#GivingTuesday 2020 Beit Midrash videos

On Giving Tuesday 2020, Reconstructing Judaism shared a live day of online learning. Here are videos of those sessions.
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We’d like to share this video message for Passover 2021 from Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D., the president of Reconstructing Judaism.
In her presentiation, Rooted and Relevant: 21st Century Jewish Life, Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D., explores how Reconstructionist Judaism can lead the way in the post-COVID world toward a religious revival that meets this century’s new realities.
On the brink of Shavuot, Rabbi Vivie Mayer shares insights into the concept of multiple intelligences as it applies to receiving Torah.
Usually, on Passover, we ask “How is this night different from all other nights?”. This year, many of us are asking, “How does this Passover resemble any we’ve ever experienced?” While social distancing has seemingly changed everything, Passover is still about telling the story of going from oppression to freedom.
Video of Chautauqua Institution talk on Jewish views of Divine Justice (July 19, 2019)
The Talmud tells us that God created repentance (teshuvah) before creating the physical world. As Billy Joel once sang, “we’re only human, we’re supposed to make mistakes.” It’s how we respond to mistakes, how we grow, that matters. This video explores the twin themes of teshuvah and gratitude (hakarat hatov.) Our tradition offers us practices that cultivate self-reflection and humility, relationship and repair. We hope these words offer some comfort and guidance as you undergo your own process of teshuvah and, in meaningful relationships with others, make Godliness present in the world.
In this Rosh Hashanah video message, Rabbi Deborah Waxman, president of Reconstructing Judaism, explores the ways in which remembering the past is crucial to moving forward into a sweet New Year.
At Rosh Hashanah, as we turn to new beginnings, we seek to repent—to do teshuvah—for what we have done wrong. And we can also affirmatively foster ourselves toward resilience—toward a thriving, loving outlook in spite of whatever challenges we encounter in life. In this video, I explore themes of resilience embedded into Jewish practice.
Video and transcript of conversation on journalistic ethics and Jewish values
A powerful Reconstructionist message responding to recent acts of anti-Semitism, as well as inspiring examples of the best of humanity.
Rabbi Jacob Staub discusses Parashat Miketz with Shmuel Rosner of the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles.
“Love of the Creator, and love of that which G!d has created, are finally one and the same,” wrote Martin Buber. Defending this divine creation in an era of climate change is a Jewish (and social, political, and moral) imperative.
In this video, Rabbi Deborah Waxman offers a High Holiday message of hope in spite of the problems confronting the world and the personal travails we all face.
Rabbi Jeffrey Schein has created this suite of educational resources on Jewish peoplehood, under the auspices of the Kaplan Center for Jewish Peoplehood.
With few transgender role models, Rabbi Jacob Lieberman, ’15, faced harassment and bullying almost entirely alone growing up. As an adult, he found acceptance within the Reconstructionist community and from himself. In this d’var torah, Rabbi Lieberman shares how Jewish resources can help comfort those who struggle to find acceptance and wholeness.
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