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.

February 25-28, 2021

This week, we bring you a Virtual Purim Box. Click here to see it. 

February 19-20, 2021

Listen: ‘Mishenikhnas Adar’

“Mishenikhnas Adar marbin b’simkhah”/“When the month of Adar arrives, we increase our joy.” Adar began on Feb. 11, so sing along with Rabbi Malkah Binah Klein and increase your joy. Sourced from Ritualwell

Read: Expanded Awareness

Using the words that begin the Amidah, Emily Stern composed this prayer that invites an expanded awareness of our surroundings and God’s presence. Sourced from Ritualwell

Listen: Portraits of Resilience

In conversation with Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Daniel Jackson, MIT professor and award-winning photographer, digs into Judaism’s psychological and spiritual resources for resilience, particularly for those grappling with the isolation and shame that can come with depression. Sourced from Hashivenu: Jewish Teachings on Resilience

Read: Do You Want to Be a Millionaire?

Rabbi Lewis Eron contrasts the proper and improper uses of our monetary blessings in the Torah’s placing of the Golden Calf story in the midst of its description of the building of the Mishkan, God’s holy Tabernacle. Sourced from ReconstructingJudaism.org

Listen: Mussar for Systemic Oppression

This practice, called hitpa’alut and recorded by Rabbi David Jaffe, uses text study to build resilience for fighting systemic oppression. Sourced from Reset, providing Jewish activists with accessible spiritual practice and teachings. Learn more here.

February 12-13, 2021

Read: Intention for Waiting for Vaccine

Taking care of our health is a mitzvah. And while it doesn’t call for a particular berakhah, Devon Spier has composed this kavannah/intention to help ritualize the time in which we wait to fulfill it. Sourced from Ritualwell

Listen: ‘Dodi Li’

Shabbat eve is a time of emphasizing the love affair between God and the Jewish people. Singing verses from Shir Hashirim/“The Song of Songs” celebrates and expresses this love. Sourced from ReconstructingJudaism.org

Read: The Fifth Vessel of Jewish Ethics: Between a Person and Her Devices

“Jewish ethics is dynamic, often reinventing itself through the naming of a new arena of ethical concern.” According to Rabbi Jeffrey Schein, “Developing an applied ethics to our behavior on the Internet is an urgent priority.” Sourced from Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations

Watch: Serach bat Asher: The Woman with the Key to Redemption

Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann looks at rabbinic midrashim (interpretations) and traditions about Serach bat Asher, a little-known heroine whose wisdom enables the redemption of the Israelites from Egypt. Sourced from Recon Connect Beit Midrash

Listen: Spirit in Practice: From Anger to Love

Hosted by Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, three spiritual leaders — a Roman Catholic sister, a Muslim teacher and a Reconstructionist rabbi — reflect on how to do the work of justice with love and compassion when one becomes overwhelmed by frustration and anger. Sourced from Reset, providing Jewish activists with accessible spiritual practice and teachings. Learn more here.

February 5-6, 2021

Read: If We Create the Future in the Present

Rabbi Arthur Waskow reflects on the question “how do we unite the new president’s call for unity … with the outcry for justice, for equality, for truth, for a healing peace?” Sourced from Ritualwell

Listen: Take Me Over Song and Meditation

Shoshana Brown’s “Take Me Over,” is a meditation and original song to usher in wholeness and renewal for whatever changes are emerging within. Sourced from Reset, providing Jewish activists with accessible spiritual practice and teachings. Learn more here.

Read: I Don’t Want to Sing Another Happy Song

Cantor Sheila Nesis’s student arrives with absolute conviction at a rather deep and Jewish idea: There is a certain rhythm and cycle in which everything belongs, everything is comprehended. Sourced from Ritualwell

Read: Sinai and Humanity

In his d’var Torah on parashat Yitro, Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben teaches that “the real meaning of why … [the] Ten Commandments were given in the desert and not Jerusalem [is] to teach us that the most important spiritual truths of human life are the same for everyone.” Sourced from ReconstructingJudaism.org

Watch: Toward the Land of What Will Be: Poems on Death and Dying

Rabbi Lewis Eron shares his thoughts and the poems he has written that reflect on his experience as a veteran chaplain in a Jewish senior living center. Sourced from Recon Connect Beit Midrash

These resources were drawn from:

• Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations
• Hashivenu: Jewish Teachings on Resilience
• Recon Connect Beit Midrash
• Reset: Providing Jewish activists with accessible spiritual practice and teachings
• Ritualwell
• The Center for Jewish Ethics

Previous Virtual Shabbat Boxes by month: 

• January 2021
• December 2020
• November 2020
• October 2020
• September 2020
• August 2020
• July 2020
• June 2020
• May 2020
• April 2020
• March 2020