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Virtual Shabbat Box
This Shabbat Box doesn’t contain challah or candles, but rather essays, meditations and other ways for you to engage with Shabbat.
May 29-30
This week we produced for you a Virtual Shavuot Box. Next week the Virtual Shabbat Box will be back!
This Thursday evening join the Reconstructionist movement’s Tikkun Leyl Shavuot.
May 22-23
Touch: “Wrap Me Up: A Prayer for Those Who Are Overwhelmed”
In her poem, Rabbi Rachel Bearman shares the feelings of vulnerability and the need to be enfolded in strength and support and love. Sourced from Ritualwell
Taste: Challah Recipes
Ruth Heiges shares two special challah recipes to boost your Shabbat or holiday table up a few notches. Sourced from Ritualwell
Smell: New Melody for Elohai Neshamah
When Alexander Massey chants Elohai Neshamah, he says he affirms “my God connection, your God connection, and therefore, our inherent connectedness.” Sourced from Ritualwell
Sight: The Binding of Isaac in Modern and Contemporary Israeli Art
Dr. Sharon Gershoni continues her exploration of the use of biblical imagery in art and how the Akedah was portrayed and interpreted by Israeli artists. Sourced from Recon Connect Beit Midrash
Hearing: Tateh Libi/”Bend My Heart”
Rabbi Vivie Mayer chants “Be gracious to me and bend my heart.” That is, help me to be pliant. Sourced from Reset: Resilience Practices for Jewish Social Justice Organizations
Torah Sense: Choosing Life
Rabbi Deborah Waxman and Susan Levine discuss resilience in the aftermath of a suicide attempt. Susan thoughtfully reflects about her attempts to end her life, and about her decision to live with integrity and beauty afterwards. Sourced from Hashivenu: Jewish Teachings on Resilience
Havdalah: Havdalah 5780
In this time of transition, we pray with Suzanne Sabransky for life, health and the blessing of another Shabbat. Sourced from Ritualwell
May 15-16
Touch: The Snuggle for Survival
Rabbi Dennis Sasso teaches that “if you are a porcupine, snuggling together for warmth and protection can get ‘sticky.’ Yet that is what family, community and nation are all about.” Sourced from Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations
Taste: What? Passover Again??!!
The 14th day of Iyyar is known as Pesakh Sheni or Second Passover. Rabbi Alan LaPayover explores this peculiar “holiday,” how it was observed and what it might mean for us today. Sourced from Recon Connect Beit Midrash
Smell: Hourglass Meditation
This is a three-minute breathing space meditation with Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg to help us find peace in a frantic world. Sourced from Reset: Resilience Practices for Jewish Social Justice Organizations
Sight: A Plague of Darkness
Ultimately, Rabbi Michael Strassfeld warns us that only by recognizing and valuing our interconnectedness shall we overcome the plague of darkness that has enveloped our world. Sourced from Ritualwell
Hearing: Four Leaves on the Tree of Life
In Shoshana Lovett-Graff’s poem we cry out for our silence to be heard in the sirens, the whistles, the echoes and the sighs. Sourced from Ritualwell
Torah Sense: Noticing the Time of Day Through Jewish Prayer
Jewish prayer practice establishes a rhythm that connects us to the motion of the sun through the day. Rabbi Vivie Mayer teaches a text that lays out three explanations for our three services: Shakharit, Minkhah and Ma’ariv (Morning, Afternoon and Evening Services). Sourced from Recon Connect Beit Midrash
Havdalah: Wisdom for Unwelcome Experiences
Rabbi Dayle Friedman explains the three-pronged approach to dealing with difficulty by the founder of Hasidism, the Baal Shem Tov. Sourced from MyJewishLearning.com
May 8-9
Touch: A Mother’s Day Greeting from the Staff at Reconstructing Judaism
A special Mother’s Day gift from the staff at Reconstructing Judaism to honor all our “women of valor.” Written by Adva Chattler. For additional resources, go to Kavod Ha’Em - Honoring a Foremother on Ritualwell.
