For info on getting your IKARds (High Holy Day entrance cards): CLICK HERE.
Questions? You’re not the only one! Check out our High Holy Day FAQs.
High Holy Day Roadmap below:
ROSH HASHANAH
Stunning davening, complete with all the greatest hits: Dueling Shofar Service (break-your-heart-open vs blast-you-out-of-your-seat)/ Who Will Live, Who Will Die/Down-on-the-Ground-Aleinu. Rosh Hashanah services are Sunday night, Monday, and Tuesday, September 29-October 1.
Erev Rosh Hashanah: Sunday, September 29, 6:00 pm musical intro, 6:15 pm service
Meditative music, then jump into the High Holies with a (truly) short and deeply meaningful service and sermon.
Rosh Hashanah Day 1: Monday, September 30, 8:30 am
Stunning davening, complete with all the greatest hits: Dueling Shofar Service (break-your-heart-open vs blast-you-out-of-your-seat)/Down-on-the-Ground-Aleinu and some serious sermonic action, great coffee and tasty snacks. *TRIBE (20s/30s) lunch following services. Information and sign-up link coming soon.
Rosh Hashanah Day 2: Tuesday, October 1, 8:30 am
IKAR’s best-kept secret – with all the spirit, learning, prostrating, shofar blasting and mini-muffins of Day One but with a little more elbow room.
Tashlikh: Sunday, October 6, 4:00 pm
So much of our work during this season of reflection involves letting things go – old habits, old ideas, old resentments. But the Tashlikh ritual asks us to go one step bolder, and actively “cast away” the burdens that are holding us down and weighing on our hearts. The tradition is to go down to the water and throw in some object – most famously, a piece of bread – that is meant to symbolically represent our transgressions.
But bread is not healthy for the local marine life. So instead, this year, we are gathering found objects on the beach and throwing them back out into the ocean from whence they came – in the ebb-and-flow spirit of that eternal work of teshuvah/return. Please arrive a few minutes early for Tashlikh. Members of our Green Action team will be there to help collect seaweed and cut it into smaller pieces for folks to use. Shells, pebbles, and sticks work too!
It’s a ritual “casting away” of our missteps, mistakes and bad patterns – all the things we don’t want to bring with us into the New Year. We gather at Santa Monica Beach, Lifeguard Station 26 (at Ocean Park Blvd).
YOM KIPPUR
Kol Nidre: Tuesday, October 8, 5:45 pm
There’s a reason it’s Rabbi Brous’ favorite day of the year. Kol Nidre is intense and beautiful and the very best way to dive into your annual 25-hour soul workout. Expect a white-clad crowd taking in a spicy sermon and more joy than you thought could be mustered for Kol Nidre.
YK morning: Wednesday, October 9, 9:00 am
Join us for the best, most uplifting spiritual punch in the gut – and make a day out it. Sermon, learning, davening and dancing. You’ll forget you’re even fasting – and just might leave believing that anything is possible.
Yizkor service: Wednesday, October 9, 2:00 pm
Our memorial service, honoring the people we love who have died.
YK afternoon: Wednesday, October 9, 2:40 pm
Following Yizkor, stretch your mind and heart in Torah study or rest and relax – body and soul – with restorative yoga. Followed by Minha (the afternoon service) and the bizarrely captivating Book of Jonah.
Neilah: Wednesday, October 9, 5:45 pm
The home stretch – hours of spiritual work culminate in a no-holds-barred service that bridges heaven and earth, and we lay it all on the line. So good you won’t want Yom Kippur to end. Closes with children’s light parade, Havdalah and a final knock-your-socks-off blast of the shofar and Halleluyah.
Break-Fast: Wednesday, October 9, 7:05 pm
The food is delicious and abundant. The air is clear and our souls are clean. Come ready to eat and dance. (Advance registration is required.)
SUKKOT
Sukkot begins at sundown on Sunday, October 13.
Gather around under the communal spirit of our Sukkah.
Sukkot Day 1 Services: Monday, October 14, 9:30 am
Shabbat Hol HaMoed Sukkot: Saturday, October 19, 9:15 am
SH’MINI ATZERET AND SIMHAT TORAH
Sh’mini Atzeret begins at sundown on Sunday, October 20. Simhat Torah begins at the conclusion of Sh’mini Atzeret on Monday, October 21.
Shmini Atzeret Services with Yizkor: Monday, October 21, 9:30 am
Simhat Torah: Monday, October 21, 7:00 pm