Our holiday celebrations at Eitz Chayim are in keeping with our commitment to our intergenerational community and to engaging, participatory events. Our community's traditions are a blend of old and new, as traditonal liturgy and text are interspaced with personal and contemporary sounds, insights and experiences. All of our celebrations are enhanced with wonderful food, produced colaboratively by our congregants.

For example, on the High Holy Days, congregants are responsible for many aspects of the service, including Torah and Haftara readings, personal prayers, and interpretive readings. In addition to the traditional liturgy, group discussions enhance our understanding of the holidays. Throughout the services, our congregants and our guests are given many structured opportunities to interact with one another and with the messages of the High Holy Days. Due to the number of participants, we move to a larger space for the first day of Rosh Hashanah, and for Yom Kippur. On the second day of Rosh Hashana we return to Eitz Chayim on Magazine St., for our dramatic reenactment of the text.

On Purim, adults and children alike dress in outrageous costumes and join in an energized, riotous reenactment of the story of Esther, Mordecai, and Haman; in additon, the Megillat Esther is chanted with the cantillation unique to the holiday. On Purim, we squeeze into our familiar space, decorated for the event.

Every year on the second night of Passover, we have a gala Seder at a light filled hall. It is open to all Eitz Chayim members and to the community at large. Our wonderful rabbi, Liza Stern, guides us through the Hagaddah and the re-telling of the flight of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt to a world of greater freedom and more choices. We enjoy a meal of specially catered kosher foods, including a vegetarian option. Children of all ages are welcome! Prizes are given out to children for finding the hidden matzoh, the afikommen.

Upcoming Holiday Celebrations

Date	Time	Title	Location
Jun 08, 2008	7:00 pm	Erev Shavuot	Eitz Chayim Community Room

Event Type:	Holiday
Date:	Jun 08, 2008
Title:	Erev Shavuot
Leader(s):	Beth O'Sullivan
Start:	7:00 pm
End:	11:30 pm
Location:	Eitz Chayim Community Room
Description:	Shavuot Service w/ Guest Speakers.

Recent Holiday Celebrations

Date	Time	Title	Location
May 09, 2008	7:00 pm	Holocaust Memorial Service	Community Room
Apr 20, 2008	5:00 pm	Second Seder Passover Celebration	Eitz Chayim Community Room
Apr 13, 2008	12:00 pm	Second Annual Passover Cook Off	Eitz Chayim's Community Room
Mar 22, 2008	5:30 pm	Adults Only Purim Celebration 'Purim in ...	Congregation Eitz Chayim
Mar 21, 2008	6:00 pm	Family Purim Celebration and Shabbat Ser...	Eitz Chayim Community Room
Jan 25, 2008	7:00 pm	Tu b’Shevat Celebration and Community Di...	Congregation Eitz Chayim Sukkah
Dec 18, 2005	10:00 am	Chanukah Madness	Congregation Eitz Chayim
Oct 22, 2005	9:15 am	New Minyan Shabbat Hol H'Moed Sukkot	Congregation Eitz Chayim
Oct 21, 2005	8:00 pm	Community Potluck in the Sukkah	Congregation Eitz Chayim

Event Type:	Holiday
Date:	May 09, 2008
Title:	Holocaust Memorial Service
Leader(s):	Rabbi Liza Stern
Start:	7:00 pm
Location:	Community Room
Description:	Holocaust Memorial Service to honor the memories of those who perished in the Holocaust

Event Type:	Holiday
Date:	Apr 20, 2008
Title:	Second Seder Passover Celebration
Leader(s):	Carol Kraus
Start:	5:00 pm
End:	8:00 pm
Location:	Eitz Chayim Community Room
Description:	Attend our gala, annual Second Night Seder, All are welcome! The space at Eitz Chayim is being transformed for the Seder so we can journey back in time. We will use the traditional Passover Haggadah(the Telling) and supplementary readings, led by our rabbi, Liza Stern. A family style meal of tastefully prepared vegetarian/dairy dishes will be served to be eaten at a leisurely pace. After the meal, children will receive Afikommen prizes for finding the hidden matzah. We will end wi...

