Archive of Resources
While the resources for our guided journey are presented stop by stop, all of the materials — a dynamic array of resources exploring the themes and liturgy of the High Holy Days through music, sacred texts, art, poetry, and literature — will be added to the archive as they are shared.
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From Love Me Again
Rabbi James Jacobson Maisels: A Meditation Practice for Elul
Rabbi James Jacobson-Maisels, PhD, is the founder and spiritual director of Or HaLev: A Center for Jewish Spirituality and Meditation and the founding Rosh Yeshiva of Romemu Yeshiva, a new contemplative yeshiva that combines study and practice. He has taught Jewish thought, mysticism, spiritual practices, and meditation at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, at Haifa University, and at Yeshivat Hadar as well as in a variety of other settings around the world.
Joy Ladin: Poetry for Teshuva
Joy Ladin, the David and Ruth Gottesman Chair in English at Stern College for Women at Yeshiva University, has published nine books of poetry and two books of creative nonfiction, Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey between Genders, and The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective. She serves on the board of Keshet, an organization devoted to full inclusion of LGTBQ Jews and their families in the Jewish world; links to her poems and essays are available at wordpress.joyladin.com.
Breaking Down Elul’s Invitation to Love Again
Get the breakdown! Explore this series of resources that explain the essentials of the Yamim Nora’im. What does love poetry have to do with preparing for Rosh Hashanah? Learn more here.
Judaism Unbound Podcast: What’s Love God to Do With It?
On the Judaism Unbound podcast, Lex Rofeberg and Wendie Lash connect the month of Elul to love, looking at the book of Shir Hashirim (Song of Songs) through a contemporary lens.
Songs of Love for Elul
Explore music inspired by Jewish and secular texts as a means to enter Elul with a loving and full heart. This playlist curated by the BJ team will set the tone for the month. Featured artists include Leonard Cohen, Moshav, Deborah Sacks Mintz, and Peter, Paul and Mary.
All You Need (in Elul) is Love!
The Jewish month of Elul has arrived, and we are starting to prepare our minds and souls for the High Holy Days, which are coming next month. Family Life and Learning at BJ invites you and your family to begin the journey toward Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur by watching this video and exploring the ways in which we each show and receive love.
Breaking Down Elul
Explore this series of resources that describe the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the Holy Days and help you go a little deeper in the process.
Sandee Brawarsky: Elul By The Book
Sandee Brawarsky has been the longtime culture editor of The Jewish Week and recently received the Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism. She has authored several books, most recently 212 Views of Central Park: Experiencing New York City’s Jewel from Every Angle with photographer Mick Hales.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Our Spiritual Journey
Looking to get rooted in the spiritual work of this season? Check out the first installment of Nizakher Venikatev, a reflective guide filled with questions to consider as we engage in the heart-opening work of this sacred time leading into the High Holy Days.
From One Thing I Ask: A Psalm for Elul
Rabbi David Silber: A Prayer for Clarity
Rabbi David Silber is the founder of Drisha, renowned as an institute of deep learning and innovation in the United States and Israel. Also an author of a commentary on the haggadah and on Megillat Esther, Rabbi Silber shares commentary on Psalm 27.
One Thing I Ask: Melodies for Ahat Sha’alti
Explore these soul-stirring, evocative, and diverse melodies for Ahat Sha-alti, taken from Psalm 27. This playlist features the voices of Chava Mirel, Yoni Genut, and BJ’s spiritual leaders.
Rabbi Dorothy Richman: Psalm 27 as Spiritual Practice
Rabbi Dorothy Richman serves as the rabbi of Makor Or: Jewish Meditation Center and is a founding faculty member of the Romemu Yeshiva. She released an album of original songs, Something of Mine, including the entire text of Psalm 27, available at Bandcamp.com.
Rabbi Rachel Cowan z”l: Reflections on the Ebb and Flow of Tides in Tebenkof Bay
Rabbi Rachel Cowan was a civil rights activist, community organizer, the first female Jew by choice ordained as a rabbi, and a beloved and influential mindfulness teacher at BJ and across the Jewish world. After she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, Rabbi Cowan’s life and legacy were profiled in the documentary Dying Doesn’t Feel Like What I’m Doing, which premiered this year. Here is an excerpt from that film.
Rabbi Nancy Flam: My Heart Said “You”
Rabbi Nancy Flam is a pioneer in contemporary Jewish communal life. She co-founded the National Center for Jewish Healing and directed the Jewish Community Healing Program at the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center. She also co-founded the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, serving as its first executive director and then for many years as a senior program director.
Breaking Down Palm 27
Get the essentials of Psalm 27. How does this psalm relate to the High Holy Days? Where can I find this psalm, and what is it about? Learn more as we break down this psalm for Elul.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Psalm 27
Looking to get rooted in the spiritual work of this season? Explore this reflective guide for the deeper messages for Psalm 27, the psalm for Elul, as we engage in the heart-opening work of preparing for the High Holy Days.
Family Mindfulness Practice for Psalm 27
Join BJ Family Educator Makai Dorfman for this special meditation on Psalm 27 just for families. Life will always be filled with uncertainty about what’s ahead, which can often bring about anxiety, fear, and worry. And yet, even amid the chaos, we can find comfort in always being able to practice feeling safe through restoring our faith in the great mystery of life.
From Homecoming
Rabba Yaffa Epstein: Return, Repent, Renew
This session examines the concept of teshuvah, often imperfectly translated as “repentance,” and invites us to attempt to understand the complexities involved in making real changes in our lives.
Silence is not an Option Podcast: Finding Common Ground
In the wake of anti-Semitic comments from prominent Black athletes and entertainers, we examine the strong alliances and deeply ingrained tensions between the Black and Jewish communities. How does their solidarity during the 1960s civil rights movement inform these relationships today? In this podcast, Don Lemon talks to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, historian Marc Dollinger, and political strategist Ginna Green.
Rabbi Avi Killip: Teshuvah Behind Bars
The American prison system relies on retributive justice. Teshuvah suggests a process of restorative justice. Together we will read Rambam’s Hilkhot Teshuvah (Laws of Repentance) through the lens of prison ministry to discover how confronting the potential healing of those who have done real wrong can teach us about our own relationship to God.
Judy Clark: Thoughts on Teshuvah
Judy Clark has deep gratitude for everyone in the B’nai Jeshurun community who supported her efforts to gain release after serving 38 years in prison, welcoming her to services and activities since coming home. She extends the deepest gratitude to Rabbi Felicia Sol for her years of visits, spiritual direction, and support. She reminds us, “My efforts toward repair are not unique. So many women and men in prison spend years challenging themselves to change, to take responsibility, to repair, and to share the lessons of their struggles with others.