Taste: Alternative HaMotzi
Author Lesley Reuter hopes that these blessings give those who say them an opportunity to pause and reflect on the food they consume with a renewed sense of gratitude for the daily blessing of sustenance. Sourced from Ritualwell
Smell: A Shabbat Eve Meditation
In her poem, Dr. Evette Nan Katlin beckons us to breathe out all that is not Shabbat, and breathe in “God’s gift of rest and rejuvenation.” Sourced from Ritualwell
Sight: Are You Prepared?
Before lighting the Shabbat candles, we need to have everything done that needs to be done and to be in the right frame of mind. Rabbi Vivie Mayer teaches and leads a chant using the words of the Talmud to help get us to that place. Sourced from Reset: Resilience Practices for Jewish Social Justice Organizations
Hearing: Raising Our Voices
Dr. Koach Frazier, an audiologist, an activist, a rabbinical student, and a powerful musician, speaks about singing and drumming, and explores how music can support us, uplift us, and lead us to transformation personally and collectively. Sourced from Hashivenu: Jewish Teachings on Resilience
Torah Sense: All You Need Is Love; Love Is All You Need
The Beatles make it sound so easy, but the commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” is a lifelong project of learning. Rabbi Micah Guerin Weiss explores how this principle came to take on such a central role in Jewish values, liturgy and living. Sourced from Recon Connect Beit Midrash
Havdalah: Herring and Havdalah
Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg shares a reflection from her book, Surprised by Joy, about a special havdalah experience during a trip to Lithuania. Sourced from ReconstructingJudaism.org
May 1-2
Touch: Prayer for Health-Care Workers
We pray, with Rabbi Ayelet Cohen, for all health-care workers, whose hands do the work of healing and comfort. Sourced from Ritualwell
Taste: Turn the Tables — Bread from the Earth
By pausing to reflect on the food before us, we recognize that we are inextricably connected to our food system, and so we should be responsible for making that system a just one. Sourced from Ritualwell
Smell: Breathing Aloud
Breathe with Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg in this guided meditation to help relieve stress, confusion, anger or fear. Sourced from Reset: Resilience Practices for Jewish Social Justice Organizations
Sight: The Akeda in Art — The Binding of Isaac or the Sacrifice of Abraham?
Artists over the centuries have used the biblical story of the Akeda to comment on their respective historical times, on society and on humanity itself. Dr. Sharon Gershoni examines a few examples from the third century until the present. Sourced from Recon Connect Beit Midrash
Hearing: Hebrew Chant for a Coronavirus Era
This original chant and teaching on Proverbs 19:21 by Rabbi Joshua Jacobs-Velde is also found in the Yehi Khavod prayer from the morning Shacharit service. It calls on Etzat Adonay/the Divine Advice, to help us find clarity in all the confusion swirling about us these days. Sourced from Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations
Torah Sense: The Jewish Basis for Environmentalism
Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb outlines the five pillars that serve as a base for the Jewish environmental movement: sufficiency (dayenu), resilience (kehillah), responsibility (akhrayut), justice (tzedek) and hope (tikvah). Sourced from Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations
Havdalah: A Transitional Ceremony Between Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzma’ut
Framed by the lines of Ecclesiastes, “a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time of war and a time of peace,” this ceremony weaves songs, poems, Israeli author David Grossman’s eulogy for his son who fell in combat, biblical quotes and inspiration from Theodor Herzl. The centerpiece is a modern Havdalah prayer, modeled after the Shabbat Havdalah prayer, separating the holy sorrow of Yom Hazikaron and the holy joy of Yom Ha’atzm’aut. Sourced from Ritualwell
These resources were drawn from:
- Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations
- Ritualwell
- Reset: Resilience Practices for Jewish Social Justice Organizations
- Recon Connect
Previous Virtual Shabbat Boxes by month:
