Virtual Shabbat Box Archives: August 2022
August 12-13
Janice Steinberg wrote this blessing influenced by a book by psychologist Miriam Greenspan about the alchemy of Healing Through the Dark Emotions. She asks, “How do we get in the mud with the ‘oogy’ feelings and find the treasure?”
On this Shabbat Nahamu/Shabbat of Comfort, Rabbi Lewis Eron writes:, “We do not have the insight to foresee the final resolution of the many complicated issues that confound the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians. We can, however, pray with the words of the Psalmist that our prophet’s vision of a Jerusalem prosperous, secure and at peace will someday be realized.”
In the first of a two-part series examining circumcision, two critics of the practice — best-selling novelist and memoirist Gary Shteyngart and Max Buckler, author of the Evolve essay, “Be Honest About the Bris” — discuss circumcision from the perspective of morality, Jewish tradition, medicine gender norms, and the rights of parents and children.
This Havdalah ceremony, based on an ancient minhag (custom) of going to a natural spring or well after Shabbat, and drawing and drinking water, was created by Martha Hurwitz and Rabbi Janet Madden.
This panel focuses on how creative works — the works of art, drama, music, and the like — can be called forth to meet our experiences of God/divinity/holiness.
August 5-6
“Anxiety, violence and despair engulfed her world,” writes Rabbi Janet Madden as she describes the Shekhinah’s response to learning of the destruction of the Temple. This Tisha b’Av, her poem speaks to us as we “journey from destruction to destruction.”
“In his d’var Torah on the opening chapters of Deuteronomy, Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben says:, “Here we find our greatest and most humble leader, Moses, at the end of his life, having just as much difficulty accepting responsibility for the consequences of his decisions as the rest of us.”
Rabbi Jacob Staub explores the observance of Tisha B’Av and the value of dwelling on ancient tragedies.
Bryan Schwartzman profiles newly graduated Rabbi Alanna “Lonnie” Kleinman.
Zoe Greenberg talks about what it is like to be a reporter and researcher for The New York Times, why she got into journalism at a time when the traditional business model for newspapers has broken down, what it is like to be raised by a Reconstructionist rabbi, and what millennials are looking for in Jewish community and Jewish experiences.
