^. Extended Membership Registration Deadline September 10

^. Cantor's Corner including a message from Chazzan Daniela

^. High Holy Day Services

^. Workshop Leaders and Art for High Holy Days

^. Next Shabbat Service September 10 (not Sept 3)

^. Please help build our new Ark

^. Next Adult Education Event September 18

Membership and Registration for High Holy Day Services

We hope you have had the chance to review our new Pay What You Can Membership Model for the 2022/5783 year.

If you would like to attend in-person or online High Holy Day services, you must register as a CSL member using this form by the new, extended deadline of September 10, 2022.

If you would like assistance in registering please contact Lillian at shirlibeynuadmin@gmail.com. 

High Holy Day Services!

Our in-person High Holy Day Services will be held this year at Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church - 427 Bloor Street West. Rosh Hashana on September 25th, 26th and 27th, and Yom Kippur on October 4th and 5th. Services will also be offered online.

Childcare at TSP: We plan to offer childcare at Trinity-St. Paul’s during services but will be unable to do so if fewer than 5 children are signed up. Please be sure to register by September 10 and encourage your friends and family, especially if they have children, so we will be able to run this program for our community!

COVID/Masking: For the safety and security of our members, CSL will be requiring all in-person attendees to be masked. If you have registered to attend in-person and you are feeling unwell, we ask that you stay home and attend services on-line.

Names for Yizkor: Please submit names to be read out during the Yizkor service by September 10. Please keep your submission limited to family and dear friends. Please email our administrator at shirlibeynuadmin@gmail.com.

Schedule: Click here to view our High Holy Day Services Schedule.

High Holy Days are coming and we need to fund our new Ark!

Exciting news! After an extensive search, the board has selected a local artisan/woodworker to create a new Ark for CSL; one that is light and portable, but also suitable as the home for our Torah. After finding our last Ark in irreparable condition during our move from our former location, we are so pleased that we will have a new Ark for the coming High Holy Days.  

Fundraising to meet our financial commitment for this project has been underway for a while but we aren’t there yet. So, while you are completing your membership renewal and High Holy Day ticket requests, we ask you to consider making a donation toward the new Ark. 

We are grateful to those members who have already donated and very happy to announce that some members have offered a dollar-for-dollar match of each donation made, including donations already received, so now, your generous donations will be doubled! In addition, each donation is eligible for a tax receipt.

To donate now please send an Interac e-Transfer to

 shirlibeynuadmin@gmail.com, or mail a cheque to:

Congregation Shir Libeynu

c/o 750 Spadina Ave.

Toronto, ON

M5S 2J2.

Please refer to the Ark Fund in the e-transfer note section, or on your cheque. 

Thank you in advance for your generosity!

Board of Directors

slboard@shirlibeynu.ca 

Congregation Shir Libeynu resumes our monthly Shabbat Service in September, but on the second Saturday. Services will be  in person at the JCC with an  online option on Saturday, Sept 10 at 10:30.  Please join us!

NEW: Registration is not necessary.  

Prayer Books and supplements will be available at the JCC and will be sent by email a couple days in advance.

Elul: a time for self-reflection and for cheshbon hanefesh

The month of Elul has begun and our preparations for the High Holy Days are well underway. Elul is a time for self-reflection, for cheshbon hanefesh – taking account of our souls. We are instructed to spend these weeks looking inward and really considering who we have been this past year as we ready ourselves for a new year, a new opportunity to try again.

As we continue to navigate the ever-changing pandemic, we – your board of directors and I, have been reflecting, taking account, making plans, and changing plans. If there’s one thing that we’ve all learned over the past 2.5 years, it’s that nothing ever goes according to plan and we have to be able to adapt. With that in mind, I would like to share with you a message from our beloved Chazzan Daniela:

Dear Shir Libeynu Members and Friends,

For Jewish clergy, summer is the season of High Holy Day planning and preparation. As difficult as it often is to transport ourselves mentally and spiritually to the fall, to the Days of Awe, to the spirit of teshuvah, it is on our minds, even as we enjoy the pleasures of summer. 

This year, my fifteenth year with Shir Libeynu and my first year as a mother of twins (during a pandemic), I will be taking a sabbatical during the Days of Awe. Though it means I will be unable to join you all this year, I am thrilled that Shir Libeynu is returning to in-person services. I am confident that being together— with Cantor Wunch as your soulful and steady guide— will provide a sense of community and satisfaction that we have all acutely missed over these last two plus years.

Oh how I will miss singing Avinu Malkeinu with you all, watching the congregation sway together like a sea of reeds.

On a joyful note, when I went to type “Days of Awe,” my computer auto-corrected to “Days of Awwwww.” How fitting as I prepare for a High Holy Day season unlike any other, davening with a babe in each arm. 

With wishes for a Shana Tova for all,

Daniela Gesundheit 

We will miss Daniela – her voice, her spirituality, her leadership, and her joyful presence. We are thrilled that she has generously agreed to “zoom in” for Erev Yom Kippur to share her voice for the recitation of Kol Nidre. We look forward to hearing her sing this important and meaningful text again this year.

Each year of the pandemic has brought us new challenges, innovations, and changes to manoeuvre. This year will also be challenging and innovative, with many changes to manoeuvre. I am confident that we as a community will once again find the best possible ways to pray, sing, celebrate, and reflect together. As you continue on your own path of spiritual preparation, I leave you with this poem. May we all find a place of calm.

Before we enter the palaces of prayer-

Let us find within ourselves

A place of calm.

Before we revel

In the wondrous and sublime –

Let there be an honest, inward gaze.

Before the rites and ceremonies of Awe-

Let there be quieter days,

An island of attentiveness

-        Machzor Mishkan HaLev

Shanah Tova from all of us to all of you.

B’ahavah (with love),

Cantor C. Wunch

Open Call for Workshop Leaders

This year, as always, we are planning to hold workshops on Yom Kippur afternoon, between the end of services and Ne’ilah. In the past our members have generously volunteered to facilitate sessions in dance, yoga and meditation to fill the hours of fasting between the morning and evening services. If you are interested in facilitating a workshop, please let us know by September 10th at slboard@shirlibeynu.ca.

Art for Trinity St. Paul’s - Help us make the gym beautiful

Do you have Judaica themed art that you would be willing to share with Congregation Shir Libeynu as we work to beautify our in-person High Holy Day space at Trinity-St. Paul’s? As in other years at First Unitarian, we hope to personalize our prayer space with art from our congregants. Contact slboard@shirlibeynu.ca for more information and or to discuss your contribution.

50+ LGBTQ2AI+ JEWISH FOLKS

September 18, 2022

2pm - 4pm

Calling all Toronto area 50+ LGBTQ Jews! Join an upcoming networking event to nosh, connect and schmooze. 

This is one of the projects launched through Queer Jewish Incubator at the MNjcc.

Please RSVP to Sheri Cohen at shericohen@rogers.com by September 15th!

If you missed any of our past offerings or wish to view them again, below are the links:

Shabbat Service, July 2, 2022, please email our administrator at shirlibeynuadmin@gmail.com.