Resources for Reflection and Renewal
The High Holy Days, and the month of Elul leading up to them, is a time many of us engage in personal preparation for this season of awe, and go in search of readings, experiences, and practices that make us more receptive to the holiness of the season and the possibility of teshuvah, renewal. We've compiled this list of readings, meditations and rituals for those who want to enrich or deepen their High Holy Days experience.
Many of the resources we've gathered here will be particularly helpful to those who celebrate the High Holy Days at home, joining services remotely thanks to Zoom or watching a livestream. Resources marked with a red asterisk are particularly appropropriate for those observing the holidays at home,especially the ideas for creating a sacred space in your home. Others show you how to do at home what we usually do together: Tashlich, Rosh Hashanah seders, and activities designed to open us to the possiblity of change and growth. We hope you enjoy them.
RESOURCES THAT SPAN THE YAMIM NORAIM (DAYS OF AWE)
- Seeker Season* A High Holiday Guidebook For The Curious & Courageous (from Recustom.com)
- Turn and Return* Food for thought for Rosh Hashanah through Sukkot. (from Recustom.com)
- Readings for Reflection on these Days of Awe* from JRC, Evanston, IL
- Guide to the High Holy Days from Interfaithfamily.com
- A Prayer for the New Year by Rabbi Menachem Creditor (Opensiddur.org)
- Prayer for Country - Read by Ruth Bader Ginsburg z"l Originally Recorded on October 3rd, 2013 At Congregation Beth El in Bethesda, Maryland
MUSIC! HIGH HOLY DAYS PLAYLISTS
- On Kol HaLev's YouTube channel: Rosh Hashanah 2020/5782 playlist
- Spotify: Kol HaLev's High Holy Days Traditional, Classics & Updates playlist
- B'Rosh Hashanah/Who By Fire, Central Synagogue
MAKING SPACE FOR OBSERVING THE HIGH HOLY DAYS @HOME
Many of our members and friends celebrate the High Holy Days from home, joining our community observances online. One way to feel more connected when attending services remotely is to create a sacred space at home, away from where your everyday life take place. Revelation and awe can find us anywhere, of course, but home, amid the dishes and the laundry, is not usually the place we expect to find them. Setting up a bit of sacred space at home can provide a refuge for reflection, questioning, contemplation and awe. Like the rabbis after the destruction of the Temple, we can create small holy spaces wherever we find ourselves, at home or in exile.
- Hineini for Remote Davening, Cantor Vera and Rabbi Rachel*
- Creating Your Mikdash M’at – Your Personal Worship Space* (adapted from Rabbi Elyse Goldstein)
- Making Sacred Space - Home Altar Guide* by Rebecca Missel (from Customandcraft.org)
- Guide to Making Sacred Space at Home* (a compiliation with instructions, blessings and reflections)
- Turning Your Home into a Sacred Space* by Cantor Matt Axelrod
PRAYER BOOKS, SERVICE BOOKLETS AND SUPPLEMENTS
- Free digital version of Mahzor Leyamim Nora’im: Prayerbook for the Days of Awe
Choose the entire mahzor, or just the sections you want for the services you'll attend (or for your own study and prayer). - Digital excerpts: All Classic High Holy Days Prayers (in ZIP format) Only the most central and familiar High Holiday prayers, collected for use as the core of a less traditional service.
- Purchase your own hardbound copy of Mahzor Leyamim Nora’im: Prayerbook for the Days of Awe, Kol HaLev members can receive a 40% discount by following the instructions on this page.
- Service booklets for Kol HaLev's High Holy Days Services At least 24 hours before each service, you'll be able to download shorter service booklets and supplements from this folder. Each service booklet contains all you'll need for that service. (For those of you using your own hardbound machzor or the digital version, service leaders will be providing page numbers as each service progresses.)
ELUL & TESHUVAH
- New! Writing and Reflection Prompts by Rabbi Katie Mizrachi.* Writing can be a profound spiritual practice. In the days of Elul, leading up to the High Holy Days, use these questions each day as a way to practice the soul accounting essential to teshuvah.
- Time to Reflect. A workbook from Recustom.com
- New! Forgiveness: A Journey, Not a Destination – Soul Searching During the Elul by Rabbi Sandra Lawson
- Teshuvah/change is a real possibility!? by Rabbi Michael Strassfeld
- New! Kol HaLev's Elul Institute 2023: The Role of Awe in Our Lives from a Jewish and Scientific Perspective
ROSH HASHANAH
- Simple Rosh Hashanah Seder from Recustom.com
- Rosh Hashanah Meditation* by Rabbi Daniel Brenner (Moving Traditions.org)
- Come Home: A Rosh Hashanah Meditation* by Devon Spier (Ritualwell.org)
TASHLICH
- New! The Power Is in Our Hands: A Fire-and-Water Tashlikh Ritual* by Hila Ratzabi, Ritualwell
- New! Tashlich: Letting Go* by Rabbi Nathan Martin
- Transformative at-home Tashlich* from Congregation Tchiyah in Detroit
- Do It Yourself Tashlich.* A list of several ideas for the pandemic years and beyond
- Tashlich Atlas – cast a short text (virtually) into Lake Erie or any body of water
- STREAM*– listen to this 10-minute self-guided audio tashlich meditation from Deanna Neil; use it as a spoken guide for your own physical ritual, or a quiet mental exercise in how to let things go
- Tashlich – A Guided Video Meditation* - Join Rabbi Molly Kane and Singer/Songwriter Michelle Citrin as they guide you through the ritual of Tashlich
YOM KIPPUR
- Unetaneh Tokef for Black Lives by Imani Romney-Rosa Chapman
- Environmental Al-Chat from Neohasim.org
- Avinu Malkeinu for This Time by Sabrina Sojourner
- Self-Guided Yom Kippur/Teshuvah Ritual* (printable booklet from Haggadot.com)
HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR HIGH HOLY DAYS 2022/5783
- Rabbi Steve's Rosh Hashanah Sermon 5783
- Rabbi Steve's Yom Kippur Sermon 5783
- Ki Hiney sung by Aurelia Pelsmajer
- Havdalah - Yom Kippur 5783