CBI Wants You…to help build our Sukkah!

Dear Congregation Beth Israel members and friends,

Yom Kippur is almost upon us. And four days after Yom Kippur comes Sukkot, the festival of booths / tabernacles, in which we build little houses in our backyards and “dwell” in them (or at least dine in them) for a week.

You’ve heard the proverb “many hands make light work.” Please come add your hands to ours on Sunday, September 30, as we build our sukkah at 2pm! It’s not difficult labor, but it gets so much easier when we have multiple people on hand to help set things up.

(And if you happen to have anything which would make a good sukkah decoration — strings of lights, autumn wreaths, anything waterproof — bring it along!)

Then join us to rejoice in the sukkah on Friday evening, October 5, at 5:30pm with a potluck. (More on that later.) And feel free to reserve the CBI sukkah for your own use anytime during the week, if you want to host a dinner party or come enjoy tea or wine under the stars — there’s a sign-up sheet in the hallway near the restrooms.

Thanks for lending your hands and your hearts to our celebration of this wonderful festival. Look forward to seeing you soon!

Blessings,

Reb Rachel

Three Yom Kippur customs, explained

Dear Congregation Beth Israel members and friends,

Soon we will gather again for the awesome journey of Yom Kippur. For those who are interested, here are explanations of three Yom Kippur customs: wearing white, wearing a tallit for Kol Nidre, and avoiding leather.

Why do we wear white on Yom Kippur?

Some say that we wear white on Yom Kippur to be like the angels. We yearn to ascend, to be lighter, more clear and transparent. Another interpretatation is that we wear white on Yom Kippur as an approximation of the white garments in which we will be buried. (Some of us may even wear a kittel, a simple white cotton robe, which is worn at marriage and for burial.) As members of our chevra kadisha know, every Jew is buried in the same simple shroud: plain white garments, the same for everyone, men and women, rich and poor. Wearing white is a reminder of our mortality.

Our tradition teaches that it is a mitzvah to make teshuvah, to repent and to clear one’s personal and interpersonal slate, the day before death. But how do any of us know when we will die? Aha, say the sages; then we must make teshuvah every day. And surely this is true. But there is something particularly special and meaningful about the teshuvah we make on Yom Kippur, perhaps because on this day we get in touch with our mortality. As we face death, we become more honest with ourselves, with others, and with God.

On Yom Kippur, wearing the garments we will wear when we die is a stark reminder that we stand every day on the edge of life and death.