Virtual Shabbat Box Archives: February 2024
February 2-3
Karen Webber, a poet and performance artist, enacts and, at times, sings, two linked poems, “No Cakewalk” and “L’chaim” that mine the emotional depths, describing horror with pinpoint detail and, somehow, bringing us back to the light with a jubilant wedding celebration.
Rabbi Asher Sofman, Reconstructing Judaism’s inaugural justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI) program coordinator, created this trove of resources in Jewish disability and accessibility inclusion from Reconstructionist communities and the larger Jewish world.
Rabbi Roni Handler chants the Ve’ahavta, while Rabbi Darby Leigh expresses one of Judaism’s central prayers in American Sign Language.
From our archives: Rabbi Elliot Kukla describes how the disability justice movement honors the “the unique ways we move through the world, and rejects racist, conformist notions of ‘normalcy’ in how we ought to look, behave and produce.”
February 9-10
This new blessing celebrates the diversity of minds, bodies and abilities present in human beings.
During Ritualwell’s weekly virtual “Holding Each Other” gatherings, author Evonne Marzouk reads her poem, “Things I Need to Hear Right Now After Nine Days in Jerusalem.”
Rabbi Sandra Lawson’s new blessing offers thanks for the “strength, resilience and contributions of my people, Black people throughout history and today.”
Black History Month is the perfect time to consult our groundbreaking curriculum on the intersection of Judaism and race.
February 16-17
Learn how Reconstructionist community sustained Rabbi Asher Sofman and about the values that animate Reconstructing Judaism’s new Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) program coordinator.
Accordion in hand, Rabbi Solomon Hoffman talks about the relationship between waiting and hoping and offers an original take on Psalm 130.
Prompted by a comment by a presidential contender, Rabbi Sandra Lawson articulates her profound connection to the side of American history encompassing the Atlantic Slave Trade, Jim Crow and the Chinese Exclusion Act.
This berakhah celebrates the autistic mind as something “wonderful and unique in the world.”
February 23-24
Poet Tzivia Gover recites “The Word is Wind” and offers a writing prompt guaranteed to spark creativity.
Israeli Peace activist Haviva Ner-David shares a moving meditation on death and life during wartime.
The blessing celebrates how a bimah ramp can eradicate a physical barrier to connecting more deeply with Torah and Jewish community.
Humans have agency over our lives, right? Not according to Mike Shore, who argues that abandoning the notion of free will leads to a more liberated, meaningful life.
