Avodah Service for Yom Kippur

The Avodah service is the entirety of our MusafThe additional prayer service recited on holidays and on Rosh Chodesh, symbolizing the Temple sacrifice offered on those occasions. on Yom KippurThe holiest day of the Jewish year and the culmination of a season of self-reflection. Jews fast, abstain from other worldly pleasures, and gather in prayers that last throughout the day. Following Ne'ilah, the final prayers, during which Jews envision the Gates of Repentance closing, the shofar is sounded in one long blast to conclude the holy day. It is customary to begin building one's sukkah as soon as the day ends. morning. (Instead of a separate Eleh Ezkerah, we extend the Yizkor a little to include martyrs.)

After the Sefer TorahThe Five Books of Moses, and the foundation of all of Jewish life and lore. The Torah is considered the heart and soul of the Jewish people, and study of the Torah is a high mitzvah. The Torah itself a scroll that is hand lettered on parchment, elaborately dressed and decorated, and stored in a decorative ark. It is chanted aloud on Mondays, Thursdays, and Shabbat, according to a yearly cycle. Sometimes "Torah" is used as a colloquial term for Jewish learning and narrative in general. is returned to the aron, the rabbi begins a solemn drumming on his pulpit and explains very briefly that we’re entering the realm of the High Priest and the Holy of Holies. Participants will be offered a small sachet with (a reconstruction of) the scent of the Bet HamikdashThe Holy Temple which stood in ancient times in Jerusalem. and a small stone. They can smell the sachet whenever they wish during the service to evoke the holy ambience. At the end, they’ll be asked to give the stone away into a bowl as a symbol of giving away our sins, or of giving our selves and our souls over to God, or whatever symbolism is meaningful to them.

There’s some preparation and set-up needed. We buy a scent called “Ketoret” and put a drip on a piece of tissue paper, that’s put in one of those little mesh bags some people use to hold candy tossed at a bar/bat mitzvahComing of age, one responsible for the commandments. At the age of thirteen for a boy and twelve for a girl, s/he obtains the age of Jewish majority and is obligated to all the commandments. Usually celebrated with an aliyah to the Torah and other festivities. In many communities both bar and bat mitzvah are celebrated at age 13. The plural of bar mitzvah is b'nei mitzvah. The plural of bat mitzvah is b'not mitzvah.. We place a big fishbowl partly filled with water on a stand in the center aisle. Because people will put the stones in the bowl, we put some clear glass marbles at the bottom so that the first stones don’t crack the glass.

A reader reads:

(pp. 845–847 in Kol Haneshamah Mahzor)

G-d’s world is great and holy. Among the holy lands in the world is the Holy Land of IsraelLit. ''the one who struggles with God.'' Israel means many things. It is first used with reference to Jacob, whose name is changed to Israel (Genesis 32:29), the one who struggles with God. Jacob's children, the Jewish people, become B'nai Israel, the children of Israel. The name also refers to the land of Israel and the State of Israel.. In the land of Israel the holiest city is JerusalemLit. City of peace From the time of David to the Roman destruction, Jerusalem was the capital of Israel and the spiritual and governmental center of the Jewish people. During the long exile, Jews longed to return to Jerusalem and wrote poems, prayers, and songs about the beloved city. In 1967, with the capture of the Old City, Jerusalem was reunited, becoming "the eternal capital of Israel." Still, the longing for peace is unfulfilled.. In Jerusalem the holiest place was the Temple, and in the Temple the holiest spot was the holy of holies.

There are 70 peoples in the world. Among these holy peoples is the people of Israel. The holiest of the people of Israel is the tribe of Levi. In the tribe of Levi the holiest are the priests. Among the priests, the holiest was the high priest.

Of the days of the year, the holidays are holy. Higher than these is the holiness of the Sabbath. Among Sabbaths the holiest is the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), the Sabbath of Sabbaths.