Breaking Down Teshuvah
What is the essence of teshuvah? How do I do it? Why do I do it? How do I know if I’ve really done it? Get the breakdown right here.
Songs of Teshuvah and Change
Prepare for the work of teshuvah with this playlist of Jewish and secular music inspired by the holy possibility of change. Listen here for evocative and beautiful music from Aviva Chernick, Tracy Chapman, Bob Dylan, and more.
On Being Podcast: The Refreshing Practice of Repentance with Louis Newman
The High Holy Days create an annual ritual of repentance, both individual and collective. Louis Newman, who has explored repentance as an ethicist and a person in recovery, opens this up as a refreshing practice for every life, even beyond the lifetime of those to whom we would make amends.
Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse: A Dramatic Reading
Watch Rabbi Anne Ebersman, Mike Witman, and Emma Miller in a dramatic reading of Kevin Henkes’ children’s book, Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, a story about what happens when our feelings get the best of us and how we can show someone we’re sorry.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Teshuvah
What makes apologies easy or difficult to accept? In engaging in teshuvah, how can we move beyond simply acknowledging the ways we’ve hurt others and actually take steps to fix the hurt we’ve caused and repair those relationships? These kinds of questions invite us to dig deeper for a more meaningful process of teshuvah.
From Sorry Seems To Be the Hardest Word
Becoming Wise Podcast: Evil Forgiveness and Prayer with Elie Weisel
When words bring you closer to the prisoner in his cell, to the patient who is dying on his bed alone, to the starving child, then it’s a prayer.” Elie Wiesel z”l, the beloved writer known for his memoir of the Holocaust, Night, spoke of the power of prayer and forgiveness in the wake of profound suffering.
The Power of Forgiveness: A Hamilton Rewrite for Elul
Prepare for Selihot with BJ Teens as they perform an Elul rewrite of “It’s Quiet Uptown,” from Hamilton. As you listen to this song about the power of forgiveness, the teens invite you to share in the comments what forgiveness means to you.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Forgiveness and Selihot
Explore the deeper questions that are evoked in the piyutim and liturgy along with the broader complexities of forgiveness in our lives. Dive into this reflective guide for forgiveness and selihot.
On Forgiveness: Rabbis Shai Held and Joseph Telushkin in Conversation
Forgiveness is extremely important but also enormously difficult. It raises questions that elude easy answers: When should we forgive? Why should we forgive? Are there situations in which we should not (may not) forgive? If forgiveness is so important, why is it often so hard? Join us for this timely exploration of what it means to forgive (and not to).
This American Life: Anger and Forgiveness
In this episode of the award-winning radio show This American Life, host Ira Glass leads us through stories that reveal the societal “trend” toward anger and away from genuine forgiveness.
Responsa Radio: After a Bad Breakup, Must I Ask Forgiveness of my Ex?
Ever wanted to know the answer to some deep and challenging questions in halakhah (Jewish law)? Join Rabbi Avi Killip in conversation with Rabbi Ethan Tucker answering questions sent in by Yeshivat Hadar alumni and others about all sorts of details of Jewish law.
Selihot from the Great Synagogue of Jerusalem
Get a taste of this extraordinary example of Selihot from the Great Synagogue of Jerusalem, led by three of the greatest living paytanim (authors of liturgical poetry): Rabbi Haim Louk (the preeminent living performer of Moroccan and Andalusian music), Ye’hiel Nahari (a leading hazzan in Syrian tradition), and Moshe Louk (the son of Haim Louk, continuing in the Moroccan tradition.
Breaking Down Selihot
What exactly is Selihot? What are we singing about and does it always happen so late at night? Learn the answers to these questions and more as we break down Selihot for you!
Build Me A Sanctuary
Rabbi Ebn Leader: Prayer Practice on Zoom
Rabbi Ebn Leader has been a student of Rabbi Art Green for the past twenty years and, together with him, was one of the founders of the Rabbinical School at Hebrew College in Boston. Rabbi Leader is dedicated to helping his students understand and apply prayer as a spiritual practice.
Rosh Hashanah Seder
Fresh off the presses from the Rabbinical Assembly, this Seder for Rosh Hashanah follows the contours of a Pesah Seder, but is filled with the themes and liturgy of the Yamim Nora’im, crafting a meal experience full of ritual food, discussion, song, movement, and connection. Be sure to check out this beautiful resource, from a creative team that includes former Marshall T. Meyer Fellows, Rabbis Sarit Horowitz, Alex Braver, and Sarah Krinsky.
Rabbi Jan Uhrbach: A Look Inside Mahzor Lev Shalem
Rabbi Jan Uhrbach is director of the Block/Kolker Center for Spiritual Arts at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and founding rabbi of the Conservative Synagogue of the Hamptons in Bridgehampton, NY. She was the associate editor of Siddur Lev Shalem and served on the editorial committee for Machzor Lev Shalem. She is also a grateful member of BJ.
Tobi Kahn and Nessa Rapoport: Art and Poetry for Rosh Hashanah
Tobi Kahn has had more than seventy solo museum shows of his paintings, sculpture, installations, and ceremonial art. Selected collections include those at the Guggenheim Museum; the Houston Museum of Fine Arts; The Phillips Collection; the Jewish Museum in New York; the Jewish Museum of Florida, Inc.; and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Nessa Rapoport’s new novel, Evening, was published by Counterpoint Press on September 1, 2020. She is the author of Preparing for Sabbath, a novel; A Woman’s Book of Grieving, prose poems; and House on the River, a Summer Journey; among other works.
Breaking Down Mikdash Me’at
How can I create a mikdash me’at (small sanctuary) in my home? Where does this concept come from? Check out BJ’s breakdown.
Songs for Rosh Hashanah with Shira
Create a sacred space by filling your family’s home with music! Enjoy these classic Rosh Hashanah songs with BJ’s own, Shira Averbuch!
Jenna Weissman Joselit: Hallow the Halls
Jenna Weissman Joselit, the Charles E. Smith Professor of Judaic Studies & Professor of History at the George Washington University, and the author, most recently, of Set in Stone: America’s Embrace of the Ten Commandments, also writes a monthly column on American Jewish history and culture for Tablet.
From Rosh Hashanah
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Avinu Malkeinu
The image of a father and the image of a king are very different from each other. What connotations come to mind for each role? Which image represents your idea of the Divine? Is there a different image that fits better with your understanding of God? Explore these questions and more as we go deeper into Avinu Malkeinu.
