Days of Awe 5786/2025
We are still overflowing with gratitude to everyone who made the Yamim Nora’im this year welcoming, relevant, filled with beautiful music, meaningful teaching, uplifting prayer, joy, and connection. We are so fortunate.
Read on to see our High Holiday highlights below for:
Rosh Hashanah
Shabbat Shuvah
Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur
Sukkot, Sh’mini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah
We were honored this year to dedicate CBST’s 5786 Open Door Fund in memory of Michael E. Levine, z”l, a founding member and beloved past CBST Board President. Michael helped shape CBST into the inclusive and welcoming community it is today. We urge you to honor this legacy by making a gift to the Michael E. Levine, z”l, Open Door Fund. Every contribution helps keep our doors open to all. Learn more about Michael’s impact here.
We also have a playlist of the drashot given by clergy and talks given by CBST members over the course of the High Holidays, which you can see for the first time or revisit here:
Rosh Hashanah 5786
We welcomed 5786 joyfully surrounded by our rainbow flags and each other.
Rabbi Werber’s Rosh Hashanah Evening I Drashah
Rabbi Werber focused on the importance of human connection, citing the creation of Adam and Eve and the need for both help and challenge. Rabbi Werber criticized the modern “frictionless” life for perpetuating isolation and loneliness – citing those who call this the “anti social” century. Rabbi Werber’s message was a call for more community, care, and imperfect human interactions as we enter 5786.
Rosh Hashanah Member Reflections from Matthew Weisberg and Amy Prince
Matt Weisberg shared his journey to becoming a member of CBST, highlighting his interfaith upbringing, involvement in community service, and transition to New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic. He emphasized CBST’s inclusive, intergenerational, and justice-focused community, noting its support for marginalized voices and diverse perspectives. Matt encouraged new members to join, citing the importance of investing in the future of queer and Jewish institutions. He highlighted CBST’s various groups, events, and programs, urging participation to strengthen the community and ensure its resilience in addressing ongoing challenges.
Amy Prince reflected on engagement and spoke about the joys that her CBST membership has brought her, and on “how community happens here, how it shows up for us and how we show up for it…. I loved how CBST gave me ways to be a scholar, an activist, a parent, a davener, and to connect with other people doing the same. It helped me see how to bring my Jewishness into the world and the world into my Judaism.”
Rabbi Klein’s Rosh Hashanah Day I Drashah
Rabbi Klein spoke about the importance of savoring the moment, regardless of what brought you to that moment.. They highlighted the biblical story of Hannah, who prayed fervently and taught the value of radically authentic presence as well as an example of a CEO’s dilemma of balancing future risks with present opportunities. The drashah concluded with a call to embrace the present: imagining the Shehecheyanu blessing as an opportunity to stop time for a moment, to encourage mindfulness and reflection to better delight in life.
Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical Intern Alana Krivo-Kaufman’s Rosh Hashanah Day II Drashah
CRRI Alana asksed: Does my current way of being tune me into the divinity of all life? Is this action I’m taking life-giving and life-sustaining? How does the story of the Akedah, the near sacrifice by Abraham of his child Isaac, help us understand this? “How might we live into a generative not knowing practice making new decisions with new information, pause to hear and see the Divine Messengers surrounding us who might guide us, to see the ram in the bushes, or to see the sustaining spring we’ve been to before, especially when we cannot see another way?”
Shabbat Shuvah – Between the Holidays
Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical Intern David Elitzer’s Shabbat Shuvah Drashah
CRRI David Elitzer spoke about Moses’ journey, hope, and the Kaddish, which reminds us of the multi-dimensional nature of the divine. “During these days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we are extra aware of God’s trans-dimensional greatness as we recite a special Kaddish variation: le’ela le’ela mikol birchata veshirata – may God’s name, the one that transcends these many worlds, be blessed above and beyond.”
Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur:
Between the Javits Center and online, over 3,000 people joined us for Kol Nidre services. It takes all hands to make this large-scale service happen: the facilities and security teams, the QR Code scanners and help desk workers, the welcomers and ushers, the CBST Community Chorus members, the livestream and audio caretakers, everyone who chanted Torah or Haftarah or who led a service, the educators who spent their afternoon teaching us, the spirit of each person in the room.
Kol Nidre Remarks from Board President Ivan Zimmerman
Board President Ivan Zimmerman spoke on the importance of community, particularly for LGBTQ+ individuals and Jews, highlighting CBST’s role as a spiritual refuge and social justice advocate. He reflected on our congregational survey which revealed the importance of social justice, high-quality prayer experiences, and an open-door policy and asked the community for its support, as it takes us roughly $360 per person to host High Holiday services open to all.
Rabbi Klein’s Kol Nidre Drashah
Rabbi Klein emphasized the importance of authenticity and self-reflection on Yom Kippur. He recounted the story of Rabbi Zusha, who feared not living fully, and highlighted the holiday’s rituals as a means to confront mortality and strive for integrity. Rabbi Klein drew parallels to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War, noting how these American heroes were later criticized for their “premature anti-fascism.” He described Yom Kippur observance as inherently anti-fascist a the holiday urges us to confront difficult truths and challenge ignorance and pretense.
Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical Intern Alana Krivo-Kaufman’s Yom Kippur Morning Drashah
CRRI Alana spoke about the collective worries and love within our communities, describing the moral injuries that that highlight the significance of Yom Kippur. Alana made reference to the story of Elijah and the “still, small voice” of the Divine that Elijah heard, which “emerges, awakening us to the possibilities of this exact moment.” Her drashah encouraged us all to find points of goodness within ourselves and collectively affirm our place in the moral fabric of the world we share.
Yizkor Reflections: CBST Member Lisa Gesson on her mantra of hope in the face of grief
During Yizkor, Lisa Gesson shared her journey of loss. She recounted her partners’ passion and resilience. Lisa highlighted her strong support system, including her workplace, family, and friends. She emphasized the importance of community and action, urging support for CBST and sharing a mantra of hope: “You are safe, you are loved, and you are not alone.”
Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical Intern David Elitzer’s Yom Kippur Afternoon Drashah
CRRI David talked about the time that Jonah spent in the whale’s belly, and specifically a Midrash where Jonah confronts the Leviathan, using a ring with Abraham’s seal to free the whale from the monster. The whale then gives Jonah quite the underwater tour, with stops such as the foundation stone under the Temple. Jonah prays, promising to drag the Leviathan to a future feast. This Midrash suggests that Jonah and the whale, both at rock bottom, find mutual aid and reimagine their futures. The narrative emphasizes liberation through mutual aid and the potential for reimagining a better world.
Sukkot, Sh’mini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah
Sukkot is Z’man Simchateinu – the season of our joy. Together, we leaned into the joy as a balm, hanging festive decorations made by Earl Anthony Giaquinto, z”l. On Sh’mini Atzeret we linked our prayers with the beginning of the wet season in the land of Israel with the seasonal prayers for rain. At the Yizkor segment of the service, we offered memorial prayers with readings, poetry, and song and marked the yortzeit of October 7, 2023 reciting names of people murdered on that day.
On Simchat Torah, we danced with the Torah scrolls and each other in the CBST Wine Sanctuary, in the CBST lobby, and proudly out on the street on 30th Street. Check out our Simchat Torah photo album here!
Watch the Sukkot services in our playlist of High Holiday services, and the joyful Simchat Torah times here: