High Holy Days @ Temple Ner Tamid

Temple Ner Tamid is excited to share information about the many engaging services that take place throughout the Days of Awe, the High Holy Days. Below, you will find descriptions of all the services we offer in any given year to help new participants better understand why these services are our holiest. We hope our community will find spirituality, togetherness, and holiness through these various traditional rituals with our modern TNT touch.

If you have any questions about the High Holy Day observance, you can reach out to us at hello {at} nertamid.org or 973-338-1500.

View previous year's services and sermons on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/templenertamid
High Holy Days 2022 - High Holy Days 2021 - High Holy Days 2020 - High Holy Days 2019

Previous sermons by Rabbi Marc Katz can be found on our Temple Ner Tamid podcast.

The Month of Elul

Elul is the 12th and final month in the Jewish calendar. It is a month that connects the past year with the coming year—a time when we reflect on where we stand and where we should be going. This Jewish month marks the period of soul-searching leading up to the High Holidays.

Temple Ner Tamid celebrates this month by offering various books for congregants to read and discuss as they start to reflect on their year in preparation for the High Holy Days.

Selichot

The Hebrew word selichah means “forgiveness.” A special Selichot service is conducted late in the evening on the Saturday night a week before Rosh HaShanah. Selichot are Jewish penitential (expressing penitence) poems and prayers, especially those said in the period leading up to the High Holidays, and on fast days.

At Temple Ner Tamid we gather together each year to screen a movie with resonant themes for the High Holy Days. After a robust discussion we turn toward prayer, reading ourselves for the holidays yet to come.

Rosh Hashanah

Literally meaning “Head of the Year,” Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the Jewish calendar. It begins a 10-day period of repentance and prayer which ends on Yom Kippur. We celebrate the holiday with services and apples dipped in honey to symbolize the hope for a sweet year to come.

Each of our services have robust music, always by Cantor Greenberg, and often with backup from our choir. In addition, Rabbi Katz will deliver a heartfelt, thoughtful, and timely sermon. All our services will be livestreamed should you be unable to attend in person. Below, please find descriptions of our adult offerings. Scroll down for descriptions of our tot and family programming.

Erev Rosh Hashanah

We begin the Ten Days of Awe with prayer, song, and reflection. This brief service aims to situate us within the 10 Days of Awe and introduces us to the major theme and ideas of the High Holy Days.

Rosh Hashanah Day 1

This service is a more robust avenue for prayer and reflection than the night before. In it, we hear shofar, read Torah, and are given space to assess our past year while planning for the year ahead. Congregants also play a role in leading aspects of this service.

Tashlikh Service, the Symbolic Casting Off of Sins

The prophet Micah famously wrote (7:19), “God will take us back in love; God will cover up our iniquities. You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, we proceed to Clark's Pond and symbolically cast off our sins by throwing bread or emptying our pockets.

Rosh Hashanah Day 2 Service

Though similar to the previous day, this service is different, and less formal in tone. We invite many musical guests to join Cantor Greenberg in singing, engage in a thought provoking discussion (rather than a formal sermon), and join together for a festive meal afterward.

Yom Kippur

The Day of Atonement is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, marking the end of the 10 days of repentance. It is spent in fasting and fervent prayer. If we do things right, when we hear the Shofar sounded at the holiday's conclusion, we will leave transformed, ready to take on the next year as different and better person.

As with Rosh Hashanah each of our services have robust music, always by Cantor Greenberg, and often with backup from our choir. In addition, Rabbi Katz will deliver a heartfelt, thoughtful, and timely sermon. All our services will be livestreamed should you be unable to attend in person. Below, please find descriptions of our adult offerings. Scroll down for descriptions of our tot and family programming.

Kol Nidre Service

We begin the Day of Atonement with prayer, song, and reflection. Taking it's name from the central prayer of the evening, Kol Nidre, we proclaim that if we fell short in fulfiling our vows to others and ourselves, we may be forgiven and begin anew with a blank slate. This is the most magestic of all our High Holy Day services.