Rabbi Elie Kaunfer: God as King and Avinu Malkeinu
Rabbi Elie Kaunfer is President and CEO of the Hadar Institute. A graduate of Harvard College, he completed his doctorate in Liturgy at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he was also ordained. Elie is a co-founder of the independent minyan Kehilat Hadar and the author of Empowered Judaism: What Independent Minyanim Can Teach Us about Building Vibrant Jewish Communities.
Breaking Down Avinu Malkeinu
What’s the essence of Avinu Malkeinu, the prayer so integral to the themes and liturgy of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? We’ll break it down for you.
Banishment of Ishmael: A Talk with Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger and Khaled Abu Awwad
Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger is co-founder of Roots/Judur/Shorashim, a joint Palestinian-Israeli grassroots peacemaking initiative dedicated to understanding nonviolence and transformation, where he currently remains director of international relations. Khaled Abu Awwad is among the foremost figures in the Palestinian community working toward peace and reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis. He has been awarded the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the promotion of nonviolence and tolerance in 2011, and he was named one of the 500 most influential Muslims in 2010 by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center.
Sally Gottesman: Recusing Ourselves from Bone-Ignorance
Sally Gottesman has been a member of BJ for more than twenty-five years. She currently is the chair of Encounter, an educational organization committed to informed, courageous, and resilient Jewish communal leadership on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Prior to working with Encounter she was co-founder and chair of Moving Traditions. Thousands of teens across the country, including BJ teens, participate in Moving Traditions’s Rosh Hodesh and The Brotherhood programs. She happily lives a block away from BJ with her three children, Alice, Ezra, and Charlotte.
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg: Why is Abraham Complicit in Cruelty?
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg is an award-winning author and writer. She was named by Newsweek and the Daily Beast as one of ten “rabbis to watch” and by the Forward as one of the fifty most influential women rabbis, and Publishers Weekly called her a “wunderkind of Jewish feminism.”
People of the Book: Avraham and Ibrahim in Judaism and Islam
Abraham/Ibrahim is one of the most important figures in Judaism and Islam due to his devotion to God and moral standing. Come learn more about his unique personality according to the two religious traditions.
Judaism Unbound Podcast with Lex Rofeberg and Dan Libenson
This Rosh Hashanah, Lex Rofeberg and Dan Libenson look at the four major biblical readings associated with the holiday. They ask how these texts can apply to twenty-first-century life, and they provide a variety of answers, including many that incorporate historical understandings of the Bible gleaned from biblical source criticism. In this episode, they tackle Genesis 21, which tells the story of Hagar and Ishmael’s banishment by Abraham and Sarah.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Torah on the Frist Day of Rosh Hashanah
Have you been able to find healing in a family dynamic this year? Have you experienced rupture in those relationships? Where in your own close connections are you seeking reconciliation? Consider these questions and more as we explore the deeper themes of the Torah reading for the First Day of Rosh Hashanah.
Judaism Unbound Podcast with Lex Rofeberg and Dan Libenson
This Rosh Hashanah, Lex Rofeberg and Dan Libenson look at the four major biblical readings associated with the holiday. They ask how these texts can apply to twenty-first-century life, and they provide a variety of answers, including many that incorporate historical understandings of the Bible gleaned from biblical source criticism. In this episode, they tackle 1 Samuel 1:1–2:10, which tells the story of the birth of Samuel (or perhaps someone else?!).
Rani Jaeger: Prayer for Hannah and for Each of Us
Dr. Rani Jaeger is a research fellow of the Kogod Research Center and head of the recently formed Tanakh Initiative at the Shalom Hartman Institute. He was one of the founders of the Institute’s Be’eri Program for Pluralistic Jewish-Israeli Identity Education. He is co-founder of Beit Tefilah Israeli, a secular synagogue in the heart of Tel Aviv.
Peninnah Schram: Pearls of Wisdom
Peninnah Schram, storyteller and professor emerita at Yeshiva University, is the author of fourteen books of Jewish folktales and the recipient of the Covenant Award for Outstanding Jewish Educator and the National Storytelling Network’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Haftarah on the First Day of Rosh Hashanah
Hannah weeps as she prays to God. Have you ever experienced this level of emotion during prayer? What was the situation in which you were praying? What would it take for you to bring this high level of emotion to your Rosh Hashanah prayer this year? Consider these questions and more as we explore the deeper themes of the Haftarah for the First Day of Rosh Hashanah.
Yardaena Osband: Connection Of Anguish and Despair
Often when we suffer we feel farthest from God, yet Hannah approaches God in the moment of her greatest despair. She takes those moments of pain and sorrow and uses them to connect to the Divine. How can we?
The Akedah Project
The Akedah Project explores the story of the Binding of Isaac (“akedah” means “binding” in Hebrew), which is one of the most confounding narratives in the Bible. Scholars, rabbis, artists, teachers, poets, and readers have tried to make sense of this story for millennia, which has given us a range of lenses through which we can read it, even as we bring the new questions, ideas, and perspectives that come with every new generation of readers.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: You Want it Darker
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks is a British rabbi, philosopher, theologian, author, and politician. He served as the chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain and the Commonwealth until 2013 and has since served on the faculties of New York University, Yeshiva University, and King’s College London.
Rabbi Tali Adler: Isaac’s Binding, Rachel’s Tears
Sacrifice and the High Holy Days: Akeidat Yitzhak, the Torah reading for the Second Day of Rosh HaShanah, is usually seen as the ultimate Jewish model of personal sacrifice. But is willingness to die for God really the epitome of sacrifice? In this session, we will explore a midrash that questions Akeidat Yitzhak’s role as the central model of sacrifice and offers a story about Rachel, our matriarch, as an alternative. We will use the midrash to explore questions such as: What does sacrifice look like? What role should it play in our religious lives? And what might our High Holy Days be like with a different model of religious sacrifice at the center?
Judaism Unbound Podcast with Lex Rofeberg and Dan Libenson
This Rosh Hashanah, Lex Rofeberg and Dan Libenson look at the four major biblical readings associated with the holiday. They ask how these texts can apply to twenty-first-century life, and they provide a variety of answers, including many that incorporate historical understandings of the Bible gleaned from biblical source criticism. In this episode, they tackle Genesis 22, which tells the story of the binding of Isaac.
Anne Gordon: The Akeida in Art
From Rembrandt to Caravaggio, the drama of Akeidat Yitzhak has been captured by some of the greatest fine artists. Join Anne Gordon in an exploration of how their interpretations might inform our own.
