Holidays
 Here is an excerpt from Rabbi Steve Booth's Rosh Hashanah sermon from this year. Download the complete sermon.
A couple summers ago, I was sailing a large rented sailboat on Lake Dillon with Rabbi Soloway from Boulder. I was thrilled to discover he was as experienced and skilled a sailor as I, as he grew up ocean racing in England. It was just the two of us, a somewhat blustery late spring day, but we were doing fine. As the wind slowly built up however, I was steering, and I said: “Marc, I know its a pain, but if we reefed the main down a bit, it would be easier to steer and we’d have more control.” He agreed, and we did it.
As he finished with the sail and looked back to me from the deck, as we both started to nod that yes, this was better, ....BOOM! -- ....we heard something pop....
 
This year, the Muslim holiday of Ramadan began on the first night of Rosh Hashana.
The Detroit News reported how Jews and Muslims in the Detroit area are using this rare occurrence to build bridges between their communities.
Read the attached report of a Muslim-Jewish Friday night dinner hosted by members of the Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Havurah.
 Caught Dovening
Growing up in a non-Jewish area was always awkward around holidays. These were not days of reflection and celebration that they were meant to be, but instead, holidays were a time when I was elected by my non-Jewish peers as the resident rabbi. As one of the few Jewish kids in my high school of 2,200 students, my non-Jewish peers were a pretty large demographic, and like me, knew next to nothing about Jewish culture, religion, and history.
Since I was a “graduate” of Judaism, having been Bar-Mitzvahed, I did know more than most, but ‘most’ was a high school filled with kids whose reaction to my Jewishness was, “Oh, so you don’t celebrate Christmas?” In this question lay the core of what a Jewish kid was to most other kids in a non-Jewish area—that poor soul, who, running down to the menorah on Christmas morning, finds nothing but coal.
 Rabbi Shai Gluskin blows the shofar in Elul, 5767 in advance of the New Year of 5768.
The sounds are: 1 Tekiah, Shevarim, three mournful tones, Teruah 9 staccato notes, and finally one Tekiah. Each of the four (Tekiah, Shevarim, Teruah, and Tekiah) should consist of one "measure" taking up the same amount of time.
Video taken by Joe Getzoff.
There is a gaping hole
in the body of the Jewish people
about fifty years old
and slowly healing
Some try to cover it with bandages
but the wound needs to breathe
Some try to fill it with Land
but I’m afraid it will get infected
Doctors estimate that within one hundred years
scar tissue will begin to form
There is a gaping hole
in the soul of the Jewish people
Some try to fill it with words
 Peach from Australia at Tu Bishvat Time: from my garden in Adelaide[Check out Rabbi Kaminsky's blog. Ed.]
It’s Sunday morning here in Adelaide; at 11:45 a.m. it’s already 102 degrees. Heat is expected to break tomorrow night, and we’re anticipating that with great eagerness.
A visitor to our congregation several months ago wanted to know if people in the Southern Hemisphere reschedule Jewish holidays for six months later than the Northern Hemisphere. It’s true that it’s been an adjustment to think of the High Holy Days as falling in the spring, and to attempt to reimagine Pesach as a fall holiday.
 Baobob at Kibbutz Ein GediTu Bishvat is on February 2-3. Though it lands on Shabbat there are no liturgical changes to the service. Certainly special readings and kiddish (festive food and drink served after a service) that doubles as a Tu Bishvat Seder are welcome and common additions. Add a comment to this post to share your plans/thoughts for Tu Bishvat this year.
Check out these resources:
- Article: The Four Faces Of Tu Bishvat
By Jeremy Benstein
An exploration of the ramifications of Tu Bishvat in the Economic, Spiritual, National-Political and Ecological spheres from ancient times to the present.
- Bibliography: Greening Sustainable Synagogues
By Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb, Nathan Martin
Annotated weblinks and listings of resources to support congregations in their efforts to function in more ecologically sustainable ways, and to support those efforts in the world.
- Bibliography: References for a Values-Based Decision Making Approach to Greening Synagogues
By Roni Handler, Derek Rosenbaum
A collection of resources that help groups engaging in a values-based decision making approach to greening congregational spaces. The list is divided into print and online materials.
- Bibliography: Tu B'Shevat Resources
By Rabbi Shai Gluskin
An annotated list of many web links and one book - all about Tu B'Shevat for children and adults! Includes background information, history, stories, activities, seder readings and more.
- Class Activity: Plant Trees And Protect Wildlife
By Rabbi Amy Klein
An activity from the Jerusalem Bird Observatory explaining how trees support wildlife and inviting kids to collect tzedakah to plant a tree locally.