Event Type:	Holiday
Date:	Apr 13, 2008
Title:	Second Annual Passover Cook Off
Leader(s):	Jan Corash
Start:	12:00 pm
End:	2:00 pm
Location:	Eitz Chayim's Community Room
Description:	Betty Crocker move over! Eitz Chayim is here! The Second Annual Passover Cook Off We started last year with dessert (which is how we should always start our meals!) and this year we are moving up to side dishes. That includes anything (except sweets this year!) that you like to eat during all 8 days of Passover for any of your meals. It needs to be Pesadicka- of course! - and vegetarian/dairy. And we also need your first born—no, wait, that’s already been done, make that ...

Event Type:	Holiday
Date:	Mar 22, 2008
Title:	Adults Only Purim Celebration 'Purim in Persia'
Leader(s):	Rabbi Liza Stern
Start:	5:30 pm
End:	7:30 pm
Location:	Congregation Eitz Chayim
Description:	We will have an adults-only "Purim in Persia" celebration. WHETHER DANCER OR SPECTATOR OR JUST PLAIN PARTY LOVER - THIS IS A NIGHT YOU MUST NOT MISS!!! Our celebration is complete with home made hamentashen, wine, pistachios, adult "shpiel" (Rabbi Liza has something great up her sleeve!) and Middle Eastern folk and line dance lessons with Shadia, one of Boston's premier teachers of Middle Eastern Dance. Stay tuned for costume suggestions, but plan to come in your dancing shoes, loose ...

Event Type:	Holiday
Date:	Mar 21, 2008
Title:	Family Purim Celebration and Shabbat Services
Leader(s):	Rabbi Liza Stern
Start:	6:00 pm
End:	9:00 pm
Location:	Eitz Chayim Community Room
Description:	We will have our annual family and school celebration, complete with a special holiday light dinner prepared by Sakina Berman, children's “shpiel,” reading of the megillah, and a shortened shabbat service

Event Type:	Holiday
Date:	Jan 25, 2008
Title:	Tu b’Shevat Celebration and Community Dinner
Leader(s):	Rabbi Liza Stern
Start:	7:00 pm
End:	10:00 pm
Location:	Congregation Eitz Chayim Sukkah
Description:	We will be having a congregational Peace Food dinner after services -- call to reserve your place(s). Services will be brief, and will include a presentation from our Tu b'shevat Scholar in Residence, Dr. Ezra Hausman where he will be discussing energy choices. Dr. Hausman will continue his teaching as our Adult Education Speaker on Sunday morning, January 27 with the topic title, “Energy Choices for a Warming World.” What does it mean to be living in a warming world? How will it ...

Event Type:	School, Holiday
Date:	Dec 18, 2005
Title:	Chanukah Madness
Leader(s):	Rabbi Liza Stern
Start:	10:00 am
End:	1:00 pm
Location:	Congregation Eitz Chayim
Description:	3rd Annual Menorah Contest – We’ve had some wonderful creative Menorahs in the past – let’s continue the tradition! Prizes will be awarded. School celebration will be held in the Community Room Hanukkah Fair – Sunday, December 18, 10:00-1:00 Your chance to buy gifts, decorations, candles, wrapping paper, gelt, games and more.

Event Type:	Shabbat Service, Holiday
Date:	Oct 22, 2005
Title:	New Minyan Shabbat Hol H'Moed Sukkot
Start:	9:15 am
End:	1:00 pm
Location:	Congregation Eitz Chayim
Description:	In partnership with the Cambridge Minyan, we will be having a full service for Shabbat hol haMoed Sukkot, with Hallel and Torah reading, in Eitz Chayim’s Community Room, followed by kiddush in the sukkah (weather permitting). Services will include a short text teaching by Or Rose (director of the Hebrew College beit midrash) and the chanting of the book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) - if you are interested in reading a chapter or have other questions, please contact Josh at Gminyan@gmail.com.

Event Type:	Holiday, Shabbat Oneg
Date:	Oct 21, 2005
Title:	Community Potluck in the Sukkah
Leader(s):	Landman/Weissman & Bartick/Nicholson
Start:	8:00 pm
End:	8:30 pm
Location:	Congregation Eitz Chayim