Reading and Re-reading the Akedah with Rabbis Ethan Tucker, Erin Leib Smokler, and Dov Linzer
The Binding of Isaac raises many core religious questions: Is true service to God achieved through submission? What is God trying to communicate in asking Abraham to sacrifice his son? What is achieved when God cancels that command? Hear this spirited conversation as our three panelists (Erin Leib Smokler, Dov Linzer, and Ethan Tucker—from Yeshivat Maharat, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School, and Mechon Hadar, respectively) engage in a live collaborative reading of Genesis 22 that aims to probe the depths of this text while grappling with its ongoing relevance for contemporary religious life.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Torah on the Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
What does it mean to “show up” for the people, causes, and communities we care most about? How have you worked to notice voices of people who have been marginalized or difficult to hear? Explore these questions and more as we go deeper into the themes of our reading from Torah.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Haftarah on the Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah is a time to think about both individual and communal shortcomings. How do you feel about the concept of communal punishment? Think about contexts where this continues to happen in our time. How do team sports, climate change, and the pandemic relate to this idea? Consider these questions and more as we explore the deeper themes of the Haftarah for the Second Day of Rosh Hashanah.
Rabbi David Silber: A Lesson on Jeremiah
Rabbi David Silber is the founder of Drisha, renowned as an institute of deep learning and innovation in the United States and Israel. Also an author of a commentary on the haggadah and on Megillat Esther, Rabbi Silber shares commentary on Jeremiah.
Rabbi Thalia Halpert Rodis: A New Covenant
In every moment of challenge and despair, we have the opportunity to choose: Do we uproot or do we build; remain or start from scratch? Each instance requires its own answer. Rabbi Thalia Halpert Rodis invites us to find our own.
Judaism Unbound Podcast with Lex Rofeberg and Dan Libenson
This Rosh Hashanah, Lex Rofeberg and Dan Libenson look at the four major biblical readings associated with the holiday. They ask how these texts can apply to twenty-first-century life, and they provide a variety of answers, including many that incorporate historical understandings of the Bible gleaned from biblical source criticism. In this episode, they tackle Jeremiah 31, the Haftarah reading for the Second Day of Rosh Hashanah.
Rabbi Michael Strassfeld: Unetaneh Tokef
Rabbi Michael Strassfeld is the rabbi emeritus of the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, the Reconstructionist synagogue in Manhattan founded by Mordecai Kaplan. He is the author of A Book of Life: Embracing Judaism as a Spiritual Practice and is one of the co-editors of The Jewish Catalog.
Unetaneh Tokef for Black Lives
Imani Romney-Rosa Chapman writes, “Friday would have been the 65th birthday of my first wife and her yahrzeit is this week. As I thought about the beauty of her laugh and the pain of her end, so different from those on whose behalf we cry out, the words of the Unetaneh Tokef—a prayer that inspires fear and awe during the High Holidays—came to me.”
Who By Fire: The Most Controversial Prayer in Jewish Life
Are you troubled by reciting: “Who shall live and who shall die?” every year on High Holy Days? Does God really mete out just reward and punishment each year? Learn with Rabbi Elie Kaunfer about the Unetaneh Tokef prayer, looking at its biblical allusions and discovering its radically divergent internal theological approaches.
Leonard Cohen: Who by Fire
In perhaps the most prominent piece of art to be inspired by Unetaneh Tokef, Leonard Cohen’s “Who By Fire” adapts the text from sections of the piyut almost word for word. The result is a stirring, beautiful, and haunting adaptation of our prayer on the High Holy Days.
Admiel Kosman: Divine Teaching Which is Given in Silence
Admiel Kosman, an Israeli poet, is professor for Jewish studies at Potsdam University as well as the academic director of Geiger College, a training school for liberal rabbis in Berlin. One of his poems can be found in Mahzor Lev Shalem beside Unetaneh Tokef.
Breaking Down Unetaneh Tokef
What’s the essence of Unetaneh Tokef, the piyut that illuminates the central drama of our liturgy? Take a look inside as we break down Unetaneh Tokef.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Unetaneh Tokef
The theology expressed in this poem—that God judges us for life and death during the Ten Days of Awe—is always challenging. In a year marked by pandemic and civil and political unrest, it may be all the more so. How does it feel to confront this kind of theology this year? How do you make space for liturgy that feels painful? Is this a text you feel ready to confront this year, or do you feel an urge to avoid it? Explore these questions further as we dig into the deeper meanings of “Unetaneh Tokef.”
Frank London: Berosh Hashanah
Frank London is a New York City-based trumpeter, bandleader, and composer active in klezmer and world music. He also plays various other wind instruments and keyboards, and occasionally sings backup vocals. With The Klezmatics, he won a Grammy award in Contemporary World Music for “Wonder Wheel (lyrics by Woody Guthrie).” He offers this piece as an interpretation on the Berosh Hashanah theme from Unetaneh Tokef.
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.
Rabbi Michael Strassfeld: The Gift of Hayom – This Day in These Challenging Times
Rabbi Michael Strassfeld is the Rabbi Emeritus of the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, the Reconstructionist synagogue in Manhattan founded by Mordecai Kaplan. He is the author of A Book of Life: Embracing Judaism as a Spiritual Practice and is one of the co-editors of The Jewish Catalog.
Start Hayom (Today) with Mira Cohen and the BJ Teens
Hear Mira Cohen, Jewish Life Coordinator on the BJ Teen Executive Board, share how she is looking into the next year, with a taste of what it’s like being on a trip with the BJ teens.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Hayom
Where are your communities seeking strength right now? Where are you able to strengthen them? Have you experienced spiritual nourishment connected to a pursuit of justice? What are your other sources of spiritual sustenance? We invite you to go deeper into the text of this piyut with these questions and more.
Nathaniel Berman: The Kabbalistic Shofar
Nathaniel Berman is the Rahel Varnhagen Professor in Brown University’s Religious Studies Department. He is the author of Divine and Demonic in the Poetic Mythology of the Zohar: The ‘Other Side’ of Kabbalah (Brill, 2018).
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Shofar
The shofar blast called “shevarim,” meaning “broken,” consists of three short blasts. How do the three separate blasts remind you of brokenness? What does the idea of being “broken” mean to you? What does repair of this brokenness look like? Explore these questions and more as we uncover the deeper meanings behind one of the most prominent symbols of the High Holy Days.
Breaking Down Tashlikh
Perhaps you’ve seen people throwing breadcrumbs into the water on Rosh Hashanah. Have you ever wondered what it’s all about? Wondered what you might need to know before trying tashlikh out for yourself? Look here as we break down the essentials.