Yom Kippur Service

As with Rosh Hashanah, this service contains additional elements to the previous night's service. In it, we read Torah and hear additional prayers that speak to our humanity and the need for change. Congregants will play a role in leading aspects of this service.

Yom Kippur Text Study

Join us each year, as a leader in our community guides us in a thought-provoking text study, meant to open our eyes to a previously unconsidered aspect of the holiday.

Yizkor Memorial Service

Take time to reflect and remember our loved ones who we have lost in recent days and years past. Loved one's names are included in our printed Book of Remembrance.

Concluding Services: Minchah, Avodah, Neilah

Our final services of Yom Kippur, where together, one last time, we pray and sing together during these Days of Awe.

Mincha: Our afternoon service where we hear Torah one last time and encounter the famous story of Jonah and the Whale.

Avodah: The service recalling what Yom Kippur looked like 2000 years ago when the great Temple in Jerusalem was standing. Each year we work to make this service feel different by involving congregants in the re-telling.

Neilah: Literally meaning "locking" this is the last service before the Gate the Heaven are closed. Although most people are tired and hungry by this time, the clergy have people dancing in the aisles as we prepare for Yom Kippur's end.

Family B'yachad Services

Led by Peri Smilow, Rabbi Sharon Litwin and our Clergy Associate Ronni Pressman, along with a team of congregants and a talented band, these services take place on Rosh Hashanah Day 1 and Yom Kippur morning. Our leaders engage our families with an uplifting and participatory family service for families with children in 3rd - 7th grade.

In addition, on Kol Nidre, families are invited into the sanctuary to hear Cantor Greenberg chant Kol Nidre and then peel off for an abreviated and special family service in parellel with the main service.

Tot Services

These interactive and musical services will highlight the themes and music of the High Holy Days for our littlest ones. Rabbi Katz and Cantor Greenberg will engage your young children with songs, by asking questions, and sharing the traditions of the observance.

Every family who registers for a Tot service receives a bag of supplies to help you celebrate with your family.

These bags include a Shofar, honey sticks, dried apples, stickers, coloring pages, and more!

Teen Programs

Led by our Rabbinic Intern, James Feder, and a team of our most musical teens these services are an interactive and engaging way for our oldest students to encounter the major prayers and ideas of the High Holy Days alongside their peers. Together, they will pray and reflect, forging bonds that will carry through for the rest of the year.

Sukkot

Beginning five days after Yom Kippur, Sukkot is a harvest festival named after the temporary booths or huts (sukkot in Hebrew) decorated with fruit and vegetables in which Jews are supposed to dwell during this week-long celebration.

These booths are set up to recall the booths in which the Jews lived during their journey from Egypt. The holiday is marked by processions with the lulav (palm branch with myrtle and willow) and etrog (citron).

At Temple Ner Tamid, families have the opportunity to have a meal together in our sukkah, located on our back lawn. Our Shoresh and Religious School classes gather to shake the lulav and etrog as well as a Tot Service and other engagement programs in this space.

Shemini Atzeret & Simchat Torah

The day after Sukkot is Shemini Atzeret, nominally a separate holiday; thus, there is no partaking of meals in the sukkah, nor use of the lulav and etrog. Aspecial prayer for rain is recited during the service.

The following day, Simchat Torah marks the end of the annual Torah reading and the beginning of the cycle for the coming year. It is celebrated with singing, dancing, and merry processions of people carrying Torahs.

At Temple Ner Tamid, we partner with other area congregations to celebrate together on Church Street in Montclair to pray, sing, and dance with the Torah.

Interested In Joining Temple Ner Tamid for High Holy Days?

If you'd like more information about our High Holy Day offerings, be in touch at hello {at} nertamid.org or 973-338-1500.

Content copied from various online sources including Wikipedia, MyJewishLearning.com, Chabbad.org, the Jewish Federation of St. Louis,