Nine Ways to Celebrate the High Holidays
Without Stepping Foot in a Shul
By Maayan Jaffe | JNS.org
T here is a lot of beauty to the traditional
“The point is to understand there are people
synagogue experience. However, a
that don’t have food, that don’t have water, that
traditional High Holidays service just
don’t have shoes to wear,” explains Arnold, citing
does not speak to some — especially many young
the 18th-century ethical book Mesillat Yesharim:
adults. The Path of the Upright by Italian rabbi and
“Buying seats for the High Holidays is super
philosopher Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto.

expensive,” says Rachel Moses, a marketer for a
“We don’t have sex because there are people
Jewish nonprofit. “It also just doesn’t feel like it’s
in the world who don’t have partners and cannot
my place.”
connect in that way,” Arnold says.

If you think like Moses — considering
Arnold looks for people who are in need,
skipping the tickets, and celebrating Rosh
lacking something or are lonely, and makes a point
Outdoor prayer infuses holiday with spirituality.

Hashanah and Yom Kippur outside the
of giving to them during the High Holiday season.

traditional four walls of your family synagogue — here are nine alternative
Sometimes he invites them over for a meal, and other times he just lends
ways to connect to the High Holidays without stepping foot in a shul.

them a helping hand.

“On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, make it about other people,” he says.

1. Build community
Thomas Arnold, who works in homeland security, says people often interpret
2. Celebrate around the table
Yom Kippur as a heavy day of repentance. In contrast, the day’s prohibitions
Rabbi Jessy Gross, named by the Forward as one of the most inspiring
— things like fasting, not wearing leather footwear, not making love to your
rabbis of 2016, says some of her best holiday memories are not from the
partner, refraining from taking a bath — are intended to help us think less about
synagogue, but from places where people came together — like at her
our own needs and more about those of others.

holiday table.

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16 THE GUIDE 2016/2017