Elul 5778/Tishri 5779

Call 206-567-9414 for event details or see our online calendar here.

September

• 9 Erev Rosh Hashanah
• 10 Rosh Hashanah
• 18 Kol Nidre
• 19 Yom Kippur
• 23 CROP Hunger Walk
• 24 Super Supper

October

• 7 Coordinating Committee Meeting
• 28 All Chavurah Visioning Meeting
• 29 Super Supper

 

HIGH HOLIDAY SCHEDULE

ROSH HASHANAH

Sunday  9/9

7:00 p.m. Erev Rosh Hashanah & dessert potluck Fil-Am Hall

Monday  9/10

9:30 a.m. Rosh Hashanah Day Fil-Am Hall

(Bring your lunch if staying for the discussion )

12:30 p.m. Learning & discussion with Rabbi Jen Fil-Am Hall

3:30 p.m. Tashlich Waterfront Park dock

YOM KIPPUR

Tuesday  9/18

7:00 p.m. Erev Yom Kippur/Kol Nidre at Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall

Wednesday  9/19

9:30 a.m. Yom Kippur day service at Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall

2:30 p.m. Meditation/Yitzkor Service at the Golden’s home

6:00 p.m. Neilah service at Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall

7:00 p.m. Break-the-Fast Potluck Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall

ALL ARE WELCOME !

Questions?  Call (206) 567-9414 or go to www.shirhayam.org

In case you didn’t meet Rabbi Jennifer Clayman last year, Jen is a rabbi with over two decades of experience in Jewish education and communal life. She considers herself a seeker, always looking for wisdom, and wrestling with how to apply it to life. Raised Reform, she was ordained from Hebrew Union College in 2003; her rabbinical school thesis was on the spirituality of adult learning. Originally from the East Coast, she now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two young sons.

MESSAGE FROM RABBI JEN CLAYMAN

The Spiritual Foundations of Resilience

When life—or the world—is cruel, where do we find the strength to keep going, to keep living, to keep caring, to keep loving? For many of us, this is a time of grievious disappointment, fear and dismay. An already unsteady country and world have been weakened by ongoing attacks on our most precious values. How do we go on and work toward change with renewed energy? How do we keep our light of resilience shining?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot during this past year, which was a challenging year for me. When I felt frustrated, depleted, or humiliated, my family, and especially my husband, gave me great external support. But external support wasn’t enough; I also had to build up my internal “supports.” Over the course of the year, I found myself drawn to books, articles and interviews about resilience and courage.

I finally read The Gifts of Imperfectionby Brené Brown. I’d been dismissing it for years as unserious self-help pop psychology. But then I heard Brown on “On Being” with Krista Tippett, and the interview was so rich and deep, I finally gave myself permission to dive in. I pulled out about 40 quotes and wrote thousands of words of response journaling. The same thing happened with a few other sources—some secular, some religious. I was fascinated by Brown’s inclusion of spirituality among the “tools” that we need to develop resilience. Throughout the holidays, I’ll be sharing thoughts and practices to help all of us deal with the “hard stuff” and grant ourselves some grace.

For those who want to do some spiritual preparation ahead of services, I encourage you to think about your own sources of difficult feelings, coming both from the outside, and ways you need to better value the gifts you have. Reflect, journal, make art, meditate, talk to a friend or therapist, spend time in nature—all of these can be ways of bringing out the things we often keep tamped down. If we can surface the hard things, we create the opportunity to deal with them through spiritual practice.

(Side note: I have an Instagram project coming up called “Spiritual September.” Every morning I’ll post a quote from my reading over the past year, and you can use the quotes as prompts for journaling, making art, meditation, reflection—anything you do to surface things needing exploration. My handle is @jenclayman.)

Call for Participation—Returning to Middot

Last year, our High Holy Day theme was the cultivation of middot, or “soul-traits.” Many of you chose middot to work on during the year. It would be wonderful if you would  share your reflections with the community during our HH services. If you like, you can connect your middot-practice or experiences with the idea of resilience.

I’m looking forward to seeing you all again.

Blessings,
Jen Clayman

 

TIKKUN OLAM

CROP HUNGER WALK – Sunday, September 23, 2:00 pm at Eagle Harbor Congregational Church. We will not be holding a Restaurant Day this year.

Here’s how we are changing lives – through the CROP Hunger Walk!

Locally – 20% of all we raise goes to the Helpline House Food Bank and 5% goes to the Fishline Food Bank in Poulsbo. Nationally & Internationally – the money is used in partnership with local organizations to support hunger fighting projects, and disaster relief; i.e. Hurricane Harvey. Church World Services has been very vocal on social media defending immigration and refugee programs.

Join the Shir Hayam CROP Hunger Walk Team today! Click here to get to our CROP Hunger Walk page where you can join the team or donate generously! Every little bit helps. Contact Denise Brown for more information.

JLC

At our first JLC gathering of the almost New Year, we dipped apples into honey, blew shofar and made mobiles of colored glass to represent the sparks of light that we are hoping to release in the coming year from the places in the world where they are hidden.  We told the story The Princess of Light, a retelling by Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav of the Kabbalistic story of the scattering of the primordial Light, which was retold again by Jewish scholar, Howard Schwartz.

The six JLC families also celebrated with Shabbes blessings, dinner and songs at Monica, Luni and Zimmie’s lovely house.  L’Shanah Tovah– Happy New Year!

HAPPENING ON BAINBRIDGE

Palace of Pearls, with Zann Jacobrown

Eagle Harbor Book Fair to Benefit Kitsap Immigrant Assistance Center