Grace Gleason: Shame and the Psychology of Tashlikh
Grace Gleason is the incoming Marshall T. Meyer Rabbinic Fellow at BJ. She is a third-year rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Tashlikh: Text-based Guided Conversation
Use this resource to prepare before the waterside Tashlikh ritual—ideally immediately before Tashlikh, but it can also be used as a text study in the weeks leading up to Rosh Hashanah. This was originally created for Tashlikh 5778 at B’nai Jeshurun.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Tashlikh
Is there a regret or mistake from the past year that you are struggling to let go of? What does an embodied ritual accomplish that prayer alone cannot do? In your experience, is it harder to forgive others or to forgive yourself? Go deeper into the experience of Tashlikh exploring these questions and more.
From Open the Gates
Jeannie Blaustein: Taking Stock and Taking Action
Jeannie Blaustein, PhD., D. Ministry, former president of the BJ board, is a clinical psychologist, pastoral counselor, and professor of psychology. The founding board chair of Reimagine End of Life, Jeannie is dedicated to bringing about public and private conversations on death, dying, and disparities in how we die in America that transform our relationship to life and to each other.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for the Ten Days of Teshuvah
The medieval sage Maimonides once said of these ten days, “Even though repentance and crying out to God are always timely, during the ten days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur it is exceedingly appropriate and accepted immediately.” What about this period makes reaching out to God more appropriate? Explore this question and more as we uncover the deeper meanings of the Ten Days of Teshuvah.
Martha Ackelsberg and Mike Lennox: Opening the Gates of Understanding
Listen to a conversation between BJ member Martha Ackelsberg and Mike Lennox, a corrections officer and member of the Michigan Corrections Organization, discussing the “Bridging the Gap” exchange in which they participated a couple of years ago. They talk about their fears and nervousness before meeting each other, how their conversations revealed both areas of common ground and many misconceptions, and how they ended up surprised by the warmth they felt, and still feel, for people with whom they disagree. (The day after this conversation was recorded, Mike was seriously injured at work, when one of the incarcerated men stabbed him three times, puncturing his ear drum. We send him wishes for a refu’ah shleimah, a speedy and full recovery.)
Breaking Down the Ten Days of Teshuvah
This period gives us the opportunity to dig harder and go deeper into the spiritual work of the season while the gates are open. To better understand what the Ten Days of Teshuvah really mean, read this breakdown.
Rabbi Rachel Cowan z”l: The Enoughness of My Life
Rabbi Rachel Cowan was a civil rights activist, community organizer, the first female Jew by choice ordained as a rabbi, and a beloved and influential mindfulness teacher. After she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, Rabbi Cowan’s life and legacy were profiled in the documentary Dying Doesn’t Feel Like What I’m Doing, which premiered this year.
Rabbi David Silber: The Prayers of Yom Kippur
Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav famously said that the goal of studying Torah is to transform our study into prayer. The ancient liturgical poets, however, strove to make our prayers into a form of Torah study by interlacing the blessings with liturgical poems (piyyutim) that recount biblical narratives. How do the piyyutim of Yom Kippur reflect the essential nature of the day? How can these poems help us arrive at a deeper understanding of ourselves?
From Yom Kippur
Rabbi Ethan Tucker: Cutting our Losses or Preparing for Failure
One of the most difficult aspects of teshuvah is figuring out what to leave behind and what to carry forward with us. Do we simply write off past failures and press the reset button? Or do we enter into the new year with full consciousness of our failings and preemptively try to address them for the future? We will explore this question through an analysis of the history of Kol Nidre, one of our most famous and most confusing pieces of liturgy.
Kol Nidre: Yizthak Perlman and Yitzchak Meir Helfgott
Legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman and celebrated Hazzan Yitzchak Meir Helfgot join forces for an extraordinary rendition of Kol Nidre, bringing the violinist’s famed virtuosity together with Helfgot’s magnificent voice.
Maggie Smith: “Good Bones”
Maggie Smith is the author of Keep Moving (Simon & Schuster, 2020), Good Bones (Tupelo Press, 2017), The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison (Tupelo Press, 2015), Lamp of the Body (Red Hen Press, 2005), and three prizewinning chapbooks. The recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation, Smith is a freelance writer and editor.
Rabbi Carole Balin: The Transformative Melody of Kol Nidre
Rabbi Carole Balin, PhD, is in her fourth decade as a BJ member, and she never ceases to be amazed by the music. She is writing a narrative nonfiction work on Bat Mitzvah as told through the stories of girls and women who have undergone the process. To share your story, go to https://www.carolebalin.com/batmitzvahproject
Breaking Down Kol Nidre
The melody of Kol Nidre is unmistakably powerful, but what is the text actually about? Find out more as we break down the essence of Kol Nidre.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Kol Nidre
Often we make promises with the best of intentions but find ourselves coming up short. Why do you think even our most heartfelt promises are difficult to keep? Kol Nidre absolves us in advance of any vows or promises we are making in the coming year. How do we hold this practice in tension with the transformations of the spiritual work we do on this day? Explore these questions and more with our reflective guide to Kol Nidre.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Vidui
The word sin has many connotations in English, most of them associated with Christianity. How do you react to this word? We have used the words wrongdoing, mistake, or problem instead. Which word works best for you in your process of teshuvah (repentance)? Explore these questions and more with our reflective guide for the Vidui.
Rabbi Elie Kaunfer: Understanding Vidui
Prepare for the High Holy Days by looking at some critical areas of the liturgy. We will gain a deeper sense of the unique structure of these prayers, as well as looking in-depth into specific prayers. We will delve into their biblical and rabbinic sources, with an eye toward deeper meaning and connection to the larger themes of the High Holy Days.
Yavilah McCoy: A Communal Al Chet for the Sins of Racism
Yavilah McCoy is the CEO of Dimensions Inc., in Boston. She has spent the past twenty years working extensively in multi-faith communities and partnering specifically with Jewish groups to engage issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Alden Solovy: Meditation on Vidui
Liturgist and poet Alden Solovy spreads joy and excitement about prayer. His work has been used by people of many faiths throughout the world. He’s written more than 750 pieces of new liturgy, offering a fresh Jewish voice and challenging the boundaries between poetry, meditation, personal growth, storytelling, and prayer.
Breaking Down Vidui
The Vidui is a complex but essential portion of both the process of teshuvah and of our liturgy on Yom Kippur. Get a refresher on the essentials as we break down the Vidui.
HaVidui Ha-Mashlim: Complementary Confession, by Rabbi Binyamin Holtzman
Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, in his commentary on the Mishnah, points out that just as there is a vidui lara, a confession for the bad, so, too, is there a vidui latov, a confession for the good. In that spirit, we invite you to take this composition of Rabbi Binyamin Holtzman to heart, embracing a positive vidui as a companion to the traditional confession.
