Virtual Shabbat Box
Your Virtual Shabbat Box holds many ways to celebrate the day. Choose what nurtures you: listen, watch or read.
December 8-9
In this message for the first night of Hanukkah, Rabbi Deborah Waxman illuminates the blessing of reciting blessings.
Marques Hollie, a Reconstructionist Rabbinical College student, shares that even in times of extended darkness, each day can bring light, if we just look for the miracles of right now.
Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer shares how she is using her creative spark to generate new light each day.
Hanukkah isn’t a time of hiding – it’s a time to let our light shine, teaches Rabbi Isaac Saposnik.
December 1-2
Martha Hurwitz’s stunning poem evokes the liturgy of the High Holidays in asking how and why some captives are freed while others remain, investigating, agony of weighing one life against another.”
Add a new dish to your Hanukkah festivities by learning to make Aruk, Iraqi fried veggie patties.
Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann writes about a very personal situation, yet her message also applies to the state of the world: finding hope when there’s little to no evidence that things will soon improve.
Laynie Solomon, passionate teacher of Torah, explains how they draw strength from the study of Jewish texts and how Halakhah can be liberating for Queer and Trans Jews.
November 24-25
Rabbi Haviva Ner-David, author and peace activist who lives in Israel’s Galilee region, shares the pain she feels as well as her unwavering commitment to peace. She reads a poem dedicated to Canadian-Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver, who was slain on October 7.
At this time, when it may be hard to express gratitude, Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer, Ritualwell’s new director of virtual content and programs, offers intentions to share with your Thanksgiving Day guests.
Rabbi Isaac Saposnik reminds us of the importance of respect and empathy — and the dangers of absolutes — in engaging on social media, especially when it comes to the Israel-Hamas War.
Rabbi Sandra Lawson writes that supporting transgender rights is “not just a secular or political stance but a deeply spiritual and Jewish one.”
November 17-18
Rabbi Deborah Waxman explores the stories of Genesis, and highlights some more contemporary thinkers, in a search for sources of empathy and resilience in the extreme uncertainty of the present.
In this excerpt from Ritualwell’s weekly “Holding Each Other” gathering, Rabbi Janet Madden chants the Oseh Shalom and Mi Shebeirach prayers. Madden lovingly and soulfully expresses what so many yearn for: peace and healing.
Rabbi Amy Eilberg writes of peacebuilding, metta meditation and the importance of practicing loving–kindness during a time of war and heightened emotions.
Stressed? Confused, or Fearful? Try this breathing practice taught by Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg.
November 10-11
At Ritualwell’s weekly “Holding Each Other” virtual event, Rabbi Alex Lazurus-Klein read two poems, one written during the Second Intifada and the other composed in the harrowing days following October 7.
Invoking the story of Noah’s Ark, Rabbi Jen Gubitz’s poem captures a torrent of thoughts, emotions and concerns stemming from the Israel-Hamas War.
With antisemitism alarmingly on the rise, Rachel Forth Pipitone’s poem tackles a disturbing expression within her own family.
Revisit this 2021 essay from Rabbi Deborah Waxman in which addresses rising global antisemitism and articulates a response that reaffirms Jewish life, practice and community.
November 3-4
Feeling uprooted by recent events? Rabbi Jessica Lott’s audio teaching can help to ground you. She notes that Jewish tradition constantly places one foot in the past, one foot in the future.
Rabbi Joshua Boettiger shares the links between a Jewish ethical tradition and creative expression and how together they can help us find a path in the darkness.
A computer scientist shares how the study of Talmud and Zohar informed his understanding of A.I. and how Jewish ethics can guide society’s response to rapidly evolving technology.
In this powerful poem, Rabbi Annie Lewis invokes the ancient call for help, Hoshia Na, in the name of those killed, wounded and captured on October 7, Simchat Torah.
October 27-28
Poet Cathy Cohen reads “Mirrors,” offering “shards of light” and reaffirmation against the background of grief and worry.
Since Oct. 27, Ritualwell has posted more than 40 poems and prayers expressing a staggering range of human emotions. This is a link to all we’ve posted so far.
Especially now, Evolve remains committed to presenting a range of views related to Israel. They’re conversations for the sake of heaven. This link highlights the essays published since Oct. 7 and before.
With the world aflame, listen to this podcast about embodied spiritual expressions.
October 20-21
This resource features a video of poets reading their own work and works of others responding to unbearable loss and war. And there’s an accompanying written recap of the virtual program, “Israel on Our Hearts,” which drew some 200 participants.
