Holidays
At Mishkan Shalom, we follow the calendar of Jewish holidays with depth and joy throughout the year celebrating the full round of holy days and holidays. Watch for details as each of our holiday celebrations approach. Find details on past holidays, and general resources as you explore below.
Please check our calendar for specific information on holiday services and gatherings.
Yamim Nora'im: Days of Awe: (online and in-person)
Rosh Hashannah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Shemini Atzeret, Simchat Torah
- Rosh Hashanah Friday-Sunday, September 15th - 17th
- Yom Kippur: Kol Nidre: Sunday, September 24th
- Yom Kippur Day, Monday, September 25th
Pre-registration required for all services
Returning to the Home of Our Soul: As we gather in person and on-line We will enter the New Jewish Year of 5784 together. Who will we become during these times, individually and communally?
Each of us have had discoveries and losses, breakthroughs and disappointments, moments of isolation and meaningful connections. The Yamim Noraim - The Days of Awe, ask us to face the truth of our circumstance, strengthen communal bonds to live in solidarity with all beings, and explore for the long haul, the connections and tools for resiliency.
Click here for a full listing of High Holy Day and Sukkot offerings and times.
Chanukah/ Hanukah/ Hanukkah!
However you spell it, you can be sure we are eager to celebrate the Festival of Lights this year! Our community will be lighting candles together almost every night and all our regular programming will reflect the themes of the season.
As you prepare for the holiday, here are: 5 important things to know about making latkes!
Purim
Purim is celebrated with great joy each year at Mishkan! 
We celebrate with a customized shpiel each year and with a
Carnival which is bi-annually at Mishkan Shalom with another
Reconstructionist congregation. It is one of our highlights of our year!
Mishkan Shalom offers an overflowing plate of gatherings, services and resources to help you prepare for and celebrate the Passover holiday and explore ways of Counting the Omer. See our full schedule and access all resources. 
SEVEN WEEKS OF THE OMER FROM PASSOVER TO SHAVUOT Join us in weekly practices of spiritual middot (qualities) to cultivate a good heart in preparation to receive the Torah on Shavuot:
1. Hesed (Lovingkindness) 2. Gevurah (Discipline)
3. Tiferet (Compassion) 4. Netzakh (Endurance)
5. Hod (Humility) 6. Yesod (Connectivity/Generativity) 7. Malkhut (Immanence/Self-Realization)
Shavuot
Shavuot: Celebrate our Feast of Weeks | Mishkan Shalom- In Person and on Livestream: RSVP Required to Rabbi Shawn Zevit
On Thursday evening, 5/25/2023, we will join with our Jewish communal partners for the first time in five years in Northwest Philadelphia (GJC, Pnai Or, Tikkun Havurah) at Germantown Jewish Center in Mt. Airy. Informal gathering will be at 6:30pm will be followed by a 7pm start to our program as we celebrate the Festival of Shavuot Mishkan Shalom with friends and guest teachers. We will be sharing offerings throughout the night as we open to what the Torah of our times has to reveal to us.
Session topics include: Conflict and Sacred Dialogue; Reflections on a Civil Rights Pilgrimage; Torah of Sun and Moon; Revelation from the Big Bang to Sinai and Beyond; Singing Our Way Through Torah; Connecting Liberation and Tradition; Tikkunei Zohar; Ezekiel's Vision and more...
After the opening program and evening service, workshops will continue from 9pm through to a morning dawn service starting at 4:45am at GJC. See you at the foot of the Mountain!
The Ten Commandments, Revelation -- receiving the Law -- at Sinai, having an all-night study session, reading from the Book of Ruth, eating dairy foods, King David, papercutting...many traditions are associated with this third of the traditonal pilgrimage holidays.
For a quick guide, click here.
Resources from Reconstructing Judaism