These are the themes that permeate and punctuate our Musaf service for Rosh Hashanah. Go deeper as we explore majesty, memory, and the transformative sound of the shofar with Judith Plaskow, Nigel Savage, and more.
Judith Plaskow: Submitting to the Great Aleinu
Judith Plaskow is professor emerita of religious studies at Manhattan College and a Jewish feminist theologian. She is author or editor of several works in feminist theology, including Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective, The Coming of Lilith: Essays on Feminism, Judaism, and Sexual Ethics 1972–2003, and Goddess and God in the World: Conversations in Embodied Theology (co-authored with Carol P. Christ).
Reflective Guide for Malkhuyot, Zikhronot and Shofarot
How do you understand the idea of a “king” in our time? What does it mean to be remembered? How does it feel to know that someone, or something, is thinking of you at a time of need? What does it mean to feel truly shaken? Can you imagine bringing that feeling to this moment of prayer? We invite you to explore these questions and more as we investigate these powerful themes of the Musaf service.
Rabbi Joanna Samuels: Rosh Hashanah in the Birthing Room
Rabbi Joanna Samuels serves as the executive director of Educational Alliance’s Manny Cantor Center. She, along with her husband Jeremy Hockenstein and their children Orli and Natan Hockenstein, are proud members of B’nai Jeshurun.
Nigel Savage: Why Do We Blow Shofar?
Nigel Savage and the team from Hazon: The Jewish Lab for Sustainability invite us to consider why exactly we blow the shofar, its meaning for us today, and its connection to our past.
Rabbah Yaffa Epstein: The Cry of the Covenant – Understanding the Shofar of Sinai
The first time the shofar is mentioned in the Torah is in connection with the giving of the Torah. But what is the connection between the shofar and the covenantal moment of Sinai? And what can the shofar teach us about our own relationship to Torah? This session will explore these questions and attempt to understand how we bring our full selves to both repentance and Torah study.
Jonathan Silver: Hearing the Shofar Mindfully
Jonathan Silver first learned to make a sound from a shofar when he was twelve years old, and he is grateful to be one of the baalei tekiya for BJ for more than twenty-five years. He began his mindfulness journey with Rabbis Marcelo Bronstein and Rachel Cowan (z”l) and completed the course in Jewish Meditation Mindfulness Teacher Training from the Institute for Jewish Spirituality.