Dr. Devora Steinmetz: The Thirteen Middot
Dr. Devora Steinmetz serves on the faculty of Drisha Institute in the United States and Israel and on the leadership team of Drisha’s new yeshiva in Israel. She is the founder of Beit Rabban, a Jewish day school profiled in Daniel Pekarsky’s Vision at Work: The Theory and Practice of Beit Rabban. She is the author of scholarly articles on Talmud, Midrash, and Bible as well as of two books: From Father to Son: Kinship, Conflict, and Continuity in Genesis, and Punishment and Freedom: The Rabbinic Construction of Criminal Law. Dr. Steinmetz also serves on the faculty of the Mandel Institute for Nonprofit Leadership.
On Being Podcast: On Grace – Serene Jones
Serene Jones describes theology as the place and story you think of when you ask yourself about the meaning of your life, the world, and the possibility of God. For her, that place is a “dusty piece of land” on the plains of Oklahoma where she grew up. “I go there to find my story—my theology. I go there to be born again; to be made whole; to unite with what I was, what I am, and what I will become.” In her work as a public theologian, Jones explores theology as a clarifying lens on the present—from grace to repentance to the importance of moving from grieving to mourning.
Joey Weisenberg: Rising Up the Ladder of Song
Musician, composer, and teacher Joey Weisenberg is the founder and co-director of Hadar’s Rising Song Institute. He is the author of The Torah of Music (2017 winner of the National Jewish Book Award) and Building Singing Communities. He has released seven albums with the Hadar Ensemble, most recently Nigunim Vol. VII: Songs of Ascent (2019). This article was published in the Hadar Institute’s 2020 High Holy Day Publication, Connection Points.
Rabbi Chen Ben-Or Tsfoni: Ya’aleh – The Journey of Yom Kippur
Rabbi Chen Ben-Or Tsfoni is the spiritual leader and one of the founders of Congregation Nigun HaLev. She is part of a group of spiritual leaders who work to build and renew Israeli Judaism. Prior to becoming a rabbi, she worked ten years as a social worker and was one of the founders of Ha’Midrasha Educational Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Israel. This piece was prepared with Orli Moss, BJ’s former Director of Israel Engagement, now a rabbinical student and intern with Rabbi Ben-Or Tsfoni.
Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz: Shema Koleinu
Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is the President & Dean of the Valley Beit Midrash (Jewish pluralistic adult learning and leadership), the Founder and President of Uri L’Tzedek (Jewish Social Justice), the Founder and CEO of Shamayim (Jewish animal advocacy), the Founder and President of YATOM (Jewish foster and adoption network), and the author of eighteen books on Jewish ethics.
Judaism Unbound: Torah for Yom Kippur Morning
This Yom Kippur, Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg look at the four major biblical readings associated with the holiday. They ask how these texts can apply to twenty-first-century life, and they provide a variety of answers, including many that incorporate historical understandings of the Bible gleaned from biblical source criticism. In this episode, they tackle Leviticus 16, which outlines the ancient scapegoat ritual.
Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson: There is Such a Thing as “Too Close”
Rabbi Dr. Bradley Shavit Artson holds the Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean’s Chair of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and is Vice President of American Jewish University in Los Angeles. Rabbi Artson has long been a passionate advocate for social justice, human dignity, diversity, and inclusion.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Torah on Yom Kippur Morning
Imagine that attitude or behavior being thrown into a fire and burning up into ash. Do you feel a sense of release? Does this image help you to let go? Now imagine, instead, sending that negative thing off into the wilderness. See it running away from you, never to return. Do you feel different? Does it feel freeing? Consider these questions and more in our reflective guide for Torah on Yom Kippur Morning.
Ari Hoffman: To Sacrifice Publicly, While Mourning Privately
Ari Hoffman is currently pursuing a JD at Stanford Law School. He holds a BA and PhD in English Literature from Harvard University. His first book, This Year in Jerusalem: Israel and the Literary Quest for Jewish Authenticity, is forthcoming from SUNY Press. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Observer, Tablet magazine, and a wide range of other publications. This summer, he has served as a legal clerk for Judge Hanan Melcer of the Supreme Court of Israel.
Judaism Unbound: Haftarah for Yom Kippur Morning
This Yom Kippur, Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg look at the four major biblical readings associated with the holiday. They ask how these texts can apply to twenty-first-century life, and they provide a variety of answers, including many that incorporate historical understandings of the Bible gleaned from biblical source criticism. In this episode, they tackle Isaiah 57–58.
Rev. K Karpen and Rev. Lea Matthews: A Yom Kippur Message on Isaiah
Rev. K Karpen is the senior pastor of St. Paul & St. Andrew and has served this progressive congregation since 1984. Rev. Lea Matthews is the Associate Pastor, committed to being a part of the queer liberation movement within the United Methodist Church, moving intersectionally and with intention toward God’s justice. As a leadership team, they are an integral part of the deep partnership that has existed between SPSA and B’nai Jeshurun since the early 1990s.
Rabbi Michael Strassfeld: A Prophetic Reading for America
Rabbi Michael Strassfeld is the Rabbi Emeritus of the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, the Reconstructionist synagogue in Manhattan founded by Mordecai Kaplan. He is the author of A Book of Life: Embracing Judaism as a Spiritual Practice and is one of the co-editors of The Jewish Catalog.
West Side Campaign Against Hunger: Community, Dignity and Choice
West Side Campaign Against Hunger works to change our perception of hungry people by working in partnership with them, providing food with dignity, and empowering customers to find solutions. With the words of Isaiah on our minds, WSCAH Executive Director Greg Silverman invites us to consider the vitality of this work in our society.
Ronald Guttman: A Dramatic Reading of Isaiah
Ronald Guttman is an actor, producer, and founder and president of Highbrow Entertainment. His long list of acting credits includes film, television, and theater. He was recently seen in the Amazon Prime series Hunters, starring Al Pacino, and On The Basis of Sex, a biopic about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He is an active BJ member, attending services and supporting the community since 1993. This recording is shared with the permission of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Haftarah on Yom Kippur Morning
Where have your Jewish and social justice journeys intersected? Where have they run parallel? What is your vision of a world that is free of oppression? What steps could you take in the coming year to contribute to making that vision a reality? Explore these questions and more in our reflective guide for Haftarah on Yom Kippur Morning.
