This Jewish New Year will be marked by the unusual circumstances, challenges and opportunities wrought by the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Here at OrH, while our doors remain closed, our hearts – and our community – are open. We welcome members, guests and visitors to join us via Zoom for a full schedule of highly interactive services and programs, delivered with our usual mix of spirit, good humour, thoughtful intention, and joyous music.
Each virtual gathering will incorporate opportunities for authentic connection and conversation, and a range of ways for you to engage head and heart.
As we do every year, we welcome you as you are, whoever you are, and wherever you are.
Our registration for Tishrey visitors is now open. Click here or on the link below for more information:
Click here for:
- Suggestions for preparing your own sacred space for the High Holy Days
- Our High Holy Days Virtual Greeting Photo/Video Project
- Writing Our Way Through Elul
- Rosh Hashanah Seder
- Boot Camp 5781/2020 High Holiday Prep
Download a copy of Kol Haneshamah: Prayerbook for the Days of Awe High Holy Day Machzor:
High Holy Days Schedule
8:00 pm - 9:30 pm Each Selihot, in preparation for the Days of Awe ahead, we consider what is important to us. Join us for an evening of stories and songs to inspire our Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur experiences. Enjoy listening, writing, connecting and signing.
6:00 - 7:00 pm Ritual - Blessings, Song, Greetings. We great each other and the new year, our tables ready for Shabbat and Rosh Hashanah, with song and brahot/blessings.
Followed by home Shabbat/Rosh Hashanah seders.
9:30 am - 11:15 am Service - Prayer, Song, Reflections. This exceptional new year we draw from our mahzor’s traditional prayers, sing some of our favourite melodies, recite core passages that call up the renewal of our heart, minds and souls, and hear creative reflections on the themes of the day.
11:15 am -11:45 am Mingle and Greet
11:45 am - 12:30 pm Torah - Chanting, Blessing, Conversation. We scroll to the traditional biblical texts read over the two days of Rosh Hashanah, hear selected passages chanted with the ancient tropes, bless and receive blessing, and gather in clusters to explore present-moment understandings.
12:30 pm - 1:00 pm Mingle and Greet
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Family Program with Morah Jenny
10:30 am - 12:00 pm Torah - Study, Exploration, Conversation. Through a teaching from the Hasidic master known as Meor Eynayim (“light to the eyes”) on the connection between Abraham and God, we will explore the space between fulfilling the commandment to welcome the stranger, and being in conversation with the Divine.
Afternoon Self-guided Tashlikh
2:30 pm - 4:45 pm City-wide Shofar Experience
6:00 pm - 6:45 pm Kol Nidre
Live musical rendition of Kol Nidre on cello and piano opens our service.
6:45 pm - 8:00 pm Evening Service
We draw close to one another, transcending our separate spaces through the powerful recitations of Kol Nidre, followed by the maariv/evening service and prayers of confession, enabling the regrets of the past to transform into intentions for the future.
9:45 am - 11:15 am Morning Service - Prayer, Song, Reflections. This day of fasting (for those who are able) will feature the haunting melodies we love to hear and sing, the powerful ritual gestures of humility and vidui/confessions, and opportunities for reflection, introspection, and connection.
11:15 am - 11:45 am Mingle and Greet
11:45 am - 12:30 pm Torah - Chanting, Blessing, Conversation. The traditional biblical Torah reading for Yom Kippur, along with the Haftarah, align spiritual practice with social awareness. We will hear selected passages chanted with the ancient tropes, bless and receive blessing, and gather in clusters to explore present-moment understanding
12:30 pm - 1:00 pm Mingle and Greet
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Family Program with Morah Jenny
4:30 pm - 5:15 pm Jonah - Chanting, Exploration, Conversations.The entire population of a city appears doomed, and God asks Jonah about his priorities. Our family of Haftarah readers will chant and then consider the ways Jonah’s dilemma might inform our experience of a global pandemic.
5:30 pm - 6:15 pm Yizkor - Prayers, Reflection, Remembrance. We recall the loved ones to whom we give honour.
6:15 pm - 7:00 pm Nelilah - Song, Prayer, Shofar. The fading sun leads us towards the closing hour, hearts open and ready to hear the closing Shofar calls of our Days of Awe.
Simchat Torah celebration (and Bat Mitzvah!) – Sunday morning, October 11
