Virtual Shabbat Box Archives: May 2023
May 26-27
Rabbi Janine Jankovitz writes of the spiritual journey to Mount Sinai and how each of us is prepared to receive the Torah anew, just the way we are.
Follow along with this step-by-step guide on baking a cake as rich in symbolism as it is in flavor.
Rabbi Elyssa Cherney writes that revelation is ongoing and that “engaging with the truth may not always be the easiest path, yet there is much reward in working towards a better world.”
It’s revelatory to hear the blessings for reading the Torah and haftarah recited in feminine God language.
May 19-20
Rabbi Ruhi Sophia Rubenstein implores us to grapple with Torah’s most problematic aspects to find new meaning in the text.
Sivan Rotholz’s poem for Shavuot imagines a different kind of harvest, one where “we reap and reap but know not what or whether we sow.”
Rabbi Jeremy Schwartz gathers a range of texts to spark discussion and evoke the experience of receiving the Torah at Sinai.
Revisit this Shavuot podcast in which Rabbi Deborah Waxman and Rabbi Mira Wasserman discuss the power of midrash, an imaginative act that can give new life to the Torah and ourselves.
May 12-13
Rabbi Deborah Waxman writes in the journal SAPIR of American Jewry’s increasingly complex relationship to Israel and the dangers of ethno-nationalism.
Read about how a new grant will help RRC faculty merge spiritual practice with social action.
With Shavuot just around the corner, chant or just take in Kaila Shabat’s prayer honoring a personal encounter with a physical Torah and all it represents.
The Philadelphia Jewish Exponent details the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College’s project on Jews and race.
Our interview with Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann has set an Evolve podcast record for the most downloads in the first week of release. If you haven’t listened, hear why many have said that it is helping them through a difficult time.
May 5-6
Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann shares a personal story about her son to make a larger point: There’s an ongoing stigma around mental illness. As long as the stigma pervades, people’s lives are at risk.
Devor Spier’s prayer/poem for the counting of the Omer decries racist and antisemitic violence.
Writer and artist Barb Richman examines the idea of sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks as metaphors to guide thinking about the Divine presence.
As Chat Box and other forms of AI develop at alarming speed, a legal scholar turns to Jewish thought to think about how policymakers can best respond.
