A New Year has Begun

The High Holy Days came early this year (do they ever come on time?) and Cardin students were engaged in various ways to make the most of them almost from the very first day of school. Here are some of the highlights of this very busy start to the year.

 

Our school joined together with Chevrei Tzedek Congregation for an inspiring Selichot service filled with music and reflection. More than 50 people attended. Rabbi Avram Reisner and myself, with the able assistance of Cardin students Nadav Korman, Jesse Solomon, Leah Rubin, Miriam Maaravi, and Tovi Robinson led the service.

The entire school – students and faculty – participated in a High Holy Day Soundtrack and Playlist project. Each grade researched and studied the themes of the High Holy Days and then compiled a playlist of favorite contemporary songs whose lyrics evoked the themes they studied. Students compiled both personal and grade level playlists.

BHC Cantor Robbie Solomon led the students on an uplifting musical journey through the liturgy of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, presenting classical and contemporary settings of key prayers. 

Our students also studied and participated in a traditional Tashlich ceremony, symbolically tossing away the sins of the past year.

In honor of Sukkot, we studied  the ushpizin and ushpizot, special historical “guests” that join us in our sukkah on each night – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron and David, Sarah, Miriam Deborah, Avigail, Hannah, Huldah and Esther – whose lives modeled various special qualities and whose symbolic presence adds a certain luster to our sukkah. Groups of students then created their own personalized Ushpizin lists, extending invitations to people whose lives taught lessons worth remembering and reflected values worth emulating.

A new year has begun. The holy day season has passed, but the energy and joy it represents will carry us through the entire year.

May it be a great one for all!

Rabbi Yaakov Chaitovsky

School Rabbi