When People Die They Sing Songs
Olga Lvoff’s film, When People Die They Sing Songs is a sensitive examination of family, memory, displacement and mortality. Join us as we meet BJ members Regina Gluckman (born in Tibova, Czechoslovakia, 1919) and Sonia Gluckman (conceived in Sidi El Ayashi, Morocco) shortly after Regina enters home hospice at the age of ninety-three. Through her music therapy sessions with British born Robin Mitchel, Regina recalls the Yiddish and French songs of her youth, recapturing the mood of this mother and daughter’s tumultuous history, much of it undiscussed for decades.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Yizkor
It may be particularly challenging to recite Yizkor this year, since we can’t be together in person. And yet during Yizkor, we are still a community of the bereaved, even from a distance. How can you connect with others who are remembering loved ones on Yom Kippur and during the rest of the year? Explore these questions and more with our reflective guide for Yizkor.
El Malei Rahamim for Victims of Racial Violence
El Malei Rahamim is the memorial prayer recited at funerals and during Yizkor, the memorial service included in Yom Kippur and other festival services. This version honors the memory of all those who have been murdered throughout America’s history because of their race—those who died under slavery or the Native American genocide, those lynched or bombed, those shot by police or killed through mistreatment in prisons and jails in the present day, and many more. We offer it for use during Yizkor on Yom Kippur and in other rituals of commemoration.
Breaking Down Yizkor
Check out our breakdown of Yizkor to understand its core components, why it’s incorporated as part of the Yom Kippur service, and why some people leave the room right before it starts.
Nessa Rapoport: Soliloquy
Nessa Rapoport’s new novel, Evening, was published by Counterpoint Press on September 1, 2020. She is the author of Preparing for Sabbath, a novel; A Woman’s Book of Grieving, prose poems; and House on the River, a memoir; among other works.
On Being Podcast: Navigating Loss without Closure with Pauline Boss
Pauline Boss coined the term ambiguous loss and invented a new field within psychology to recognize the reality that every loss does not hold a promise of resolution. Amid this pandemic, there are so many losses—from deaths that could not be fully mourned, to the very structure of our days, to a sudden crash of what felt like solid careers and plans and dreams. This conversation is full of practical intelligence for shedding assumptions about how we should be feeling and acting, as these only serve to deepen stress.
Ruth Calderon: Ishmael, My Son, Bless Me
Dr. Ruth Calderon is one of Israel’s leading figures spearheading efforts to revive Hebrew culture and a pluralistic Israeli-Jewish identity. In 1989, she co-established ELUL in Jerusalem, the first beit midrash in which secular and religious women and men studied and taught together.
Rabbi Leon Morris: Mining Seder Ha-Avodah for Contemporary Meaning
Rabbi Leon A. Morris is President of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, an open, inclusive, diverse, and intellectually challenging Jewish learning community, based in Jerusalem with programs worldwide. He was a member of BJ for many years and together with his family made aliyah from Sag Harbor to Jerusalem in 2014.
Aviva Chernick: Offerings from the Altar of the Heart
Aviva Chernick is an award-winning Canadian musician, mindfulness educator, and ba’alat neginah (leader of devotional song) who has brought her voice in music and prayer to communities and congregations around the globe. For the past fifteen years—alongside an active performing and touring career—Aviva has served as a guest in communities across North America leading and teaching about the voice in prayer and about contemplative practice
David Katzenstein: A Photographic Journey of Ritual
Over the past 30 years David Katzenstein has traveled extensively throughout the world creating narrative imagery for fine art exhibitions, global corporate giants, and philanthropic organizations. Spontaneous, authentic, and bold, his lens captures the essence of each moment, providing the viewer with an intimate view of the world around us. An archive of online exhibitions and projects can be viewed on his website. In 2018 he co-founded the nonprofit The Human Experience Project, with the mission to create visual and narrative content that supports the mission of organizations, institutions, and individuals who work to inspire lifelong learning, advance knowledge, and strengthen our communities.
Ishay Ribo: Seder Ha-Avodah
Ishay Ribo’s “Seder Ha’avoda” recalls the service of the High Priest on Yom Kippur, and most of the song’s lyrics come straight from the liturgy. Specifically, the song discusses how the High Priest would approach God on Yom Kippur, begging forgiveness for the people’s sins. In Ribo’s version, however, he also recalls all of God’s kindnesses and miracles at the same time. This beautiful song offers a powerful companion to our Seder Ha-Avodah in our mahzor.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Seder Ha-Avodah
In the First Confession, the High Priest would stretch his hands over the bull offering and confess his sins and those of his household, “withholding nothing in embarrassment.” Try speaking aloud some of the mistakes you’ve made in the past year. Are there things that you are embarrassed to admit? How does saying them out loud let you begin the process of atonement? Explore these questions and more with our reflective guide for Seder Ha-Avodah.
Breaking Down Seder Ha-Avodah
Looking to understand the history and meaning of Seder Ha-Avodah? Curious why we discuss sacrifices in the Temple on Yom Kippur? Learn more about the essence of Seder Ha-Avodah here.
Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller: Eleh Ezkerah
Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller recently celebrated forty years working with students and faculty as the Executive Director of the Yitzhak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Life at UCLA, where he is now Director Emeritus. He is a faculty member of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America and of the Wexner Heritage Foundation. Chaim was the founding director of the Hartman Fellowship for Hillel Professionals and a founding member of Americans for Peace Now.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Eleh Ezkerah
While Yizkor services mark the loss of close family members and allow spiritual space for individuals and families to remember their loved ones, Eleh Ezkera is a time for acknowledging communal pain, tragedy, and loss. How might our communal mourning be different from our personal mourning? Explore these questions and more in our reflective guide for Eleh Ezkerah.
The Ethics: Building the Next Generation of Holocaust Memory
A conversation between violinist Ittai Shapira and architect Daniel Libeskind about Holocaust memory, music, and architecture (moderated by Natasha Zaretsky). This conversation was inspired by Itta Shapira’s new composition, The Ethics, premiering at Carnegie Hall on May 14, 2015, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Theresienstadt.
Leah Silver: A Letter to my Grandfather
Leah Silver wrote the following letter to her grandfather, Maks Etingin, which she shared publicly as part of Eleh Ezkerah, on Yom Kippur 5780 at B’nai Jeshurun. Maks died in November 2019, a few months after this was recorded. May his memory be for a blessing.
Judaism Unbound: Torah for Yom Kippur Afternoon
This Yom Kippur, Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg look at the four major biblical readings associated with the holiday. They ask how these texts can apply to twenty-first-century life, and they provide a variety of answers, including many that incorporate historical understandings of the Bible gleaned from biblical source criticism. In this episode, they tackle Leviticus 18 and 19.
Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson: What Exactly Does Being Holy Mean?
Rabbi Dr. Bradley Shavit Artson holds the Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean’s Chair of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and is Vice President of American Jewish University in Los Angeles. Rabbi Artson has long been a passionate advocate for social justice, human dignity, diversity, and inclusion.
