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.
Listen and sing this original melody for the Shabbat Psalm by Ann R. Silverman-Limor (aka Rahel). Sourced from Ritualwell
For the end of a distressing week full of social unrest, an ongoing health pandemic and any other challenges we may individually be going through right now, Rabbi Ilanit Zietman offers a special way to begin this Shabbat. Sourced from Ritualwell
This practice from Rabbi David Jaffe and based on teachings from Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav looks into finding the good in oneself and other people. Sourced from Reset
Rabbi George Stern teaches that “Black Lives Matter” is an insistent cry that it is far past time for America to acknowledge the sin of racism and to stop acting as if Black lives don’t matter. Sourced from Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations
How does the combination of meaning and melody in prayers touch us spiritually? Rabbi Shelly Barnathan unpacks the meaning and melody of several prayers and chants, coupled with timely poetry and spiritual readings. Sourced from Recon Connect Beit Midrash
Welcome Shabbat with this poem by Terry Boyle. Sourced from Ritualwell
Cantor Karen Webber leads a three-minute interpretation of the beginning of the Kabbalat Shabbat service. Sourced from Ritualwell
The Jewish imperative to protect human life — pikuakh nefesh — overrides almost every other obligation. As we face a desire to return to community activities and a surge in infections, the Center for Jewish Ethics offers thoughts on how we can express the ultimate value of safeguarding life in our individual and communal decisions. Sourced from ReconstructingJudaism.org
Rabbi Alex Weissman teaches that not only does organizing have an impact on the outside world, power relations, and policies. It also shapes our inner lives and offers us the potential to cultivate a deeper spiritual awareness. Sourced from Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations
We recite or sing Psalm 92 in services every Shabbat. The psalm expresses widely disparate moods and images — delight, satisfaction, despair and hope. Rabbi Dayle Friedman endeavors to see what we might learn about the journey of aging from the Psalmist’s words. Sourced from Recon Connect Beit Midrash
As we continue to shelter in place, poet Cathleen Cohen describes the experience of Shabbat behind the mask. Sourced from Ritualwell
Rosh Hodesh Heshvan begins on motzei Shabbat (Saturday night), Oct. 17. Welcome the new moon/month with this chant by Batya Diamond. Sourced from Ritualwell
Rabbi Danielle Parmenter describes her experience of the whole world being filled with God’s glory. Sourced from Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations
Hila Ratzabi leads “The Art of Suffering,” a practice inspired by Etty Hillesum, a Dutch Jewish writer, whose Holocaust diaries and letters reveal profound spiritual wisdom that is relevant to our times. Transcript available here. Sourced from Ritualwell
Discover why we eat certain foods in the Ashkenazi and Sephardi traditions for Shabbat and Sukkot with Rabbi Fredi Cooper. Sourced from Recon Connect Beit Midrash
This week, we bring you a Virtual Simchat Torah Box.
This week, we bring you a Virtual Sukkot Box.
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
