Use the menu above and links below to find the full schedule, meet the team, explore our theme Be Here: Everpresence; Face to Face Forever/Now. We invite you to check out 5785 programs, sign up to volunteer, donate, explore Storahtelling, join us as a Partner, and more!
This year’s theme completes the three-year guided theme we began in 2022/5783: based on the oldest Jewish teaching tool for contemplation, Shiviti. SHIVITI invites us individually and communally towards better balance, leaning into love, rising up for justice all year long.
The original Shiviti mantra of biblical origins includes four Hebrew words – “Shiviti YHWH L’negdi Tamid”
Our translation:Be Here: Everpresence; Face to Face Forever/Now.
Welcome to 5785.
“Amazing
How everything looks
Unchanged,
Even
When nothing
Remains
The same.”
This poem, entitled ‘Illusion’ by Israeli poet Michael Zatz, was written earlier this year, included in the new anthology Shiva: Poems of October 7.
As we enter the familiar territory of the High Holy Days, ready for renewed energies, eager to reconnect on many levels, yearning for peace of mind and peaceful days everywhere – so much feels the same, and yet it all feels quite different.
Many of us are ending this cruel year bruised, and baffled, feeling rage, grief, loss and fear. We are beginning this new year with much that is unknown, yet we choose to take the first steps into this new year together, with sincere hopes, intentions and prayers for as much safety and serenity, decency and dignity, healing and repair as possible – for everybody, everywhere.
What will help us take the first steps of this new year, with some hope?
How can we be more present with our authentic selves, and more helpful to each other? Can our ancient recipes for reflection and repair be helpful and offer guidance and healing as we gather during these difficult days?
These are some of the questions on our minds and hearts as we welcome this new year at Lab/Shul.
And while we don’t have all the answers, we do have this sacred space and time to ask them of each other, and to find our path forward, come what may – face to face, together.
Whether you are joining us in NYC or online – we are so glad to welcome you on behalf of the Lab/Shul team to these High and Holy Days of Awe.
All ages. All faiths. All opinions. Everybody-friendly. Artist Driven and God-Optional, we gather to co-create a community that reconnects to our core, to each other, and to what might help us all rise up with less fear and more love, all year long.
Our theme this year is FACE TO FACE, FOREVER, NOW — L’Negdi Tamid – the final words of the Hebrew SHIVITI mantra we’ve been focusing on for the last two years.
Face to Face is our ancestral invitation to find common ground, to focus not on what divides us, but on what unites us, for each of us to witness the divine essence in each other, all of us equally valued, respected, and loved.
Together, we’re invited to sing and be silent, feast and fast, laugh and cry, think and thank — we hope that whatever your needs are on this new year,you find a meaningful and inspiring moment here, and hopefully many more.
Our team includes ritualists and artists, activists and educators. We are honored to host courageous Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers who insist on a shared path forward, and who will join us throughout this sacred season to remind us what face-to-face can look like even in the face of violence, terror and war.
Thank you for joining us as we begin this year with courage, compassion, and hope.
Shana Tova. May this be a much better year — face to face, peace to peace.
Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, Co-Founder & Senior Spiritual Leader
Sarah Sokolic, Co-Founder & Executive Director
