacred community that we find the courage to grow.

May we draw strength from one another on this Yom Kippur, and may our journey of atonement strengthen our community.

• The New Shul’s Shabbat services are on Friday evenings from 6 to 7 pm, and on Saturday mornings from 9 am to 12 noon. The kiddush-lunch this Shabbat, October 5, will be sponsored by Ada Anbar in memory of her husband Michael Anbar.
• Childcare is available on Shabbat mornings from 10 am to noon.
• Yom Kippur begins on Tuesday evening October 8. The full schedule of Yom Kippur services on Tuesday evening and Wednesday is available here.
• Our services for the first two days of Sukkot, Monday and Tuesday October 14 and 15, begin at 9 am.
• Our service for Sh’mini Atzeret, Monday October 21, begins at 9 am.
• Join us for hakafot and dancing on the evening of Simhat Torah, Monday October 21, at 7 pm. Our service for the morning of Simhat Torah, Tuesday October 22, begins at 9 am.
• Please note that there will be no e-bulletin next week. The bulletin will resume on Thursday October 17.