Menu
Menu
Your Virtual Shabbat Box holds many ways to celebrate the day. Choose what nurtures you: listen, watch or read. Looking for Shabbat services? Check out Recon Connect for virtual Shabbat services and other live, online programs throughout the week.
Subscribe Me to the Virtual Shabbat Box
This poem came to Janice Steinberg while “attending” a livestreamed Kabbalat Shabbat service and thinking about both the loneliness and the freedom of our current reality of virtual worship. Sourced from Ritualwell
Esa einai el heharim meiayin yavo ezri (“I lift my eyes to the mountains, where will my help come from?”) is taken from Psalm 121. This piece, composed by Solomon Hoffman, is performed by 60 musicians and singers. Sourced from YouTube
On this 33rd day of the Omer, Rabbi Elyse Wechterman reflects on the kabbalistic meaning of the day — hod she-be-hod — and its characteristic value of humility. Sourced from Ritualwell
Rabbi Yael Ridberg shares her favorite story from the hasidic rebbe, Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev, and poses some provocative questions that can help guide us through the coming months. Sourced from Recon Connect Beit Midrash
Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, one of fewer than 100 Black American women to earn a doctorate in physics, talks about trailblazing with two fellow pioneers, Rabbi Sandra Lawson and Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D. Sourced from Hashivenu: Jewish Teachings on Resilience
Suzanne Sabransky’s poem looks at the depths and layers of what we do when we pray. Sourced from Ritualwell
This song, written by Alexander Massey, is taken from the words of the Song of Songs which celebrates love and is traditionally chanted every Friday night. Sourced from Ritualwell
Stacey Zisook Robinson’s alternate reading of Psalm 118 reminds us that sometimes our prayers can crack open gates that have been long rusted and chained. Sourced from Ritualwell Sourced from Ritualwell
The mitzvah to love the stranger as ourselves comes from this week’s Torah portion, Akharei Mot/Kedoshim. Rabbi Jonathan Kligler explains why Rabbi Akiva believed that this was the greatest of all the commandments. Sourced from ReconstructingJudaism.org
The idea of a human-made artificial person is deeply rooted in Jewish tradition, and rabbis of old took it seriously in terms of Jewish law. Rabbi Jeff Sultar explores their questions that offer us much insight into some pressing issues of our day, such as artificial intelligence, the right to life and what distinguishes human beings from the rest of creation. Sourced from Recon Connect Beit Midrash
Congregation Beth Hatikvah’s (Summit, N.J.) Anti-Racism Project has created a way for each of us, at home, to mark these days with reflections on race and freedom, creating a unique “Counting the Omer Against Racism” experience. Sourced from Ritualwell
Rabbi Darby Jared Leigh and Rabbi Roni Handler demonstrate the song “Esa Eynay” (lyrics from Psalm 121:1–2) in ASL and Hebrew singing. Sourced from Ritualwell
On this episode of the Hashivenu podcast, we’re joined by Professor Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, one of fewer than 100 Black American women to earn a doctorate in physics — and a Reconstructionist! We discuss the insights she draws from her background as a Black and Ashkenazi Jew, and the richness, complexity, and fruitful challenges that diverse voices bring to the Jewish community. Sourced from Hashivenu
Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben teaches that our profound need for human connection, and for being part of something grand and transcendent in life, is so deep that it became one of the primary roles of our ancient priests — to bring us lovingly back into a state of purity, of spiritual healing and of community. Sourced from ReconstructingJudaism.org
Practice this breathing meditation using the words of the Shema with Rabbi Shelly Barnathan. Sourced from Reset, providing Jewish activists with accessible spiritual practice and teachings. Learn more here
Alden Solovy offers a meditation for Yom Ha-‘azma’ut, Israeli Independence Day. We think this week about being “On the road to wholeness, on the road to wisdom, on the road to our days of rejoicing.” Sourced from Ritualwell
Rabbi Nathan Martin describes the basic elements of a Jewish eco-theology, examines a few core texts and gives viewers some ideas about how to write their own eco-theology. Sourced from Recon Connect Beit Midrash
Subscribe Me to the Virtual Shabbat Box
With Rabbi David Katz’s prayer, we mark Holocaust Remembrance Day (April 8) and remember all who perished in the Shoah. Sourced from Ritualwell
Adva Chattler shares how and why tradition invites us to make a key-shaped challah for the first Shabbat after Passover. Sourced from Ritualwell
Rosh Hodesh Iyar falls on April 12-13. Celebrate the new month with Batya Diamond’s meditation. Sourced from Ritualwell
Each of the seven weeks and each of the 49 days has its own spiritual quality. Rabbi Yael Levy offers intentions and suggestion for practices to help focus your attention each week. Sourced from Ritualwell
What is the relationship between freedom, democracy and religion? This question preoccupied these two major Jewish thinkers in the mid-20th century. Rabbi Matthew Kaufman explores the answers they provide, which are newly thought-provoking in our currently overheated political climate. Sourced from Recon Connect Beit Midrash
Confronting demonstrators at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., and hearing the chants of “the Jews will not replace us,” Rabbi Mordechai Liebling came face-to-face with white supremacy and antisemitism. As a child of Holocaust survivors and a veteran activist, Liebling describes his experiences in Charlottesville: what brought him there and what he learned about hate in America. Sourced from Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations
As Passover concludes this weekend, we invite you to explore our Virtual Passover Box. In addition, we bring you these resources for this Shabbat Pesakh.
Alden Solovy’s poem cries out for justice, this time for people of Asian heritage, among those who are oppressed and victims of hatred. Sourced from Ritualwell
A fun, spirited song to get you in the mood to count the Omer by Juliet I. Spitzer. Sourced from Ritualwell
Rabbi Deborah Waxman, president of Reconstructing Judaism, gives her message for Passover 5781/2021. Sourced from ReconstructingJudaism.org
Rabbi Leah Richman teaches about why we read the “Song of Songs” during Passover, and the message of love and hope it continues to offer us. Sourced from ReconstructingJudaism.org
As spring begins, Rabbi Josh Snyder shares a few stories and practices that give us Jewish language for the overpowering feelings of gratitude, amazement, curiosity and possibility felt by generations as we connect with nature. Sourced from Recon Connect Beit Midrash
These resources were drawn from:
Previous Virtual Shabbat Boxes by month:
Serving as central organization of the Reconstructionist movement
Training the next generation of groundbreaking rabbis
Modeling respectful conversations on pressing Jewish issues
Curating original, Jewish rituals, and convening Jewish creatives
