We celebrated the second day of Rosh Hashana a little differently this year, with a luncheon open to the public. All the fixings were available, including bagels and lox, and visitors from all over Long Island, (and as far as Manhattan), joined us this year for our New Year's Celebration.

The congregation also celebrated the ceremony of Tashlich at the docks of Oyster Bay this year. Seventy-five congregants and friends were in attendance, each approaching the bay to throw bread crumbs into the water. Symbolically the bread represented sins, destined to be swallowed up by fish. Occasionally the Rabbi is asked what kind of bread crumbs should they throw. Some answers include: white bread for traditional sins, pretzels for twisted sins, raisin bread for sweet sins, multigrain for complex sins and matzoh for sins committed in haste.

Then came two of my favorite holidays - Sukkot and Simchat Torah. This year, three wonderful men put together our sukkah. They were Phil Rubin, Michael Singer and Dennis Weiss assisted by our talented custodians Emilio and Pat. They followed the design left by Jay Brenner, our friend, longtime temple building supervisor and original sukkah designer, whom we miss terribly and honor each year at this time.

Later that afternoon, the decorators came out. They were ready to work, hanging gourds, paper chains, and corn stalks. Our cantor, Abbe Sher, was seen tying decorations to the top of the sukkah from her ladder along with Robin Grossman and Seth Fried. Mara Raizer, the Grossman Children and the Paticoff family worked hard on the pumpkins and the paper chains. Toby Suroff and Betty Grayson, along with Ted Snyder, were busy decorating the sukkah with corn stalks.

On Oct. 17, Sukkot was celebrated in the beautiful sukkah and the service was so well-attended the chairs went beyond the sukkah. The Cantor sang beautiful melodies and the Rabbi told enchanting stories and shared history about the holiday.

Simchat Torah took place on Oct. 25, 2005 this year . This service honored the Finkelstein family and the Torah. A three generation temple family, the Finklesteins participated in the service singing, carrying the torah, and being part of special prayers related to the Torah. The congregation danced to Israeli music and shared in the festivities after the service.

All in all, this was some special holiday season at Temple Or Elohim. If you weren't there to enjoy any of it, you missed something quite special and should make a point to try and visit us next year!

Laurel Fried