High Holiday Guide The High Holidays is a time that is charged with emotion and history, family and concern, reflection, self improvement and judgment . . . and all too often services can be confusing and accessible only to those with many years of education and background. Our High Holiday web guide is an effort to close the great divide, to familiarize participants in the service with both the music and the liturgy of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. On both Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur the liturgy, laws and themes stress the importance of praying together, for one another and for the community. To this end we hope that you use our musical guide to help you sing together with the Cantor and the congregation.

Rosh Hashanah
Is a day when we reflect on our lives, our priorities and our actions. Are we in fact the person we would like to be? Like a room in need of paint, upholstery for the sofa, and rewiring for the outlets, we survey ourselves for renovation and renewal. As you listen to the music you will hear the serious and plaintive quality of the prayers as we turn to God to help us in this frightening and monumental task. At the same time some of the music has a joyous quality reflecting the comfort that results from the success of spiritual renovations and the return to God and his Torah.
List of Prayers:
Borchu Mi Chamocha/Hashem Yimloch Ufros Aleinu Kaddish Zockreinu L/chayim/ Mechalkeil	Mi Chamocha Av Harachamin B'rosh Hashanah Areshet S'Fateinu Hayom T'amtzeinu Kaddish After Mussaf
Yom Kippur
Has an entirely different theme. It is a day of atonement, forgiveness and (unexpectedly) elation. It is an amnesty day, when we admit our darkest moments and poorest character traits to God, and provided that we are sincere God grants forgiveness. The experience of elation is best explained anecdotally. A parent occasionally has to discipline a child and the child can misinterpret the discipline as a loss of love. Yet after the punishment has accomplished its aim, the parent holds the child in a reassuring hug—that hug is the elation of Yom Kippur. One of the best examples of such comfort and joy in the music of Yom Kippur is the Maarei Cohen. This joyous poem draws from the joyous moments in Jewish History when the Cohen Gadol (High Priest) would emerge from the Holy of Holies having achieved forgiveness for his people.
List of Prayers:
Hashem Hashem S'lach Na Omnom Kein Ki Hinei Kachomer Maarei Cohen