May love flow from our broken hearts, and may their yearning return us to our humanity.
Rabbi Annie Lewis’ powerful elegy for the lost evokes the Hoshanot, the traditional beseeching of God for salvation, uttered during Sukkot.
The ritual of taking challah invites us to bring a spiritual moment to baking bread. This virtual gathering offered a space to think about everyone in need of blessings.
October 13-14
This poem by Brasha Smith grapples with the enormity of loss while making clear that everyone lost represents the loss of an entire world.
Due to the unprecedented nature of Hamas’ attack, Reconstructing Judaism and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association released a statement on Shabbat and the Hag. Though the casualty numbers have tragically skyrocketed in the days since, the urgent message stands.
This urgent prayer asks God to help us “hold on to a vision of profound, enduring kinship” and empower us to “excavate hope and rescue possibility.”
May love flow from our broken hearts, and may their yearning return us to our humanity.
September 1-2
Rabbi Nathan Kamesar discusses how we can make the most of the High Holidays.
With this guided teaching, anyone — whether you can blow a shofar beautifully or can’t make a sound — can experience the spiritual dimensions of this ancient instrument.
This list of prompts and questions can help with the accounting of the soul that is so essential to the process of teshuvah (repentance) and the Jewish New Year.
Rabbi Armin Langer, himself an immigrant, makes a moral case, buttressed by Jewish values, against deportations.
August 25-26
In this audio teaching and spiritual practice for the month of Elul, Rabbi Rachel Barenblat looks to Psalm 27 for solace in mourning.
An author, rabbi and kibbutznik traces the evolution of her activism and tells of an organization working “to find a way to make amends and to live together in true siblinghood.”
In this essay, Rabbi Xava De Cordova describes what “can happen when the Jewish legal process unfolds with the values and wisdom of trans people at its heart.”
This prayer urges each of us those who make our meals possible and “to “work for justice and equality in a compassionate and merciful way.”
August 18-19
In preparation for the High Holidays, Rabbi Michael Strassfeld shares a Hasidic teaching about meaningful teshuvah (repentance).
Rabbi Amy Eilberg considers the California Reparations Report from the perspective of Jewish texts and ethics.
Rabbi Sarah Brammer-Shlay’s metaphorical poem asks profound questions about the meaning of prayer and the search for Divine presence.
This short book chapter paints a portrait of Rabbi Yael Ridberg and Congregation Dor Hadash.
August 11-12
Seeking quiet in the ending weeks of August? Rabbi Shelia Weinberg can help. Listen to her encourage you to find your seat and take a couple of easy breaths. Then, listen slowly.
Make no mistake; eating disorders can be life–threatening. Brasha Smith’s poem asks a higher power for the strength to sustain sacred life.
Amid new evidence that the United States came close to losing its democracy after the 2020 election, we revisit Alden Solovy’s ode to democratic institutions and principles.
Imagine if there were a digital yeshivah where Jews of Color could gather to learn Torah and Jewish practices in a safe, supportive atmosphere. It exists. Learn about it.
August 4-5
How can kids best learn what it means to be a Jew? Meet Rabbi Lily Solochek, who is working with others across the movement to ask that very question and identify some answers.
Laynie Solomon explains Svara’s Trans Halakhah Project that seeks to empower and nourish trans Jews, whose experiences have not yet been reflected in explorations of Jewish law.
This niggun, chanted by Koach Baruch Frazier, invokes compassion, kindness and love.
Missed the latest Evolve podcast? Following the Israeli Knesset’s passage of a law geared to gut its independent judiciary, two Reconstructionist leaders share their experiences at some of the demonstrations and articulate sustained engagement with Israel.
July 28-29
We’ve gathered an array of Reconstructionist resources from our network of websites to help you search for meaning on this solemn day, the Ninth of Av.
Confused and angered by the push to weaken Israel’s judiciary? Inspired by the protests but not sure what to think? Rabbis Deborah Waxman and Maurice Harris share their perspectives.
Rabbi Maurice Harris asks the One who blessed our ancestors and Israel’s founders to give them the strength to “save the State of Israel’s democracy, because we have learned that democracy is sacred.”
Check out The Forward’s in-depth retelling of the birth The Jewish Catalogue — featuring several Reconstructionist voices — and its impact upon Judaism today.
