More information and registration at https://www.tikkun.org/hhd2021/

Presenters Include

Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, will speak about the environmental crisis.

Sami Awad, executive director of the HolyLand Trust and a peace and justice activist in the Occupied West Bank where he lives speaking to us about Israel’s occupation and its impact on Palestinian lives. He will be speaking from Bethlehem about Palestinians’ suffering and liberation struggle in the West Bank.

Jessica Montell, director of Hamoked, an Israel-based human rights organization. She will be speaking about the denial of human rights inside Israel.

Jeffrey Robinson, formerly Deputy Director of the Legal Dept of the national ACLU, has created the amazing The Who We Are Project. He will talk on Reparations for Slavery and ongoing racism. Check him out to see why just hearing him is an extraordinary gift.

First, as someone recently said after our Shabbat morning service and Torah study, “these kinds of conversations only happen here; you can’t have them anywhere else.” What did this person mean? That at Beyt Tikkun, we are willing to challenge, grapple with, and explore the text from numerous perspectives – spiritual, ethical, and political. We do not shy away from the difficult political challenges of our times, whether it be Israel/Palestine, Black Lives Matter, Refugees, environmental devastation, antisemitism, nationalism, and more. Rather, we dive right into deepening our understanding of what is happening, learning from our teachings and each other, and importantly calling ourselves to find ways to get engaged in the world to help repair it.

In addition to these rich and meaningful conversations and explorations, our services also have deep spiritual and psychological components. We provide rich interpretations of the Hebrew, making them relevant and meaningful for our time. With our joyful and meaningful prayers, our guided visualizations, and our comprehensive repentance workbook, we help you connect with the awe and wonder of the universe and invite you into a sacred space with yourself, so you can honestly and lovingly reflect on the past year: celebrate your achievements, mourn your missteps, and gain deeper understanding so you can repair breaks in relationships and make choices that more fully serve you in the future.

Tradition, tradition. . . yes, our service embraces all the traditional elements of the High Holydays that you remember, so you can settle in and relax. And, we offer modern-day additions to make it more relevant and meaningful. We write our own Al Chet (prayers of regret) that deal both with our individual and collective missteps. I so appreciate the way Judaism holds not only individuals accountable but also society. We are in this world together, so we must come together in sacred ritual space to do the holy work needed for healing, transformation, and repair.

We received so many deeply appreciative emails from folks during and after our services last year. Many people expressed awe and delight in the meaning, relevancy, beauty, and spiritual depth of our services as well as appreciation for the sacred container we co-created as a community.

We’d love to have you join us, whether you have joined us before or this would be your first time – you are welcome to join us; whether or not you are Jewish – you are welcome to join us; regardless of your religious practice or experience – you are welcome to join us; if you’re just “spiritual” but not religious – you are welcome to join us. Our society needs repentance, and so do each of us.

I first experienced Beyt Tikkun’s services at Rosh Hashanah services in 2012. I returned home and said to my friend, “That was the most spiritually meaningful experience I’ve ever had in my life.” This is not from a lack of such experiences! But rather because the combination of the music, prayers, the celebratory nature, and deeply relevant and meaningful discussions and teachings awakened within me a deeper connection to the living reality of the spiritual world in which we all reside. Finding the integration of spirituality, intellectual exploration, psychological wisdom, and political relevance was like coming home.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I’ll be co-leading the services with Rabbi Michael Lerner. Ami Goodman will also be co-leading with us and providing the moving music, and Abby Caplin will be sharing her beautiful poetry and prayers.

I hope to see you there!!

Many blessings and much love for a meaningful new year. May our new year be one in which love, justice, and environmental sustainability become more real in our lives, not in words, but in deeds.

~ cat