Virtual Shabbat Box
Your Virtual Shabbat Box holds many ways to celebrate the day. Choose what nurtures you: listen, watch or read.
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