- Class Activity: Trees Of The Bible
By Rabbi Amy Klein
This is an activity from the Jerusalem Bird Observatory that gives a list of biblical references to different trees and sends kids out into the field to find trees in their own neighborhoods.
- Class Activity: Useful Art Projects Using Recycled Materials
By Rabbi Amy Klein
Directions to make fabric lunch boxes and flowerpots out of used materials you can find around the house. A great Tu Bishvat activity!
- Profile: JRF Resolution on the Environment
By JRF
JRF Plenum resolution on the environment.
- Program Description: Tzedakah And The Jewish Holidays: Giving For Social Change
By Rabbi Shawn Zevit
Ideas for giving opportunities throughout the Jewish year. Connects each Jewish holiday to the concept of tzedakah and recommends a relevant type of benficiary to support.
- Text Compilation: Tu Bishvat Seder Texts
By Rabbi Amy Klein
Three selections you may wish to use in your Tu Bishvat Seder by secular Zionist thinker A. D. Gordon, Haskalah poet Saul Tchernikovsky and Reb Nachman of Bratslav.
 Please explore these resources for Hanukkah from our online resources library.
- Bibliography: Holiday Book List for Educators
By Rabbi Shai Gluskin
Great books for teaching kids about Jewish holidays. Contains a section of general books covering multiple holidays, books to teach about God and the holidays as well as special sections for books about Hanukah and the High Holy Days.
- Dvar Torah: December and Dedication
By Rabbi Toba Spitzer
December is that time of year when being a Jew in America feels particularly complicated. Whether we are dealing with the "December dilemma" or are just a bit overwhelmed by the ubiquity of ...
- Dvar Torah: The United States of Hanukah
By Rabbi Steve Segar
In a 2002 RT article, Rabbi Steve Segar notes, "The Hanukah story contains thematic elements that create cognitive dissonance or even undermine the cultural messages that our communities are attempting to cultivate through the observance of this holiday." Many American Jews might relate to the Helenizing forces more than the Maccabean tendency to root them out. Resonant within the story for many Reconstructionists and others is the struggle to live in multiple "civilizations" simultaneously with integrity.
- Dvar Torah: Three Reasons
By Rabbi Howard Cohen
Along with selecting special haftorot for each week to highlight an aspect of the Torah portion, the rabbis also chose special readings for the holidays. For the first Shabbat of Hanukah the rabbis selected Zechariah 2:14 -4:7. ...
- Essay: A Hanukah Story for the Children of Dor Hadash
By Barbara Carr
A story about a family's struggle to redefine their relationship with Hanukah and rededicate their intentions to the meaning of the holiday. Inspired by Kerry Olitsky's book, Eight Nights, Eight Lights.
- Essay: Who Can Remember?: A Hanukah Story
By Sandy Brusin
An empowering retelling of the Hanukah story that emphasizes theology and remembering rather than miracles or military might.
- How to: Video Demonstration of Lighting the Hanukah Menora and Singing the Blessings
By Rabbi Jeff Eisenstat
Listen and watch Rabbi Jeff Eisenstat as he demontrates lighting the Hanukah menorah. He's also thrown in "O' Hanukah, O' Hanukah" whose famous English words were written by Mordecai Kaplan's daughter, Judith Eisenstein.
- Listserve Thread: Teaching Hanukah: The Myth or the Miracle?
By Sara Mosenkis
Toni Bloomberg Grossman asks the edtalk listserv about how to teach young children about Hanukah, taking into account both the common story of the miracle of the oil and the fact that this is a midrash. Many educators respond with their practical and ideological thoughts about how to teach about Hanukah in a Reconstructionist fashion.
- Music: Light and Dark
By Rabbi Elizabeth Bolton, Rabbi Margot L. Stein
Words and sheet music for three-part vocal harmony for a Hanukah song about differences between dark and light, good and evil. Music and Lyrics by Margot L. Stein. Arrangement by Elizabeth Bolton.
- Program Description: Tzedakah And The Jewish Holidays: Giving For Social Change
By Rabbi Shawn Zevit
Ideas for giving opportunities throughout the Jewish year. Connects each Jewish holiday to the concept of tzedakah and recommends a relevant type of benficiary to support.
- Ritual: One for Each Night: A Hanukkah Study Guide for a Brighter Future
By Congregation Bet Haverim, Atlanta, GA
This award winning Hanukkah home guide includes a nightly ritual of replacing a light bulb in your house with an energy efficient CFL bulb, short teachings about the importance of saving energy, a light bulb joke, and a blessing. A great way of giving focus to Hanukkah at home.
- RT Article: The United States of Hanukkah
By Rabbi Steve Segar
Integrating the themes of bicultural identity
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