Heading out for the holiday
October 12, 2005
Last year I celebrated Yom Kippur at
Elat Chayyim for the first
time, and
had an amazing and transformative holiday experience.
This year,
the retreat is a collaboration between
Elat Chayyim and the
Isabella Freedman
Jewish Retreat Center, and I'm looking really, really forward
to it! I'm heading out shortly.
The retreat has four leaders. Two of them I know: Rabbi David Ingber (the rabbi-in-residence at Elat Chayyim, who I met this summer and who I like a lot) and Rabbi Jeff Roth (who taught my first meditation workshop there, and who co-led the Yom Kippur retreat there last year). The other two are new to me. I'm looking really forward to learning from Rabbi Shefa Gold; she wrote some of my favorite liturgical chants, so I'm hoping her presence means we'll sing a lot. The fourth is Kvod Wieder, about whom I know very little (except that he directs the teen philanthropy program at the Harold Grinspoon Foundation) so stay tuned for further information when I get home again!
Though I don't expect to davven for twelve straight hours like the folks at Jerusalem's 'Leader' minyan do, I do expect prayer, meditation, chanting, Torah study, and a sense of community that will pervade the 25 hours of the holiday and continue to resonate through my Jewish life in the year to come. Whatever your form of observance, I wish all of my readers a joyous and meaningful Yom Kippur!