Hashivenu

By Reconstructing JudaismSociety & Culture Health & Fitness Mental Health Religion & Spirituality Judaism

Hashivenu episodes

February 03, 2020S3 Ep. 3: The Song of Community
We speak with Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann, Rabbi of the SAJ: Judaism That Stands For All. Our conversation explores the importance of placing joy and connection at the center of vibrant Jewish community, even (or especially) one deeply committed to social justice and activism. We also discuss the lessons learned from building a start-up congregation, and how they translate into her work at a 98-year-old flagship Reconstructionist synagogue.
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This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.
Special Guest: Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann.
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Links:
Kol Tzedek
SAJ – Judaism That Stands For All
Hashivenu Episode 15: Singing Together
History of SAJ
SAJ on Facebook
After a Hiatus, Jewish Life Returns to West Philly – The Forward
— This 2006 article from the Forward chronicles the beginnings of Kol Tzedek.
A Reconstructionist Shul Grows in West Philly - Jewish Exponent
— This 2018 article from the Jewish Exponent explores the vibrant growth of Kol Tzedek in the years since its founding.
29 min
January 09, 2020S3 Ep. 2: Living in Beloved Community
We speak with Rabbi Sara Luria, co-founder of Beloved, a home-based spiritual community in Brooklyn. Our conversation explores the power of putting love, nurturing and acceptance at the center of community life. We also explore what Beloved Brooklyn can teach the broader Jewish communal world, and reflect on new models of leadership opened up by forty years of women in the American rabbinate.
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This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.
Special Guest: Rabbi Sara Luria.
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Links:
Beloved Brooklyn
ImmerseNYC
Judaism Unbound Episode 115: Beloved - Sara Luria, Isaac Luria
A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life - Parker J. Palmer (Amazon link)
The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity, and Caring - Parker J. Palmer (Amazon link)
All About Love: New Visions - bell hooks (Amazon link)
30 min
December 10, 2019S3 Ep. 1: Finding Sustenance in Covenantal Community
Rabbi Sid Schwarz has devoted his career to the practice and study of building rich and engaging Jewish communities. In our conversation, we talk about the groundbreaking congregation he built, Adat Shalom, which continues to serve as a laboratory for innovation to this day. And we ask the question: as new platforms for Jewish life and community emerge in the 21st century, what values and practices make a community truly sustaining and meaningful?
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This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.
Special Guest: Rabbi Sid Schwarz, Ph.D..
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Links:
Rabbi Sid Schwarz | Rabbi, social entrepreneur, non-profit CEO, author
Clergy Leadership Incubator | Training Visionary Spiritual Leaders for the American Jewish Community
— The Clergy Leadership Incubator (CLI) is a two-year program to support and encourage rabbis serving congregations or other new models of spiritual community in the areas of innovative thinking, change management and institutional transformation.
Kenissa: Communities of Meaning Network
— Kenissa: Communities of Meaning Network connects individuals who are leading contemporary efforts to re-imagine Jewish life and community.
Congregation Beth Israel of Media
Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation |
About Pearlstone - Jewish Retreat Center & Outdoor Education Campus | Pearlstone
— Pearlstone Center's mission: to ignite Jewish passion while connecting guests with the land and Jewish values; our peaceful retreat center, sustainable farm, and dynamic programming enable and inspire vibrant Jewish life.
Congregation T'chiyah
— Reconstructing Jewish life in Metro Detroit
Detroit Jews for Justice
— Organizing Jewish community in Metro Detroit to participate in movements for racial and economic justice.
Justice in Detroit: Reconstructionists Lead the Way
— 2016 article from Reconstructionism Today on the relationship between Congregational T'chiyah and Detroit Jews for Justice
Ritualwell: Rituals and Prayers for Communal Life
30 min
December 09, 2019 Season 3 Intro: Resilience Through Community
In this upcoming season of Hashivenu, we’re going to talk to a lot of people who are thinking about and practicing how to create community. Many of them will be talking about synagogues, since that is a primary location of Jewish community, but this isn’t a pitch for synagogues. It’s a pitch for binding relationships, for mutual obligation, for connection, so we’ll also be talking to folks building communities in spaces other than synagogues. I hope you’ll listen with open hearts and will find insights and strategies to fill you up and nourish you on your own journeys.
