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Upcoming Events & Services at AIC
The fun continues at Agudas Israel with special Sukkot Sevices and Kiddush in the Sukkah Sept. 29th-Oct 6th
Followed by Shimini Atzeret Oct 7th, and Simchat Torah Oct 8th
Saturday Sept. 30th ……………… 9:30am Shabbat Service & Kiddush in the Sukkah
Sunday Oct. 1st ………………. 9:30am Sukkot II Service & Kiddush in the Sukkah
Friday Oct. 6th ………………. 9:30am Hoshana Raba Service & Kiddush in the Sukkah
Saturday Oct. 7th ……………… 9:30am Shimini Atzerit Service
Sunday Oct. 8th ………………. 9:30am Simchat Torah Service
Sukkot is a weeklong holiday that comes five days after Yom Kippur. Sukkot celebrates the gathering of the harvest and commemorates the miraculous protection God provided for the children of Israel when they left Egypt. We celebrate Sukkot by dwelling in a foliage-covered booth (known as a sukkah) and by taking the “Four Kinds”, four special species of vegetation.The lulav is a cluster of plants: a palm branch, two boughs of willow, and three boughs of myrtle. The etrog is a citron fruit . Together the lulav and etrog are called arba minim, which is Hebrew for “the four species.”
5784 High Holiday with Cantor Ramón Tasat
Recordings of our High Holiday services are available to watch on our Facebook and Youtube pages. Thank you to all those who joined us in-person and virtually.
- 5784 Yom Kippur Memorial Book
Click here to download a PDF of the Memorial Book to your computer, or view it below. Thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s book. - Rosh Hashanah allows Jews to find strength – Standard Speaker article on Sept 11, 2023
The Jewish new year of 5784 will be ushered in at synagogues around the world Friday at sundown and celebrated through Sunday night. In Jewish tradition, Rosh Hashanah celebrates the birth of the world. On this anniversary of creation, Jews ask forgiveness for any harm they have inflicted, either wittingly or unwittingly and stand before the Creator confessing their shortcomings and asking for forgiveness. - 2023 Selichot Prayer Service – Sept 9, 2023 at 10pm on ZOOM
Selichot services are communal prayers for Divine forgiveness, said during the High Holiday season and on Jewish fast days. While most Jewish services are held during the day or early evening, High Holiday Selichot are the exception, held in the wee hours of the night. Drawing from a plethora of biblical verses and rabbinic teachings, they are a soul-stirring introduction to the Days of Awe. In Ashkenazic tradition, the first night of Selichot is the biggie, held late at night on a Saturday night before Rosh Hashanah. The liturgy for the High Holiday Selichot is not found in most prayerbooks; rather, it is found in special Selichot booklets, with a different selection for each day. Contact the AIC office to get access to log in to ZOOM for this service.
Recent Editions of our newsletter, the Agudagram
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- 5784 Yom Kippur Memorial BookClick here to download a PDF of the Memorial Book to your computer, or view it below. Thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s book.
- September 2023 Agudagram
We can differentiate between the Shofar of Elul, which is primarily a wake-up call, “Wake up, you sleepers, from your sleeping, and those of you who are in deep slumber, arouse yourselves from your slumber. And Return to Hashem!” By the end of Elul, we are, hopefully, fully awake and ready, or at least aware, of the “Fear and Trembling” required by Rosh HaShanah in democratic America comes with complicated strings attached. They present us with huge political and moral choices between self-protection and fighting for what is right in the greater society. That’s why Daniel can be such a powerful model for us. He rises so high in the court of the king that the latter calls upon his wisdom and good counsel before all his nobility. Yet the favor that Daniel curries with Belshazzar doesn’t prevent him from severely chastising Belshazzar for his wrongdoing. Daniel serves the king, but he serves God and God’s truth even more. - Week 1 – “Days of Awe” Course with Cantor Ramón Tasat & Agudas Israel – August 18, 2023.
