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 info@betalef.org for location and directions of our offsite Sukkah (just 30 minutes from Downtown Seattle).
Decorate the Sukkah!
Sunday, October 9th, arrive between the hours of 2-6PM
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 “Decorate the Sukkah Registration” button below to register.
Current weather forecast predicts 76 and sunny.
Bring a Brown Bag meal for our 6PM 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.
Shabbat in the Sukkah with Rabbi Olivier
Saturday, October 15th, 10:30- 9PM
Join Rabbi Olivier under the Sukkah for Shabbat lunch (brown-bag), deepening conversations about this unique holiday and the chance to shake the Lulav.
10:30AM – Beit Midrash: Torah Study
12:30PM – Brown Bag Community Lunch in the Sukkah
Early Afternoon – Sukkot-Shabbat walk around Yellow Lake
Early Evening – Lulav shaking and Sukkot teachings
6PM – Community Potluck Dinner in the Sukkah
7 – 9PM – Movie Night in The Sukkah
Please click the “Shabbat in the Sukkah Registration” button below to register.
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
Friday, October 21st, 7PM
We will be celebrating Simchat Torah at our Kabbalat Shabbat service in the Fellowship Hall at the Center for Spiritual Living. 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.