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This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.
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7 min
November 07, 2019S2 Ep. 8: Halleluyah: Fueling Our Social Activism through Gratitude and Praise
What drives us toward justice? Often, we're driven by a sense of the world's brokenness that keeps us up at night. In our conversation with Rabbi Alex Weissman, we explore an alternative motivation: what gets us up in the morning? In a conversation based on his essay for Evolve, Halleluyah, and his other work around spirituality and activism, we discuss how deeply-felt experiences of gratitude and blessing can move us toward empathetic action.
See below for a link to a guided meditation led by Rabbi Weissman for the 2018 cohort of Reset: Spiritual Practice for Activists.
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This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.
Special Guest: Rabbi Alex Weissman.
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Links:
Evolve: Halleluyah
— Through practicing gratitude and recognizing the complexities of privilege, we are better suited to pursue the work of changing the world. (Essay by Alex Weissman)
Evolve: Jewish Approaches to Justice Work
Video from Reset: Meditation by Rabbi Alex Weissman
— Video of guided meditation along the themes of this episode, led by Rabbi Alex Weissman for the 2018 cohort of Reset: Spiritual Practice for Activists
Ritualwell: 10 Resources to Inspire Gratitude
Shlomo Wolbe - Wikipedia
25 min
September 20, 2019S2 Ep. 7: Discernment and Renewal at the High Holidays
The holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur call us to deeply individual reflection while embedded and connected with community, and to a humility that nevertheless acknowledges that our choices matter. We speak with Rabbi Barbara Penzner about the spiritual dynamics of the High Holiday days, and their power to help us find discernment, connection and renewal.
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This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.
Special Guest: Rabbi Barbara Penzner.
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Links:
"If Not Higher", by I. L. Peretz
Audio: "If Not Higher by I.L. Peretz" (Courtesy of Yiddish Book Center)
Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peshischa
— "Keep two pieces of paper in your pocket at all times. On one: “I am a speck of dust,” and on the other : “The world was created for me.”"
Tashlikh Reconstructed
— “We accept the responsibility for changing and for changing this world. That is what people need to stay in hope. And without hope, there is no energy for no creative new solutions,” says Rabbi Amy Bernstein in this moving video, Tashlikh Reconstructed. Produced by Kehillat Israel, A Reconstructionist Congregation in Pacific Palisades, Calif., the video explores the centuries-old Rosh Hashanah tradition of symbolically casting off sins into a body of water, illustrating how one community has reconstructed a ritual born in the Middle Ages for our anxious, post-modern times. Kehillat Israel also demonstrates how the phrase Reconstructing Judaism perfectly encapsulates the mission of Reconstructionist communities.
Ritualwell Resources: Month of Elul
— Each year as summer fades into fall, Jewish tradition invites us to turn inward. The month of Elul precedes the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We dedicate this time to preparing ourselves for the holidays so that we can experience them as fully as possible.
Ritualwell: Rosh Hashanah
— Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, is the first of the High Holy Days or Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe). It weds seriousness with celebration and begins the 10 days of repentance that culminate in Yom Kippur. The new year focuses our attention on themes of judgment, repentance, memory, and the divine presence in the world. At the same time, Rosh Hashanah invites us to celebrate birth and creation on many levels
Ritualwell: Yom Kippur
— Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, falls ten days after Rosh Hashanah. When the Temple stood in Jerusalem, the High Priest effected atonement for the entire people through an elaborate ritual. Today, in the absence of the Temple, each of us stands, alone, together, naked as it were, before God. Yom Kippur is the dramatic culmination of the entire season of teshuvah, repentance.
25 min
September 11, 2019S2 Ep. 6: Portraits of Resilience