July 21-22
Reflecting on horrors in his city and throughout Jewish history, Rabbi Alex Lazarus-Klein shows how a Reconstructionist reformulation of traditional prayer can help process loss.
Suzanne Sabransky’s poem invokes the fast of Tisha B’Av to remind us of the blessings so many of us take for granted and to focus on how many people suffer from hunger.
Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg delves into how trauma has informed Jewish experience at both the individual and collective levels.
This excerpt from “The Guide to Jewish Practice, Volume 2” outlines the history of this most solemn of Jewish holidays.
July 14-15
With poor air quality continuing to be a concern throughout much of North America, Trisha Arlin prays for the health of all.
Learn how Reconstructionist values guide Sophia Barrett’s actions — from how she raises funds for the organization to teaming up with her crisis response dog to help people in need.
Rabbi David Jaffe adapts Judaism’s teachings on applied ethics to offer resilience and inspiration to all those working for social change.
In this commentary on the weekly Torah portion, Rabbi Jonathan Kligler explains how the Torah is not a road atlas but a map of our inner journeys.
July 7-8
At a time of year when many of us travel, this prayer urges the God of our ancestors for safe passage home.
This poem by Rabbi Janet Madden seeks coherence and calm amiss “the day’s tsunami of ‘To Do’s.”
Revisit one of the Evolve podcast’s most downloaded episodes, focusing on how Jewish communities can truly become more inclusive, embracing spaces.
Rabbi David Steinberg’s commentary of Parashat Pinchas examines the passing of one generation to another while encouraging us to temper our judgments with compassion and humility.
June 30-July 1
A psychologist/scholar shares her research into Jewish families, as well as her personal experiences as a parent of biracial children.
On the eve of American Independence Day, Rabbi Ayelet Cohen’s poem calls on all Americans — and people everywhere — to strive to be their best selves.
Rabbi Jen Gubitz offers a healing prayer for the United States of America.
From our podcast archives, we have the story of Rabbi Jon Cutler, who served his country for decades as a U.S. Naval chaplain while having to keep his sextual orientation hidden.
June 23-24
As we reach the first anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, dive deep into this three-part series.
Learn how a climate–change chaplain is helping Jews and other seekers manage very real anxiety stemming from global warming and extreme weather.
A computer scientist explains exactly what ChatGPT is and isn’t — and how it is unlike a mythical creature from Jewish folklore.
Rabbinical student Koach Baruch Frazier offers an inspirational chant that blends a traditional morning blessing with a folk staple.
June 16-17
This meditation on the meaning of freedom by an incoming rabbinical student asks each of us to “remove the shackles of one another.”
Buffie Longmire Avital: Professor, researcher, Jew of Color and mother shares her research on how Jewish parents talk to their kids about race, and how everyone might better tell a multi-racial Jewish story.
Nearly 200 Reconstructionists traveled to the South to confront America’s legacy of racism: This is the d’var Torah that inspired them.
In this podcast, Shahanna McKinney-Baldon — an educator, activist and artist — talks about her time singing for the ska and reggae band Highball Holiday and rediscovering her singing voice in middle age.
June 9-10
There’s much food for thought in this vital web conversation about how non-Orthodox Jews relate to Israel, featuring Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D., president and CEO of Reconstructing Judaism.
Rabbi Shefa Gold writes that “to stand in God’s presence means to stand outside the whirlwinds of change, anchored in the stillness of center.”
This prayer was created to encourage and empower synagogues and organizations to incorporate LGBTIQ Pride into all gatherings.
This original ritual enables an individual to mark a gender (or any major life) transition surrounded by friends, family and community.
June 2-3
In March, some 200 Reconstructionists traveled to the South to “deconstruct racism to reconstruct Judaism.” This new web page captures the experience in pictures, reflections and more. Sourced from ReconstructingJudaism.org
Activist Sallie Gratch was honored with the Keter Shem Tov award at RRC’s 51st graduation ceremony. Hear her inspiring story.
RRC’s graduating class of 2023/5783 marked a profound moment of transition by creating a beautiful ritual that incorporates the Birkat Kohanim, the priestly blessing.
This mediation asks us to imagine ourselves walking in the desert under a night sky, looking up at a canopy of stars.
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These resources were drawn from:
- Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations
- Hashivenu: Jewish Teachings on Resilience
- Recon Connect Beit Midrash
- Reset: Providing Jewish activists with accessible spiritual practice and teachings
- Ritualwell
- The Center for Jewish Ethics
Previous Virtual Shabbat Boxes by month:
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
