September/October/November 2012 - Congregation Mishkan Tefila

PREPARING FOR THE HIGH
HOLIDAYS, 5773
Rabbi Leonard Gordon
Of course Amichai
is right. None
of us expects
the single day of Yom
Kippur to make us feel at
one with ourselves, our
families, our communities,
or our God. By anticipating
Yom Kippur months
in advance and spreading
the work of Yom Kippur
over the face of the year,
Amichai invites us to share his understanding that sins
as ripe as grapes are not atoned for in a single day. But
this work of anticipation fills the poet with a holy dread
and he wants to be forgiven already, assured somehow
that he will make it to Yom Kippur.
This poem resonates with me. For me, too, holy
dread sets in approximately three months before
Rosh Hashanah. You may be reading these words in
September, but I sit here writing them in July, feeling
summer’s joys as I am already aware of summer’s
inevitable surrender to fall.
This year, I am not alone in anticipating the holidays.
Preparing for the High Holidays is a professional/
volunteer partnership and you will be hearing many
new voices this year at our services. Along with Cantor
Finklestein, our organist Jonathan Barnhart, and the
Choir, Dr. Wolok and myself, we will be joined by our
new Associate Rabbi, Marcia Plumb. Rabbi Plumb will
lead some of our services and deliver the main sermon
on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.
A Song of Yom Kippur
by Yehuda Amichai
Forgive me now already, three months
Before the Awesome days of forgiveness
I fear I shall not get there.
I spread out Yom Kippur over the face
of the whole year.
Grapes take a season to ripen.
So how can sins and their
atonement ripen in one day?
On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, we will again be
joined by Israel’s council general in New England, Shai
Bazak, to offer words of greeting and his own personal
New Year message. Torah reading this year will be a
shared responsibility, and we will hear from teens and
adults who have learned the unique trop for these
special days. The Haftorah readings will be chanted by
Ronya Gordon, Judy Szathmary, Leo Karas and Walter
Einstein.
The opportunity to introduce our torah and haftorah
readings will also be shared. Among those who have
taken on this challenge are Miriam Druckman, Dan
Kimmel, Lisa and David Rubinstein, Becca Heyman
and one of our bnai mitzvah for the coming year,
Andrew Steinberg.
Joining the Cantor to lead parts of the davening will be
Mack Rosenbaum, Jacob Starr and Becca Heyman.
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CONGREGATION
MISHKAN TEFILA
CONGREGATION MISHKAN TEFILA September - November 2012