Daniel Jackson is an MIT professor and award-winning photographer who edited an extraordinary collection: Portraits of Resilience pairs images and first-person accounts of MIT community members who have struggled with mental health issues. We dig deeply into Judaism's powerful psychological and spiritual resources for resilience, particularly for those grappling with the isolation and shame that can come with depression.
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This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.
Special Guest: Daniel Jackson.
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Links:
Portraits of Resilience
— At once a photo essay and a compendium of life stories, Portraits of Resilience brings us face to face with twenty-two extraordinary individuals, celebrating the wisdom they have gained on the front line of a contemporary battle. With astonishing honesty and openness, they describe their experiences of depression and anxiety; how they endured their darkest moments and ultimately found purpose and meaning in their struggles.
Portraits of Resilience (Amazon link)
Daniel Jackson Photography
Professor Daniel Jackson
Ritualwell: 10 Jewish Mental Health Resources
Need help with mental health?
30 min
August 02, 2019S2 Ep. 5: Raising Our Voices
Dr. Koach Frazier is an audiologist, an activist, a rabbinical student and a powerful musician. We speak about singing and drumming, and explore how music can support us, uplift us, and lead us to transformation personally and collectively.
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This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.
Special Guest: Koach Baruch Frazier.
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Links:
Ritualwell resources: 10 Songs to Lift Up the Soul
— Learn about the connection between music and activism from Dr. Koach Frazier in conversation with Rabbi Deborah Waxman at the podcast Hashivenu: Jewish Teachings on Resilience.
Video: "Cultivating Resilience Through the Practice of Lament"
Breathing in Pesach
Koach Frazier | Ferguson Voices
Who Raised You? Podcast
— Season 1, Episode 1 of this podcast featured Koach Frazier. "Join us for a kitchen table chat about remembering to breathe, the music of black church and Judaism, and revolutionary listening."
30 min
July 01, 2019S2 Ep. 4: The Spiritual Activist
Claudia Horwitz's life's work has focused on integrating spiritual practice with the work of social change. In this conversation, she shares the strains that social justice work can inflict on activists, and articulates the importance of deep inner work in anchoring and sustaining individuals and groups in their work of tikkun olam.
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This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.
Special Guest: Claudia Horwitz.
Support Hashivenu
Links:
18 Rituals for Social Activism from Ritualwell
— Rituals have sustained the Jewish people throughout history. Below are 18 rituals which address, inspire, and motivate social activism, as recommended by Ritualwell.
dont push the river | Resources for Transformation
— Claudia Horwitz's personal website
The Spiritual Activist: Practices to Transform Your Life, Your Work, and Your World (Amazon link)
Professor Jem Bendell on Deep Adaptation
31 min
June 11, 2019S2 Ep. 3: Changing the World from the Inside Out
This compelling conversation with Rabbi David Jaffe explores the essential relationship between the pursuit of justice and the spiritual growth that comes from self-knowledge. We discuss his personal experiences of moral and spiritual awakening, as well as the tension between experiencing the brokenness of the world and opening ourselves to the unity of all creation.
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This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.
Special Guest: Rabbi David Jaffe.
Support Hashivenu
Links:
Homepage of Rabbi David Jaffe
The Inside Out Wisdom and Action Project: Spiritual grounding tools for today's social justice leaders.
Ritualwell resources: 10 Poems, Prayers, and Songs to Lift up your Soul
Amazon link: Changing the World from the Inside Out: A Jewish Approach to Personal and Social Change
Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe - Wikipedia
Hitbodedut - Wikipedia
Hitbodedut resource: "What’s Left When You Let Go? Pouring Out Oneself in Those Lone Moments and Quiet Places" - The On Being Project
Hitbodedut resource from Ritualwell: "Walking With the King"
Hitbodedut resource from Ritualwell: "Prayer in Times Unknown"
Hitbodedut resource: "How to Pray" | Reconstructing Judaism
33 min

About Hashivenu

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Hashivenu is a podcast about Jewish teachings and practice around resilience. Cultivating resilience in challenging times, both individually and collectively, is an essential path to personal renewal.…