High Holydays

Services are conducted in our Sanctuary in the Reform tradition and in our Chapel in the Conservative tradition. At TBA, we know that there are many ways to express one’s Judaism. There are also different ways to worship and celebrate. We offer a variety of prayer services and holiday programs designed to encourage our members to experiment and stretch. Likewise, we not only have services that speak to adults on their level, but also services aimed at toddlers and school-age children. Additionally, many of our services are free and open to the community.

Children’s Activity Center

TBA will provide babysitting by reservation only for Rosh Hashanah Morning services – Days 1 and 2, and Yom Kippur Morning services (Note: We are no longer offering babysitting services on Erev Rosh Hashanah, Kol Nidrei or the afternoon of Yom Kippur). Children (ages 2-10) will be provided with snacks and high holyday-themed, age appropriate craft projects and music in Nursery School and Religious School classrooms. Children must be signed into their age appropriate classroom and won’t be able to leave unless accompanied by a responsible parent, guardian or authorized person.

Preparing for the Days of Awe

The Hebrew month of Elul, which begins Saturday, August 31 at sundown, calls us to a month of emotional and spiritual preparation. In Sephardic synagogues the shofar is sounded each morning of Elul as a way of reminding the worshipers that the Holydays are coming. Once again this year we will be adapting that custom, sounding the shofar at TBA each Friday evening just before candle-lighting. We hope you’ll join us for that.

Of course, the sounding of the shofar is only a symbol, calling us to do important preparatory work in advance of the Holydays. We are required to take a cheshbon ha-nefesh – literally “an accounting of the soul.” Our job is to think about the past year, about what we’ve done well and what we haven’t. To list those to whom we owe apologies, and from whom we’d like forgiveness. To decide if there are people in our life to whom we should offer forgiveness – sometimes the most difficult task of all. The few brief hours of the High Holyday services – and the few brief minutes of the silent prayer during those services – are not nearly enough time to do all the thinking that needs to be done.