October 9, 2025

Shalom Chaverim (Dear Friends),

I hope the New Year is off to a great beginning for each of you. After Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Jews all over the world are now celebrating Sukkot (known as the “Festival of the Booths”). My wife Lori and I are also celebrating our 37th wedding anniversary. I am so proud of the life we have built and the family we have raised together. As we move through this season of celebration, the Sukkot holiday serves as a wonderful reminder of the strength of togetherness, the power of community. The Torah says, “in the Sukkah you shall sit for seven days,” and the reason we do this is to reenact what it was like as the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years on their way to the Promised Land. The holiday also marks the end of the harvest season and is a time of thanksgiving. Today, as a possible ceasefire deal seems imminent, together our global community of Jews prays for peace and for the return of the 48 hostages still in captivity in Gaza. I cannot think of anything to be more thankful for at this time.

In many ways, I view our Adolph & Rose Levis JCC as very much like a great big Sukkah. Our Levis JCC is a place for our whole community to gather and to build community – the true essence of this holiday. This week, preschool students in our Betty & Marvin Zale Early Childhood Learning Center learned about the holiday and enjoyed building edible sukkahs, creating Sukkot-inspired art, and shaking the lulav inside the sukkah, great fun was had by all! In a wonderful example of different parts of our community coming together, tomorrow we will enjoy a lovely “Pizza in the Sukkah” event with our neighbors and treasured Community Partners, West Boca Medical Center. Representatives from both the hospital and the Levis JCC will share a casual lunch in a sukkah that has been donated to the hospital by a doctor. Participants will learn a little about this ancient holiday, but most importantly, we will celebrate our partnership and the connection each of organizations has to our broader community. Throughout the year, there are so many ways for us to gather as a community. I hope you will join us for some of the many wonderful programs the Levis JCC offers. Learn more online here.

For Succoth Chol Hamoed, special prayers are added to the daily services, including the Yaaleh Veyavo in the Amidah and Grace After Meals. The full Hallel is recited, and daily Hoshanot are performed in the synagogue.

Light Shabbat candles Friday evening at 6:39 pm.
Shabbat ends Saturday evening at 7:30 pm.

Chag sameach!
Shabbat Shalom
Am Yisrael Chai!

If you would like to support the Levis JCC and its programs and services, click below.

Marty