Religious Life |
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Shabbat and Holidays When the sun sets on Friday evening, students are getting into the Shabbat mood! During the school year, Hillel offers at least two student-led services each Friday evening, an Orthodox service and a Reform or Conservative style service. Additionally, once a quarter special service leader Marsha Attie leads "Friday Night Live," a music-filled Reform service. On most Shabbat evenings students choose from two services, Reform or Conservative. Students are invited to participate in all levels of the service, from leading to preparing a D'var Torah to making blessings at each meal. We offer training sessions if you are new to leading. There are two traditional minyans, The Stanford Minyan which meets on Saturday mornings at the Ziff Center, and Minyan Hamifratz (www.minyanhamifratz.org/), a monthly Shabbat evening services and pot luck dinner. For a complete schedule of traditional minyanim around the Palo Alto area please visit http://stanfordareaminyan.org/. If you're interested in taking part in any way, please contact Rabbi Mychal Copeland at rabbimrc@stanford.edu. Every Shabbat eve, the entire community joins in a kosher, Shabbat meal. Holiday celebrations are also planned and led by students in partnership with Hillel at Stanford staff. Through student leadership, Hillel ensures vibrant Shabbat and holiday celebrations that speak directly to the campus community.
Kosher Dining Options Welcome to Stanford! Whether you are staying for many years or just a few months, this guide will give you an introduction to kosher eating in the Stanford area. Hillel at Stanford: There are many options for kosher eating around Stanford's campus, and the creation of a kosher dining hall is well in progress. However, at present, there is no kosher dining hall associated with the university. Hillel at Stanford provides many kosher meals each week, from educational lunch classes to Shabbat dinner each week. Everyone is invited! We have two kosher kitchens, one stricly kosher cooking kitchen in the Koret Pavilion at the Ziff Center for Jewish Life, and a second "prep" kitchen that is available for all to use in the Taube Hillel House. There is always food in the refrigerator during the school year and students are encouraged to feel right at home and "raid the fridge"! Our Koret Pavilion kitchen is under the supervision of a local rabbi, Rabbi Feldman, who is affiliated with the Va'ad of Northern California. A student Koret Kitchen manager oversees students cooking Shabbat meals every Friday afternoon, and a Challah for Hunger group bakes challah on Thursday nights to sell on campus Friday afternoon with proceeds given to hunger relief organizations. Kashrut and Residence Life: Undergraduate students who keep kosher often choose to live in one of the two vegetarian cooperative row houses. Others live in the residence on campus that has individual kitchens. Still others live in one of the more general residences and request kosher meat from the dining hall within that residence. Graduate students cook in their own kitchens. Markets: There are a few grocery stores nearby that carry many kosher products, though none are explicitly kosher markets.
Dining: There are two kosher eateries in the area.
If you have any questions about the future of kosher food at Stanford or any of these options, please contact Rabbi Mychal Copeland at rabbimrc@stanford.edu or 650 725-1424. I look forward to speaking with you. Overview of Jewish Holidays For a current listing of the dates for this year’s holidays or for Shabbat candle lighting times, please visit http://www.hebcal.com/. Rosh Hashanah Rosh Hashanah (“head of the year”) is the Jewish new year and thought to be the day on which the world was created, thereby becoming “birthday of the world”. Two days of this important festival are observed with the prohibition on work. For many of the Jewish holidays, a second day is observed in the diaspora. Yom Kippur Yom Kippur (“day of repentance”) is by many considered the most important day of the Jewish year. From sundown to sundown we fast and spend most of that time in synagogue asking G-d for forgiveness for not living up to our fullest potential as human beings. We are asked to think about the purpose of our lives and take an accounting of the soul. Sukkot Sukkot is named for the temporary hut/booth-like structures we live in during this seven day period, recalling the huts in which our ancestors dwelled during their post-Egypt desert wanderings. We acknowledge the temporary nature of our material wealth as we eat and sleep in this hut. Since this festival is connected with the harvest, we wave the lulav, a collection of four plant species, in thanks for the bounty we enjoy in our lives. The first two days are observed with the prohibition on work. Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah Shmini Atzeret (“the eighth day of solemn gathering”) marks the ending of Sukkot and is celebrated with cessation of work and the recitation of a prayer for rain. It is immediately followed by Simchat Torah, the “rejoicing of the Torah”, a holiday of medieval origin in which we dance and sing in thanks for our holy writings. Passover On Passover, in Hebrew Pesach, we celebrate the liberation of our ancestors from slavery in Egypt. We hold a seder (literally “order of service”) in our homes so that we can actually feel as if we experienced this liberation first-hand. This is the most widely observed Jewish holiday today, perhaps due to its powerful home ritual and narrative importance in our tradition. The first and last two days of this week long festival are observed with the prohibition on work. Shavuot This festival, literally “(feast of) weeks”, marks thegiving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. Agriculturally, it is a feast of harvest or the day of the first fruits. Today, many Jews stay up all night studying the Book of Ruth and other topics in the tradition of the medieval mystics. These two days are also marked by the prohibition on work. |
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