What is the Rosh Hashanah experience? Does it mean "boring" services or can you get the same out of just celebrating at home? One of the number one advantages with the Machar community is that you don't have to make that choice -- you can come, celebrate with a community of like-minded people, and still enjoy a meaningful service. Does Yom Kippur mean only fasting and praying? Or is there a larger part that could be had in both the renewal process and the remembrance ceremony? Our Machar choir all had bottles of water underneath their chairs, but the post-service remembrance gathering and the "hands-on" wishes for the New Year left Machar members, many of whom did not fast and all of whom do not pray, with something special.
Our family services included quotes from Anne Frank, Dr. Seuss, and Martin Luther King, Jr. As a congregation full of intellectuals, critical thinkers, and challengers of the status quo, it was unsurprising that our High Holiday services are different, too. But, my family and I still left feeling the same inspiration, spiritual, and awakening that Jews with more theistic leanings experience. It is wonderful to be a Humanistic Jew and have a wonderful home like Machar.
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