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Sukkot: Thanksgiving & Remembrance

Event Information

The Four Species of SukkotSukkot is one of the most joyful festivals on the Jewish calendar. Occurring after the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Sukkot is a week-long thanksgiving for the fall harvest. The holiday also commemorates God’s protection of the Israelites during the Exodus and the forty years of wandering in the desert.

The Regent University Library and the School of Divinity invite the CBN and Regent communities to join us for this special event. Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman, founder of Temple Lev Tikvah and senior rabbi scholar at Eastern Shore Chapel Episcopal Church, will explain the meaning and significance of Sukkot and its place in the liturgical year. There will also be Scriptural readings in Hebrew and English.

Program

Program

  1. Welcome and Opening Prayer, Dr. Esther Gillie
  2. Introduction to the Torah Scroll, Harold Henkel
  3. Overview of Program, Dr. Jordan Jones
  4. Explanation and reflections on Sukkot, Rabbi Israel Zoberman
  5. Ecclesiastes, Sukkot, and Closing Comments, Dr. Jordan Jones
  6. Corporate Readings
  7. Closing Prayer, Dr. Carrie Wood

Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman

Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman was born in Kazakhstan in 1945 to Polish Holocaust survivors. He grew up in Haifa, Israel and served in the IDF in the 1960s before emigrating to the United States in 1966.

A resident of Virginia since 1981, he served one year as Associate Rabbi at Ohef Sholom Temple in Norfolk before founding Congregation Beth Chaverim, the first Reform synagogue in Virginia Beach. In 1999, his alma mater, Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion, awarded him the honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree.

A frequent contributor to the Congressional Record, he is past contributing editor of the Jewish Spectator, and his book reviews, editorials and poetry have been published in Jewish News, the Virginian-Pilot, the Daily Press, the National Jewish Post and Opinion, Reform Jewish Quarterly, and Poetica.