There are 70 languages in the world. Among the holy languages is the holy language of Hebrew. Holier than all else in this language is the holy Torah, and in the Torah the holiest part is the Ten Commandments. In the Ten Commandments the holiest of all words is the Name of God.

And once during the year, at a certain hour, these four supreme sanctities of the world were joined with one another. That was on the Day of Atonement, when the high priest would enter the holy of holies and there utter the Name of G-d.

And because this hour was beyond measure holy and awesome, it was the time of utmost peril not only for the high priest but for the whole of Israel. For if, in this hour, there had, God forbid, entered the mind of the high priest a false or sinful thought, the entire world would have been destroyed.

Every spot where a person stands and looks toward heaven is a holy of holies. Every day of one’s life is a Day of Atonement and every person is a high priest, and every word that a person utters in holiness and purity is the Name of God.

(Based on a passage in “The Dybbuk” by S. An-Ski)

Rabbi leads first meditation

(this version is two adaptation stages away from a meditation by Gail Albert—can be further adapted)

Take up the sachet with the k’toret scent of the ancient Temple. Smell the ancientness. Smell Divine Mystery, imagine the ancient Holy of Holies filled with that smell, that mystery (let it take you out of mind, and into heart). Let it remind you (or reheart you) of the EVER-PRESENT, sensible, smellable, tastable, seeable – “taste and see how good the ONE can be,” yet also, fundamentally, always unknowable, always becoming, “I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE – EHYEH ASHER EHYEH” filling the universe with the unwinding patterns of cause and effect, of randomness and chaos, choice and love. Be in don’t-know mind. Be in that Presence. Be called by that Presence. Respond “Hineni – Here I am.”

Choir sings one of the following:

All Babies

by Sinead O’Connor

(you can hear it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNa2UPcN2vw)

All babies are born saying God’s name

Over and over,

All born singing God’s name

All babies are flown from the Universe

From there they’re lifted by the hands of angels

God gives them the stars to use as ladders

She hears their calls

She is mother and father

All babies are born out of great pain

Over and over

All born into great pain

All babies are crying

For no-one remembers God’s name

All babies are born saying God’s name

Over and over,

All born singing God’s name

All babies are flown from the Universe

From there they’re lifted by the hands of angels

God gives them the stars to use as ladders

She hears their calls

She is mother and father

All babies are born out of great pain

Over and over

All born into great pain

All babies are crying

For no-one remembers God’s name

There’s only love

There’s only love

There’s only love in this world

There’s only love

There’s only love

There’s only love in this world

Hallelujah

by Leonard [no-glossaryCohen[/no-glossary]

You say I took the name in vain

I don’t even know the name

But if I did, well really, what’s it to you?

There’s a blaze of light

In every word

It doesn’t matter which you heard

The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn’t much

I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch

I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you

And even though

It all went wrong

I’ll stand before the Lord of Song

With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Rabbi leads second meditation

(this version is again two adaptations away from one by Gail Albert)

Take up the stone. What’s it feel like? cool? warm? smooth? dead weight? solid? lovely?… there might be many aspects to a stone.

We ourselves are said to be hewn from God, the Rock of Ages, the Rock of our salvation, the One with no image.

And some part of us comes from the Earth, just like the stone.

Pay attention to your breath a moment. Like the stone with its many aspects, you, too, are made of many aspects: earth and air, mixing and changing places without your needing to control it. Inside and out mixing and making something uniquely you.

In our multiple aspects as the hewn Rock we are, we confess that we sometimes getA writ of divorce. Traditionally, only a man can grant his wife a get. Liberal Jews have amended this tradition, making divorce more egalitarian. confused. We sometimes seek excessive solidity, denying the uncontrollable mystery of I WILL BE, the everbecoming Life of all Worlds. We try to control others’ lives, putting ourselves in the service of that great seeker of solidity, the Pharaoh entombed in pyramids, rather than of God.

Take a moment to appreciate again the many aspects of the stone in your hand.

Congregation chants Ashamnu  

(based on David R. Slavitt translation of “A Crown for the King,” section 34)