Holidays
Each holiday is an opportunity to reflect and inquire about teachings, traditions and beliefs. These contemporary versions of classic rituals are intended to provide inspiration and meaningful reflection for you, your family, and your community.
High Holidays
Elul
This packet features four sets of content which are designed to support an anti-racist High Holy Day season. Each week features an introduction, piece of media, call to action, plus additional resources. We encourage you to use them to inspire reflection and personal curiosity in your own communities.
Yom Kippur
The Yom Kippur supplement contains anti-racist alternatives to the traditional Al Cheyt and Ashamnu prayers. This “Al Cheyt” recitation is inspired by James Baldwin; Eddie S. Glaude Jr., author of “Begin Again”; and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s 1963 speech “The Religious Basis of Equal Opportunity.”
The Al Cheyt is a longer confessional prayer communally recited only on Yom Kippur. “Chet-Tet, Cheyt,” an archery term commonly mistranslated as “sin,” means to miss the mark which reminds us that we have the opportunity to adjust our aim and try again. We recite Al Cheyt, along with Vidui (confession)/Ashamnu (we have gone astray), during Yom Kippur as part of a public confession of our communal transgressions during the past year. Al Cheyt reminds us that we are not only accountable not just for our personal actions but also responsible for the actions of our community at large.
Passover
Passover
The purpose of this supplement is to provide potential starting-points for critical conversations around racial justice which are appropriate to the themes of Pesach. These topics can be challenging! Explore the contents of the supplement before your Seder and consider how you feel about them.
Perhaps you will only want to use one or two pages from this resource, or you may not want to use any of them and come up with your own ways to open these important conversations. We urge you to find something to say, if only how you are feeling. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.