Fall Festivals
Sukkot & Simchat Torah provide opportunities to reflect on our commitment to community and to our sacred text. We build a Sukkah, gather together, and study together. During Simchat Torah, we experience the ending and immediate beginning again of the annual Torah reading cycle. Dance and celebrate with the Torah.
Sukkot
We celebrate together, shaking the lulag & etrov, studying Torah, eating and sharing together. These events are open to all (members and non-members.)
Contact Bet Alef at administrator@betalef.org for location and directions of our offsite Sukkah (just 30 minutes from Downtown Seattle).
Shabbat in the Sukkah – Saturday, September 30th, 10AM
Together, children and adults create the decorations for our community Sukkah, learn about the meaning and participate in the unique rituals of Sukkot. This event happens offsite at a home in Issaquah, please click the “RSVP for Sukkot” button below to register.
Bring a Brown Bag meal for lunch, and a dish to share for our sunset dinner to perform the mitzvah of eating in the Sukkah on the first night of Sukkot. Please note- all people are welcomed and invited to eat dinner and usher in the holiday, not just families with young children.
10AM – 1PM – Decorating the Sukkah
Noon– Brown bag lunch
Post-lunch walk
3PM – 5PM– Learning in the Sukkah
6PM – Havdalah & Potluck dinner in the Sukkah
7PM – Movie Night in the Sukkah
Join Rabbi Olivier under the Sukkah for Shabbat lunch (brown-bag), deepening conversations about this unique holiday and the chance to shake the Lulav. Together, children and adults create the decorations for our community Sukkah, learn about the meaning and participate in the unique rituals of Sukkot.
Bring a Brown Bag meal for lunch, and a dish to share for our sunset dinner to perform the mitzvah of eating in the Sukkah on the first night of Sukkot. Please note- all people are welcomed and invited to eat dinner and usher in the holiday, not just families with young children.
Due to this event being held at a private home, we ask that you confirm your interest in attending just in case we need to cap the number of attendees. Thank you for your understanding.Please click the “RSVP for Sukkot” button below to register.
Please e-mail David Kroopkin for the address, directions, and to help us monitor the size of the group.
Simchat Torah
As it has been our tradition for many years, we will unroll our precious Torah Scroll and – as is custom for the Holy Day – we will hear the last and first verses of the Torah be chanted to mark the unbroken cycle of our people’s relationship with our Torah.
And, together, we will dance, sing, and celebrate the gift of Torah. Please join us!
Simchat Torah Shabbat
Saturday, October 7th, 6PM
We will be celebrating Simchat Torah in the Fellowship Hall at the Center for Spiritual Living on Saturday, October 7th. The Fellowship Hall is just below the sanctuary.
The services will not be livestreamed as there are no streaming capabilities in the downstairs room where services will be held, so we encourage you to come in person (if you are able), and celebrate with us!
If you are one of our distant community members, we invite you to learn more about our historic Czech Torah scroll and watch the celebration of our new Torah Scroll via our app or on YouTube.