Join rabbis and prayer leaders from the Shir Tikvah, Beth Jacob and Zuta communities for a heartfelt night of learning, song, and connection, in preparation for the Days of Awe. Drawing from both Ashkenazi and Sefardi traditions, this nighttime Selichot marks the beginning of our journey into this sacred season together. Selichot will be offered both in-person at Shir Tikvah’s sanctuary and on Zoom.  

7:00pm: Learning 

"Who Hears the Cry of God in Everything?": Songs in a World of Rending. 

The Jewish tradition tradition of kriyah, rending one's clothes and outward declaration of loss in times of mourning, has its precedent in Biblical Narratives. We will begin by studying two mourning songs and acts of rending from the Tanakh–– Jacob mourning Joseph and David mourning Saul and Jonathan. We will split into small groups and compare the Biblical accounts with earlier, ancient examples of similar rituals from "The Descent of Inanna" and "The Epic of Gilgamesh." Following study, we conclude with reading and contemplation of a few poems by the 20th century Jewish poet Siegfried Sassoon. By looking at Biblical, Mesopatamian, and modern examples of kriyah, we practice the symbolic opening of our wounds in order to connect us to one another, God, and the world.

7:45pm: Havdallah 

8:30pm: Musical Selichot

Join rabbis and prayer leaders from the Shir Tikvah, Beth Jacob and Zuta communities for a heartfelt night of learning, song, and connection, in preparation for the Days of Awe. Drawing from both Ashkenazi and Sefardi traditions, this nighttime Selichot marks the beginning of our journey into this sacred season together. Selichot will be offered both in-person at Shir Tikvah’s sanctuary and on Zoom.