Virtual Shabbat Box Archives: October 2023
October 27-28
Poet Cathy Cohen reads “Mirrors,” offering “shards of light” and reaffirmation against the background of grief and worry.
Since Oct. 27, Ritualwell has posted more than 40 poems and prayers expressing a staggering range of human emotions. This is a link to all we’ve posted so far.
Especially now, Evolve remains committed to presenting a range of views related to Israel. They’re conversations for the sake of heaven. This link highlights the essays published since Oct. 7 and before.
With the world aflame, listen to this podcast about embodied spiritual expressions.
October 20-21
This resource features a video of poets reading their own work and works of others responding to unbearable loss and war. And there’s an accompanying written recap of the virtual program, “Israel on Our Hearts,” which drew some 200 participants.
May love flow from our broken hearts, and may their yearning return us to our humanity.
Rabbi Annie Lewis’ powerful elegy for the lost evokes the Hoshanot, the traditional beseeching of God for salvation, uttered during Sukkot.
The ritual of taking challah invites us to bring a spiritual moment to baking bread. This virtual gathering offered a space to think about everyone in need of blessings.
October 13-14
This poem by Brasha Smith grapples with the enormity of loss while making clear that everyone lost represents the loss of an entire world.
Due to the unprecedented nature of Hamas’ attack, Reconstructing Judaism and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association released a statement on Shabbat and the Hag. Though the casualty numbers have tragically skyrocketed in the days since, the urgent message stands.
This urgent prayer asks God to help us “hold on to a vision of profound, enduring kinship” and empower us to “excavate hope and rescue possibility.”
May love flow from our broken hearts, and may their yearning return us to our humanity.
