***Note updated times: Erev Simchat Torah on 10/24 will begin at 5:15pm. Kabbalat Shabbat on 10/25 will begin at 5:00pm with dinner to follow. Please register for Sukkot meals ASAP https://jccjapan.jp/high-holidays-2024/ *** Before arriving in Japan, I asked a rabbinic predecessor whether getting the four species (lulav/etrog) for Sukkot ‘just happens’ at the JCC. His...
***Note time changes: Erev Simchat Torah on 10/24 will begin at 5:15pm. Kabbalat Shabbat on 10/25 will begin at 5:00pm with dinner to follow. Please register for Yom Kippur and Sukkot ASAP https://jccjapan.jp/high-holidays-2024/ *** Kol Nidre, perhaps the greatest known prayer and melody in the High Holiday liturgy was described by Lord Chief Rabbi Jonathan...
***Note time changes below. Erev Rosh Hashana Services begin at 6:00pm. Simchat Torah Night begin at 5:15pm. Please register for High Holidays ASAP https://jccjapan.jp/high-holidays-2024/ *** The calendar for 5785 will be immensely complicated on the personal and communal levels with one exception. Rosh Hashana’s falling out on Wednesday night means that (outside of Israel) three...
***Please register for High Holidays ASAP https://jccjapan.jp/high-holidays-2024/ *** The Rosh Hashana service seems custom built for those who prefer arriving fashionably late to the synagogue. The introductory prayers, while beautiful, do not nearly approach the weight attached to the blowing of the shofar which is heard much later in the liturgy. Why delay blowing the...
Join us after Shabbat dinner in the Sukkah as JCJ member Eva Izsak-Niimura discusses her recently published book Songs My Mother Taught Me on Friday, October 18 from 8:00 pm. Songs My Mother Taught Me follows the narrator, confronted with the imminent death of her mother, on a voyage to share the final leg of...
The first thing you need to know about making a shofar is that it smells terrible. Really god-awful. If you’ve ever picked up a shofar at a Judaica store or even one that’s been sitting in a synagogue cabinet for 20 years, you might have noticed the formidable scent that stings the nostrils not always...
***Comedy Show at JCC tonight. 8pm English 9pm Hebrew*** Toronto’s visionary 20th century Rabbi Gedaliah Felder received an interesting question in one of the earlier pulpits he served. A congregant asked whether he and his wife could celebrate their 50th (Golden) wedding anniversary with a big party and a renewal of vows. Despite his ecumenical...
From Mort Sahl to Seth Rogen, Canadian Jews have taken full advantage of the Rush-Bagot Agreement to bring their comedic stylings south to the United States, Hollywood and beyond. Whether it was Rick Moranis exclaiming ‘Honey I Shrunk the Kids!’, Howie Mandel’s voicing Gizmo in the 1980s ‘Gremlins’ franchise or more recently Eugene Levy’s performance...
***Newsletter on hiatus through mid-September. Please check for upcoming event and High Holiday emails.*** The video of Noa Argamani being abducted to Gaza by Hamas terrorists on October 7th resonated viscerally throughout the entire world. As a journalist described the scene, “A hand outstretched, terror etched on her face, screaming as she is carried away...
אם־אשכחך ירושלים תשכח ימיני:תדבק־לשוני לחכי אם־לא אזכרכי אם־לא אעלה את־ירושלים על ראש שמחתי:If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither;Let my tongue stick to my palate if I cease to think of you,if I do not keep Jerusalem in memory even at my happiest hour.-Psalm 137:5-6 The verses, traditionally sung prior to...