Announcements

Dear TBB Community,

The High Holidays are rapidly approaching, and the TBB Ritual Committee has been working hard to get ready.

On that note, this email contains information about two topics:

1. Roles that support our High Holiday services, both in terms of ritual participation and ways to lend a helping hand
2. Updates about name submission and reading for the Yizkor (memorial) service which takes place on Yom Kippur morning

Roles that support our High Holiday services

One of the ritual committee tasks in the run-up to the High Holidays is figuring out who will do all sorts of different roles, including (but not limited to):

• being called up to the Torah for an aliyah
• welcoming people at the front door and as they enter the sanctuary
• opening the ark at key points in the service
• polishing TBB's silver adornments for the Torah scrolls before the holidays
• setup and cleaning up for the Yom Kippur break-fast
• sharing a reading in English during the service

In the past, we have done a lot of guessing about who will be around on which days and might be interested in which roles. This year, we are hoping to get input from you on if and how you might like to take on a role to support our High Holiday services. Not having done it this way before, we have no idea if we will get more or less interest than the number of roles available. If you express interest in having a ritual role during the service, we cannot guarantee that you will have one; that said, it helps us out to know who is interested and we will keep you in mind for next year if it doesn't work out this time.

TBB has never had a tradition of limiting roles on the High Holidays to long-time members, so if you are newer to the community and would like to participate, please let us know so we can do our best to find you a role.

We also know that some people, no matter how steadfast their commitment to TBB, never want to go up on the bimah in front of everyone during the service, and we want to give folks a chance to express those preferences as well.

If you are interested in having a role, or if you'd like to take a moment to let us know that you would prefer not to be asked about public roles in our services, please click here to fill out our High Holiday roles questionnaire! It should take 1–2 minutes to complete and has no open-response questions (unless you want to share feedback).

If you do not complete the questionnaire, we will assume that you are not interested in a High Holiday role this year, although we might reach out if we need more people.

Updates about name submission and reading for the Yizkor (memorial) service

As we approach the High Holidays, the Ritual Committee has thoughtfully reviewed how we honor the cherished tradition of Yizkor. In past years, the Yizkor service at TBB has included reading aloud all names submitted by the congregation, without limitation or criteria. While this has allowed us to honor many loved ones, the growing length of the list has presented challenges in maintaining a meaningful and focused observance for everyone. Special thanks to Ritual Committee member Sabrina Klein, who has led our exploration of this topic.

With this in mind, we will be implementing two small changes this year:

• We kindly ask that when submitting names, congregants consider their personal connection to those remembered and refrain from including names of people with whom their connection is more tenuous. The form for name submission will ask that you indicate your relationship to the person whose name you are submitting; we are doing this to encourage mindfulness about whether it is fitting for that name to be read out loud to the whole community. During the memorial prayers of the Yizkor service itself, after the communal reading of names, individuals are encouraged to remember additional loved ones privately along with the names that were read out loud.
• Rather than reading all the names continuously, we will divide them into sections, interspersed with moments of reflection, including readings and poems, to enhance the spiritual experience for all.

Note: As has been our custom, the names that are on the memorial plaques in our building are included in the Yizkor name reading in perpetuity and do not need to be resubmitted each year. If you are interested in ordering a Yahrzeit plaque for a loved one, please email Rebecca.

We appreciate your understanding and support as we make these adjustments with great care and respect for our community and tradition.

As always, we welcome questions, comments, ideas, and other feedback at ritual@templebnaibrith.org.

Looking ahead to sharing a meaningful season of introspection and renewal with you all,

Amy Pasternack and Rabbi Eliana on behalf of the TBB Ritual Committee