May the New Year
bring to all our friends
and family
health, joy, prosperity and
everything good in life.
Rosh Hashanah
2012
5773
May the coming year be filled with
health and happiness for all my family and friends.
12 S hanah Tovah!
which marks the creation of the world
in nature, is very meaningful for me."
While on the trail — typically for at
least half the day — Comins does "a
lot of the traditional davening," pray-
ing, "journaling, chanting and per-
sonal prayer."
"Part of the beauty of praying in
nature is that you can stop and lis-
ten," he said. "Most people say they
don't hear a response from God to
their prayers, but if you hang up right
when you're done talking, how do you
know?"
Comins says he knows the response
has come "when my energy lifts."
Others trek to the woods for holi-
day experiences that combine formal
traditional services with the informal-
ity of being in the wilderness. The
Boulder, Colo.-based group Adventure
Rabbi, for example, holds Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur retreats
in the Colorado mountains, while '
the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat
Center in Falls Village, Conn., hosts
observances for Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Kippur.
Tiferet Gordon, 29, has attended
the Isabella Freedman retreats twice.
A rabbinical student at Hebrew
College in Newton, Mass., she'll be
leading the center's music-filled
Reconstructionist-style service this
year.
Not only does Gordon, of Brookline,
Mass., find spirituality in nature, she
says that attending the formal services
Those attending High Holiday ser-
vices at the Isabella Freedman
Jewish Retreat Center in Falls
Village, Conn., may find solitude for
prayer at the center's Lake Miriam.
at the retreat is more meaningful than
being in synagogue at home.
In Brookline, she says, "If you want
to take a break, you go outside and
there are cars and people are living
their lives; it's still Wethiesday, if it's a
Wednesday," she said.
"Here you go outside and it's still
Rosh Hashanah. Here, walking up and
down the paths, it's like walking in
Jerusalem. You see someone walking
and you know you can say `Shanah
tovah. '
Experiencing the holidays out-
doors doesn't always mean climbing a
mountain or going to a remote retreat.
For some congregations it means a
nearby park on the second day of Rosh
Hashanah.
Cherie Brown, 62, of Silver Spring,
Md., belongs to one such synagogue,
Am Kolel, a Jewish Renewal congrega-
tion in nearby Beallsville. She loves
both the more formal service on the
first day and the smaller outdoor ser-
vice on the second day that includes
lots of singing and discussion groups
rather than a formal sermon as well as
a potluck lunch.
"You're outside; you're in nature,"
Brown said. "It has this totally relaxed
feel."
May the coming year be filled with
health and happiness for all our family and friends.
17Shanah Tovah!
"
❑
G1Sl1Gtna
May the coming year be filled with
health and happiness for all our family and friends.
I2Shanah Tovah!
Nancy & Kenneth Lipson
Honora Lipson
Aaron & All Lipson
David & Sara Lipson
September 13 • 2012
77