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Virtual Shabbat Box Archives: August 2020
Your Virtual Shabbat Box holds many ways to celebrate the day. Choose what nurtures you: listen, watch or read.
Looking for Shabbat services? Check out Recon Connect for virtual Shabbat services and other live, online programs throughout the week.
Aug. 28-29
Watch: Yes and No
Join in with a series of simple, gentle neck stretches to work through your tension and find another way to care for yourself. Sourced from Reset, providing Jewish activists with accessible spiritual practice and teachings. Learn more here.
Read: Taking the Shofar Into the Streets for 5781
Unable to hear the shofar this year in person, Aviva L. Brown took matters into her own hands and found a way because “the shofar must go on!” Sourced from Ritualwell
Listen: Vanderning (For a Walk)
Logan Schulman and Benjamin Behrend created this experimental immersive theater piece that uses music, stage directions and pointed narration to craft a soundscape that engages the listener’s heart and mind. Sourced from Reset, providing Jewish activists with accessible spiritual practice and teachings. Learn more here.
Read: The Challenges and Unexpected Rewards of Teshuvah
Professor Louis Newman helps to launch us into the spirit of the month of Elul and the High Holy Days that follow. Sourced from Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations
Watch: A House Is Not a Home, but Can a Sukkah Be a Temple?
Using tools from literary criticism, Rabbi Alan LaPayover explores the period between Tisha B’Av and Sukkot, and suggests a way to look at, understand, and live in this chunk of Jewish time. Sourced from Recon Connect Beit Midrash
Aug. 21-22
Listen: May He Bloom in His Time
Listen or join Rabbi Vivie Mayer in this joyous Hasidic niggun. Sourced from Reset, providing Jewish activists with accessible spiritual practice and teachings. Learn more here.
Read: What Was I Even Thinking?
In her poem, Julia Knobloch reflects on the passing of summer and her expectations of what she had thought it might be in the face of what it was becoming. Sourced from Ritualwell
Read: The Shabbat Tent
The tent is a physical reminder for us to take time to be close to our loved ones and to ourselves. Hila Ratzabi’s blogpost describes her ritual of Shabbat as a special place to experience the peace of the day. Sourced from Ritualwell
Watch: On God Language
Rabbis Deborah Waxman and Toba Spitzer reflect on talking about God, and the relationship between how we do so and Jewish practice. Sourced from ReconstructingJudaism.org
Watch: Lillian Wald: An Inspiration for Our Time
Lillian Wald, best known for her pioneering work in the public health field, was also an advocate for immigrant rights and racial justice in America. Dr. Reena Friedman discusses Wald’s many contributions and reads excerpts from her writings on these critical issues that remain very much with us today. Sourced from Recon Connect Beit Midrash
Aug. 14-15
Watch: Deep Belly Breathing
These days of high anxiety are a perfect time for getting back in touch with our breath, using it to become more rooted and relaxed. Sourced from Reset, providing Jewish activists with accessible spiritual practice and teachings. Learn more here.
Read: ‘Hitoreri, Hitoreri’
In her poem, Suzanne Sabransky reimagines the verse from the Shabbat evening hymn, Lecha Dodi, that calls us to arise and pour forth our song, bathed in the dawning of a new light. Sourced from Ritualwell
Listen: Halleluyah: Fueling Our Social Activism Through Gratitude and Praise
Rabbi Alex Weissman discusses with Rabbi Deborah Waxman how deeply felt experiences of gratitude and blessing can move us towards empathetic action. Sourced from Hashivenu: Jewish Teachings on Resilience
Listen: The Jewish Studio Project
Rabbi Adina Allen, co-founder of the Jewish Studio Project, makes the case that engaging in a creative process is something that adults not only can do, but should do. Sourced from Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations
Watch: Tu B’Av: Do We Actually Need a Jewish Valentine’s Day?
Rabbi Elyse Wechterman explores the roots of this little-known day on the Jewish calendar to see if there is anything that we can make of a day dedicated to love and romance. Sourced from Recon Connect Beit Midrash
Aug. 7-8
Watch: Standing Forward Bend
Loosen up and surrender with a standing forward bend. Sourced from Reset, Providing Jewish activists with accessible spiritual practice and teachings. Learn more here.
Read: Zoomed Out, or What to Do When Everyone You Know, Love and Dream of a Better World With Is a One-Inch Talking Head in a Pixelated Box
This poem by Adam Horowitz speaks volumes to the condition of relating to each other during a pandemic. Sourced from Ritualwell
Listen: Midrash
Rabbi Mira Beth Wasserman, Ph.D. and Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D. discuss Midrash — the way ancient rabbis read scripture in new and creative ways, giving old words new life, meaning and relevance. Sourced from Hashivenu: Jewish Teachings on Resilience
Read: Lessons Learned From the Pandemic of Our Lives
Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb explains that our goal is not to “get back to normal.” It is to emerge more sustainable, more just and more connected than before. Sourced from Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations
Watch: ‘Layehudim’ for Havdalah
This joyous song by Noam Katz is part of the introduction to the Havdalah ceremony. It says, “The Jews of old had light and happiness and joy and love — may it be so for us!” Sourced from Ritualwell
July 31-Aug. 1
In lieu of this week’s Virtual Shabbat Box, we offer you a Virtual Tisha B’Av Box.
These resources were drawn from:
- Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations
- Hashivenu: Jewish Teachings on Resilience
- Recon Connect Beit Midrash
- Reset: Resilience Practices for Jewish Social Justice Organizations
- Reset: Providing Jewish activists with accessible spiritual practice and teachings
- Ritualwell
- The Center for Jewish Ethics
Previous Virtual Shabbat Boxes by month:
