Programs

Get Ready for Passover! FAMILY Celebration

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Sun, Mar 21
5:00-6:15pm
FREE – donations greatly appreciated!
Registration Required
Zoom link sent upon registration

Let’s get ready for Pesah/Passover together! Join us for a fun and engaging program for kids in JK through grade 6 (and their parents) to help us prepare our homes, our tables, and our selves for freedom.

If you’re participating in the program, we’d love to give your family a free “Unboxing Jewish” Pesah kit, filled with fantastic materials to make your seders more participatory and meaningful. Supplies are very limited. In addition to registering your family with a “Family Ticket,” please select a “Request Unboxing Jewish Kit” ticket. First come, first served. Pick up your kit this week near Bathurst & Dundas. (If your child is enrolled in Makom Afterschool or ATID this year or was last year, we already delivered a kit to your home!) 

In the program, we’ll open our Pesah kits together, learn what to do with all the awesome items in them, play games, and design our own usable seder plates in breakout rooms* by age group.

*We’ve resolved the technical issues with breakout rooms we had on Purim. 😉

FRI NIGHT SERVICES

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Fri, Mar 19
6:30-7:15pm
Online via Zoom
Meeting ID: 955 4183 9308, Password: 024117
FREE – donations greatly appreciated!

We’ll wind down from the week and welcome Shabbat by singing the joyous melodies of Kabbalat Shabbat together as a community and hearing a brief devar Torah.

Just before bringing in Shabbat with the final stanza of Lekha Dodi, we’ll bid each other Shabbat shalom and log off to light candles and start Shabbat the good ol’ unplugged way.

Have your Shabbat candles ready to light. If you have a siddur (prayer book), please use it; we’ll also screen share the prayers.

ROCK YOUR SEDER: Tips & Tricks

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Wed, Mar 17
8-9pm
Online via Zoom
Meeting ID: 955 4183 9308, Password: 024117
FREE – donations greatly appreciated!

Without the ability to gather with extended family, many of us will find ourselves hosting seder this year. Whether you’re leading for your first or fiftieth time, for your family or just for yourself, gain a better understanding of the seder steps and learn some tips and tricks to make your seder fun and meaningful, for both adults and children. You can do it!

If there are any seder topics that would particularly helpful for you, please email Rabbi Aaron in advance and he’ll aim to cover them. For example:

  • What was difficult in last year’s seder?
  • What’s a concern you have with leading a seder?
  • What’s something you want to understand better about the seder?

INTERFAITH COUPLES’ Pre-Purim Gathering

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Tues, Feb 23
8-9pm
FREE – donations greatly appreciated! 
Registration Required
Zoom link sent upon registration

ALL* interfaith couples are invited for a special pre-Purim gathering. We’ll get to know each other and then learn about Purim’s interfaith story of Persian parties, palace plots, secret identities, and surprise subversions, along with traditional holiday customs, through interactive text study and open discussion.

One or both partners are welcome to join us.
*LGBTQ & straight interfaith couples fully welcome

PURIM MORNING Megillah Reading & Zakhor

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Fri, Feb 26
7:45-9am
FREE – donations greatly appreciated!
Registration Required
Zoom link sent upon registration

Purim’s not over yet! More megillah in the morning. 

7:45-8:00am – Parashat Zakhor: Fulfill the annual mitzvah of hearing 3 verses read from a Torah scroll, in which we’re commanded to remember Amalek’s attack on the Israelites after we left Egypt (Devarim/Deuteronomy 25:17-19). Text will be screen shared in Hebrew & English.

8:00-9:00am – Megillah Reading: Hear the full Book of Esther chanted by community members from scrolls. Text will be screen shared in Hebrew & English. WE RECOMMEND LOGGING ON A FEW MINUTES EARLY, AS READING WILL START AT 8:00 SHARP.

PURIM EVE Megillah Reading, Live Concert & Games Night

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Thurs, Feb 25
6:30-9:30pm
FREE – donations greatly appreciated!
Registration Required
Zoom link sent upon registration

Join us for an outstanding Purim evening!

6:30-6:45pm – Ma`ariv (Evening Service): Traditional service in Hebrew (Ashkenazi text). Prayers will be screen shared in Hebrew & English. Since we won’t be physically together to form a minyan, we’ll say this substitute for mourners’ kaddish.

6:45-7:00pm – Parashat Zakhor: Fulfill the annual mitzvah of hearing 3 verses read from a Torah scroll, in which we’re commanded to remember Amalek’s attack on the Israelites after we left Egypt (Devarim/Deuteronomy 25:17-19). Text will be screen shared in Hebrew & English.

7:00-8:00pm – Megillah Reading: Hear the full Book of Esther chanted by community members from scrolls. Text will be screen shared in Hebrew & English. WE RECOMMEND LOGGING ON A FEW MINUTES EARLY, AS READING WILL START AT 7:00 SHARP.

8:00-8:30pm – Persian Music Live Concert: Navaye Kimia features Padideh Ahrarnejad on tar (a stringed instrument) and vocals and Ali Massoudi on tonbak (percussion) and vocals. Navaye Kimia means “precious song.” Nava and Kimia are also the names of Padideh and Ali’s daughters.

8:30-9:30pm – Games & Socializing: Stick around for fun games & hanging out with new and old friends in breakout rooms. BYOB!

FAMILY Purim Celebration

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Thurs, Feb 25
5:15-6:15pm
FREE – donations greatly appreciated!
Registration Required
Zoom link sent upon registration

Families with kids! Let’s celebrate Purim together. Fun Purim activities in breakout rooms for kids (& parents) JK-grade 1, grades 2-3, 4-5 & 6-8.

Abridged Megillah reading in Hebrew & English with slideshow of kids’ illustrations.

Be Happy, It’s Purim! What If I’m Just Not Feeling It?

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Thurs, Feb 18
8-9:30pm
Online via Zoom
Meeting ID: 955 4183 9308, Password: 024117
FREE – donations greatly appreciated!

This past Shabbat was Rosh Hodesh – the new moon beginning the month of Adar. In the Babylonian Talmud, we learn: מִשֶּׁנִּכְנַס אֲדָר מַרְבִּין בְּשִׂמְחָה – “When Adar enters, we increase in joy.” But what if you’re not feeling so joyous in these pandemic days? How can we navigate the dissonance between how we’re supposed to feel on Purim (and other holidays) and how we actually feel?

Let’s learn and discuss traditional Jewish texts that grapple with this human challenge. We’ll have time both for havruta (small group) study and full group discussion.

Everyone is welcome! No prior Jewish learning experience required.

Canadian REPARATIONS? Jewish Sources

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Thurs, Feb 4
8-9:30pm
Online via Zoom
Meeting ID: 955 4183 9308, Password: 024117
FREE – donations greatly appreciated!

Should Canada pay reparations to descendants of Indigenous and Black enslaved people? We’ll read and discuss primary Jewish texts and consider their lessons for Canada (and by extension, the US) today.

Everyone is welcome! No prior Jewish learning experience required.

HAVDALAH @ HOME

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Sat, Feb 13
6:45-7pm
Online via Zoom
Meeting ID: 955 4183 9308, Password: 024117
FREE – donations greatly appreciated!

Let’s gather together to conclude Shabbat with a sing-along havdalah followed by a short Melaveh Malkah – escorting out the Shabbat queen with joyous songs – and socializing in small groups.

Best if you have your own havdalah items ready to go so we can all say havdalah together: something to drink (wine, grape juice, beer, tea, juice, etc.), fragrant spices or herbs, and a multi-wicked candle (or just hold any two regular candles together), but if not, no worries.

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