Watch the recording of the first of Cantor Ramon’s “Days of Awe” classes, which was live streamed on Zoom for participants on August 18. In this class, we learned about the concept of Teshuva, the importance of process and preparation in Judaism, and a prayer of selichot or forgiveness, Ben Adam Mah Lekha Nirdam. If you would like to be part of the remaining 3 weeks, you can register here or contact the AIC office to sign up. - Register NOW for Upcoming Zoom Course: “LITURGY AND MUSIC FOR THE DAYS OF AWE”
Register now for our upcoming interactive Zoom course with Cantor Ramón Tasat, starting August 18th, 2023 from 12-1PM, weekly for 4 weeks. “LITURGY AND MUSIC FOR THE DAYS OF AWE” This course starts on the first of Elul, the month prior to Rosh Hashanah that is a time of introspection and personal stock-taking. Elul is a time of divine closeness, a period where connection to God comes easier than at other times of the year. As such, it is an auspicious time to do the inner work of repairing and deepening one’s relationship with God. Fridays on Zoom from 12-1 … Read more - Summer 2023 Agudagram
The story of the handwriting on the wall occupies the realm of biblical mythology and miracle. Removing this literary dressing, we’re left with a message and a mission, a “writing on the wall” of contemporary life, which we Jews are obligated to place incessantly before society: we must speak truth to power. This is difficult to do, especially when it places us at great potential risk; it has always been a fraught endeavor for us, especially in the Diaspora. Like Daniel, we Jews have struggled over many centuries to survive with political cunning under regimes that tolerated us, used us, were hostile to us, and most horribly, tried to destroy us. Even Jewish life in democratic America comes with complicated strings attached. They present us with huge political and moral choices between self-protection and fighting for what is right in the greater society. That’s why Daniel can be such a powerful model for us. He rises so high in the court of the king that the latter calls upon his wisdom and good counsel before all his nobility. Yet the favor that Daniel curries with Belshazzar doesn’t prevent him from severely chastising Belshazzar for his wrongdoing. Daniel serves the king, but he serves God and God’s truth even more. - May 2023 Agudagram
Shavuot has its origins in the ancient mid-summer harvest celebrations of the Canaanites, the ancient people from which Israelite society sprang during the Bronze Age. These early religions’ celebrations, in which revelers rejoiced in the harvesting of wheat, were local affairs probably celebrated in communal threshing grounds, where the wheat was separated from the chaff, and other cultic sites. All that started to change in the 7th and 8th centuries BCE, when the Jerusalem monarchs and priesthood consolidated power, bringing formerly separate tribes under the helm of one ruler. As part of this program, they co-opted these local affairs and supplanted them by unified rites that could only be performed in the Temple in Jerusalem… - 4/23/23 Centennial Celebration – commemorative booklet & video presentation
The event on Sunday was fabulous. Thank you to all who attended, assisted, donated and sponsored it. This post contains links to videos from event, our centennial booklet, and the program bulletin. Click the image to view post. - April 2023 Agudagram
At the great seder night of Pesach when we read and discuss the immortal words of the Pesach Hagada, my family has always enthusiastically sung the portion of the Hagada that we know as “Dayenu.” By the grace of G-d, I have been able to witness a number of my generations singing this meaningful poem of praise to the Almighty for the bountiful goodness that he has bestowed upon us. Since I am leading the singing that always accompanies this poem, the melody may be somewhat out of tune but what it lacks in pitch it makes up for in enthusiasm and volume. I have always thought about the words that make up this poem and the entire concept that “Dayenu” communicates to us… - 2023 Sale of Chometz for Passover
If possible, all chametz – food not acceptable during Pesach (Passover), or materials containing such unacceptable food – should be destroyed or given away before the holiday begins. Should this be impossible, the chametz may be stored in such a way that we are sure not to use it during the holiday and its actual ownership is transferred to a non-Jew until the holiday ends. If you are not able to come to the synagogue personally to appoint Richard Kline as your agent for the sale of chametz, you may accomplish that by completing the form below by 9:00am Monday April 5th to be effective…