Peter Geffen: It’s Yom Kippur Afternoon and…
Peter Geffen is the Founder and President of KIVUNIM and the Founder of the Abraham Joshua Heschel School. He was for many years one of BJ’s volunteer hazanim on the High Holidays.
Rabbi Yitz Greenberg: Live By Them and Not Die By Them
Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg serves as the President of the J.J. Greenberg Institute for the Advancement of Jewish Life and as Senior Scholar in Residence at the Hadar Institute. He is a leading Jewish thinker and has written extensively on post-Holocaust Jewish religious thought, Jewish-Christian relations, pluralism, and the ethics of Jewish power.
Judaism Unbound: The Book of Jonah
This Yom Kippur, Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg look at the four major biblical readings associated with the holiday. They ask how these texts can apply to twenty-first-century life, and they provide a variety of answers, including many that incorporate historical understandings of the Bible gleaned from biblical source criticism. In this episode, they tackle the Book of Jonah.
Rabbi Mordecai Schwartz: Jonah: Rebirth and Resurrection
Jonah provides us with a model of repentance. However, we find that he is also associated with resurrection in some midrashic collections. Where does this image of Jonah come from? Is it helpful to us as a religious metaphor? How should we think about Jonah when we read it on Yom Kippur? Listen to this recording from the 2016 Hadar Community Beit Midrash.
Bill Gordh: Jonah and the Whale – A Musical Retelling
In this musical retelling of the story of Jonah, Bill Gordh highlights the message that, on some level, each of us knows the right thing to do in our hearts. Of course, that does not mean it’s always easy to make that choice. This story in song follows the consequences of this decision.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Ne’ilah
The very end of Yom Kippur finds us reciting key biblical verses affirming God’s sovereignty, as well as the Shema, followed by one last tekiah gedolah of the shofar. How has this moment resonated for you in the past: as a moment of rededication, of urgency, of groundedness, or of something else? How do you want to approach this point this year? Explore these questions and more in our reflective guide for Ne’ilah.
Lizzie Leiman Kraiem: Scaffolding at Neilah
Lizzie Leiman Kraiem directs the Jewish Life Program at the Charles H. Revson Foundation. She and her husband Ruben raised their children Renee and Leon at BJ.
David Litt: The Gates are Closing
David Litt entered the White House as a speechwriter in 2011, and left in 2016 as a senior presidential speechwriter and special assistant to the president. In addition to writing remarks for President Barack Obama on a wide range of domestic policy issues, David served as the lead joke writer for several White House Correspondents’ Dinner monologues.
Rabbi Bronwen Mullin: What Really Happens at Ne’ilah
Bronwen Mullin is a playwright and composer and the rabbi of Congregation B’nai Jacob of Jersey City. Her experiences at B’nai Jeshurun taught Bronwen what true kavanah means—she is honored to be giving back to this community and to bring those lessons soulfully and joyfully to her community in Jersey City.
From Sukkot
Rabbi Shai Held: Covenantal Joy
The Torah insistently connects the festival of Sukkot with the obligation to rejoice, and later Jewish tradition calls Sukkot z’man simhateinu (the time of our joy.) Why is Sukkot singled out among all other holidays as the time of happiness and delight? Understanding the joy associated with Sukkot helps us gain crucial insight into the nature and dynamics of God’s covenant with the Jewish people.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide for Sukkot
During this year that has been so challenging for so many of us, what have been your sources of joy? How could you connect more to joy in these early days of the new year? Explore these questions and more in the latest installment of Nizakher Venikatev, a series developed by Marshall T. Meyer Rabbinic Fellows alumnae Abi Weber and Margo Hughes-Robinson.
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell: A Practice of Persistence
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell is the director of Camp Ramah in Canada. Previously, he was a teacher of Jewish mindfulness and the program director of the Jewish mindfulness meditation teacher-training program of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. He was a recipient of the 2014 Covenant Foundation Pomegranate Prize.
Rabbi David Rosenn: Sukkot and the Completeness of Teshuvah
Rabbi David Rosenn serves as Executive Director of the Hebrew Free Loan Society, whose mission is to provide financial stability and opportunity for lower-income New Yorkers of all backgrounds. For more information about using ancient Jewish methods to drive twenty-first-century microfinance in New York City, visit www.hfls.org.
Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater: Sukkot and the Daily Fragility of Being Homeless
Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater is the Executive Director of Friends in Deed, a local, religious-based non-profit addressing homelessness and poverty in the greater Pasadena area. After 5 years in congregations on the east coast, he served 12 years as senior rabbi of Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, where he established himself as an activist and interfaith leader, forming and sustaining coalitions for justice, peace and dialogue.
From Hoshanah Rabbah, Shemini Atzeret, and Simhat Torah
Holding and Being Held: A Theology of Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret with Rabbi Aviva Richman
Shemini Atzeret is celebrated the day after Sukkot concludes. It is a strange holiday, without any concrete ritual—known by the rabbis as the holiday of lingering, like when the visit is over, but no one really wants to say goodbye. It is a liminal holiday—coming between the fullness of all the Holy Days of Tishrei at the beginning and the many ensuing months that feature no special days.
Nizakher Venikatev: A Reflective Guide to Hoshana Rabbah, Shemini Atzeret, Simhat Torah
Think back to what you were doing and feeling at the end of Yom Kippur. Did you feel a sense of relief? Of purity? Did you still have any lingering regrets or negative thoughts? Hoshana Rabbah reminds us that it is still not too late to work through our remaining problems. Is there an action you can take today that will continue the work you began during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? Explore these questions in our reflective guide for Hoshana Rabbah, Shemini Atzeret, and Simhat Torah.
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: The Silence After the Chant
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat has blogged as the Velveteen Rabbi since 2003. Author of several volumes of poetry and a founding builder at Bayit: Building Jewish, she serves Congregation Beth Israel in North Adams, MA.
Looking for God in a Time of Chaos: A Simhat Torah Seder and Haggadah
Looking for a way to enhance your at-home Simhat Torah celebration? We are pleased to share this resource created by members of the Clergy Cohort of the Hadar Jewish Wisdom Fellowship, including our own Rabbi Shuli Passow.
Simhat Torah Singing with Michael Harlow
Join BJ Music Educator Michael Harlow with a familiar tune to get in the spirit of Simhat Torah, the celebration of finishing the reading of the Torah for the Jewish year.
Endings & Beginnings: Explaining Simchat Torah with Parshat Bereshit
Check out this video resource from BimBam that uses animation and straightforward explanations to talk about the essence of Simhat Torah and envision it as seen through the eyes of the Torah’s first parashah, Bereshit.