SECTIONS OF OUR YAMIM NORA’IM SERVICE EXPLAINED

Let’s say you walk into services as you do each year, and what you hear and see is an undifferentiated service which includes chanting and an occasional page announcement, people standing up, sitting down, and a host of ark openings and closings. But what you may be missing is the structure of the service, the fact that all this chanting and singing, sitting and standing, are connected to a prayer structure that has been with us for thousands of years.

What follows are some highlights of those sections, described with great brevity, and why you surely don’t want to miss them.

SHEMA—A DECLARATION OF FAITH
Recited: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Evening and morning services
Time: approximately 9:00 AM and 7:00 PM
In biblical times, it meant that there was only one God. Today it means that we are one with that cosmic oneness. It is big mitzvah to say the Shema in the morning and the evening.

KIDDUSH—TOASTING A NEW YEAR
Recited: Both evenings of Rosh Hashanah
Time: approximately 7:30 PM
Who says Jews don’t know how to party? Kiddush is a way of declaring the day sacred. Jewish sanctity finds full expression not through denial, but through the embrace of moderate pleasures, like a cup of fine wine (suggestions: go for a non-Manischewitz wine this year)

SHOFAR—THE PUBLIC CALL TO FORGIVE
Recited: Both mornings of Rosh Hashanah
Time: approximately 10:35 AM, 12:15 PM and 12:50 PM
If we are trapped within a hardened shell of “change is impossible” or “forgiveness is a fantasy,” the shofar blasts are meant to crack the shell. We hope to sound 100 blasts this year over three different times of the service,

HINENI—SENSING OUR SMALLNESS IN THE UNIVERSE
Recited: The mornings of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
Time: approximately 11:15-11:25 AM
As our agent for prayer before the Lord of the Universe, the hazzan recites this haunting meditation, recognizing his own limitations and shortcomings, which are a reflection of our own. The greatness of God is in caring for us, in spite of our insignificance within the universe.

THE THREE SECTIONS: ACCOUNTABILITY: TO OURSELVES, COMMUNITIES AND GOD
Recited: Both mornings of Rosh Hashanah
Time: approximately 12:15-12:45 PM
The three sections of the Musaf service are malkhuyot (God’s sovereignty), zikhronot (everything we do matters) and shofarot (our obligation to care for others). By sounding the shofar after each of these sections, we penetrate their messages deep into our souls.

BIRKAT KOHANIM—BE BLESSED
Recited: The afternoons of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
Time: Rosh Hashanah—12:45-12:50 PM; Yom Kippur—2:15-2:20 PM
The kohanim or priests are a tribe descended directly from Aaron, the High Priest. Take your children and grandchildren, cover them with your tallit and let the Midway kohanim channel the blessings of God onto them and onto all of us. This is five minutes of pure spirituality.

TORAH—THE ENERGY SOURCE
Recited: The mornings of Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur & Yom Kippur afternoon
Time: approximately 10:00-10:20 AM and Yom Kippur afternoon—4:10-4:30 PM
The Torah is the Jewish people’s record of a God-encounter that began at Sinai and continues eternally. It is black letters on white parchment. The words are what we could record; the parchment is what defies description. Our Torah readings will touch on the holiday themes of rebirth, sacrifice and purification.

HAFTARAH—THE BACKUP ENERGY SOURCE
Recited: The mornings of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
Time: approximately 10:20-10:35 AM
These recitations from the second section of the Tanakh, Nevi’im or Prophets, will touch on holiday themes of personal creativity, reconciliation with God, and honesty in worship.

KOL NIDREI—WORDS MATTER
Recited: Erev Yom Kippur
Time: 6:40-6:55 PM
Who is a person of integrity? It is someone who if he says it, means it, and if he means it, will fulfill it. Kol Nidrei is the declaration that reminds us to master our tongues with the care and cautions we use in balancing a check book.

AVODAH—CLEANSING OURSLEVES AS IT WAS DONE IN THE ANCIENT TEMPLE
Recited: Yom Kippur afternoon
Time: 1:20-1:45 PM
This section of the service recalls the rituals performed in the ancient Temple, and like the High Priest of old, both clergy and lay people may lay flat before God, three times, as they acknowledge the imperfections within the world and our desire to live godly lives.

MARTYROLOGY—REMEMBERING THE RESOLVE OF COMMITTED JEWS
Recited: Yom Kippur afternoon
Time: 1:45-2:10 PM
There are at least two parts to martyrdom—the courageous who gave their lives and the idiots who took them. We recall the courageous as we bemoan the sinfulness of humankind through the ages. This is a very intense and moving section of the service.

YIZKOR—REMEMBERING OUR LOVED ONES IN HEAVEN
Recited: Yom Kippur afternoon
Time: 2:45-3:00 PM (the Yizkor for the community at large is at 3:15 PM)
Death is not the end. We defy death by calling to mind those who have left this world for olam haba—the world to come. They are with us always for love is stronger than death.

HAFTARAT JONAH—LEAVING OUR COMFORT ZONES
Recited: Yom Kippur afternoon
Time: 4:30-4:55 PM
The prophet Jonah, charged by God to reprimand the sinful Ninevites, flees rather than risk foolishness, for should the Ninevites repent, God will renounce His punishment of them. In seeking reconciliation, our overtures may be rejected and we look like fools. But in leaving our comfort zones, we risk a foolishness that is praiseworthy by humankind and beloved by God.

NE’ILAH—THE CLOSING GATES OF HEAVEN
Recited: Yom Kippur late afternoon
Time: 6:10-7:25 PM
Actually, the gates of heaven never close, but Yom Kippur will come to an end. We will open the Ark and invite everyone to approach the ark for 30 seconds, and recite a personal prayer before the end of this sacred day.

HAVDALAH—FIRE AND WINE
Recited: Almost at the very end of Yom Kippur
Time: 7:35 PM
We bring the Yom Kippur to a close with wine and fire. Wine—that our year should be sweet. Fire—that we not lose our passion for growth and change that we have earned after a day of fasting and reflection.

TEKI’AH GEDOLAH—CROSSING THE FINISH LINE
Recited: The end of Yom Kippur
Time: 7:42 PM
A very long shofar blast is sounded marking the end of the day. We have been cleansed of our sins and liberation fills our souls. All with shofarot and good lungs may participate (bring your shofarot to synagogue before Kol Nidrei and leave them in the rabbi’s office).