The recent shooting attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh has been deeply traumatic. In its aftermath, Rabbi Deborah Waxman shares a personal Jewish practice that sustains her in difficult times, in the hopes that it might help cultivate resilience among our listeners.

Also, in this episode you'll learn how to tune in for a special episode of Hashivenu that will be streamed live during our upcoming convention.

This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.

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Links:

• Ritualwell: 10 Resources to Inspire Gratitude — Learn more about the importance of gratitude as a source of resilience.
• Flavors of Gratefulness | Rabbi Shefa Gold — Each day I wake up with an intention that when I open my eyes I will see and recognize God’s Face in the details of the day I am about to encounter. I have many different melodies for the chant. I make up a new one almost every day that expresses my particular mood, inspiration, anticipation, attitude or flavor of my gratefulness.

What's the connection between marathon training and prayer? Can CrossFit shed light on building meaningful communities? We speak with Rabbi Jason Bonder about the intersection between fitness and spirituality.

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This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.

Special Guest: Rabbi Jason Bonder.

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Links:

• Ritualwell: 10 Embodied Rituals
• When Some Turn to Church, Others Go to CrossFit - The New York Times
• Chrissie Wellington – Head chopping: the importance of R&R
• The Mensch on the Bench and the Future of Judaism | Jason Bonder | The Blogs
• Casper ter Kuile
• Angie Thurston | The On Being Project
• Care of Souls
• How We Gather
• Faithful

The holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur drive us to make sense of what's truly important, and sustain us as we strive to recapture those ideals. In this conversation recorded days before Rosh Hashanah, Rabbi David Teutsch and Rabbi Deborah Waxman share the meaning they find in deep themes of the High Holiday season, and reflect on their own evolving relationship with those ideas.

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This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.

Special Guest: Rabbi David Teutsch.

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Links:

• 10 Rituals to Assist with Making Teshuvah
• Teshuvah: A Reconstructionist Perspective | Reconstructing Judaism — A study sheet on the evolving concept of teshuvah over the ages
• Mahzor Leyamim Nora'im - Reconstructionist Press Bookstore — Prayerbook for the Days of Awe
• Teshuvah and Compassion | Reconstructing Judaism — This study sheet on teshuvah and compassion draws our attention to the interplay between our ability to forgive others, and God's ability to forgive us.

Multifaith dialogue has the power not just to build bridges of understanding, but to foster personal spiritual growth and transformation. We speak with Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer and Professor Sa'ed Atshan, a Palestinian Quaker Christian, about their experiences in multifaith work.

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This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.

Special Guests: Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer and Sa'ed Atshan.

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Links:

• 10 Jewish Interfaith Prayers & Rituals — Ritualwell resources on interfaith encounters
• Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, Ph.D. | Reconstructing Judaism
• Dr. Sa’ed Atshan takes up tenure track position in Swarthmore’s Peace and Conflict Studies program | Peace and Conflict Studies at Swarthmore College

Singing together can be a profound and powerful experience. We speak with Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, an ethnomusicologist and a research professor at the music department at Tufts, about the role that music plays both in animating Jewish life and in helping us to cultivate resilience.

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This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.

Special Guest: Rabbi Jeffrey Summit.

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Links:

• Ritualwell: 10 Contemporary Jewish Songs
• Rabbi Jeffrey Summit | Tufts Music
• Jeffrey A. Summit
• The inspiration for "Delicious Peace: Coffee, Music & Interfaith Harmony in Uganda" - YouTube
• Delicious Peace: Coffee, Music & Interfaith Harmony in Uganda - Smithsonian Folkways
• Jeffrey A. Summit
• Singing God's Words: The Performance of Biblical Chant in Contemporary Judaism (American Musicspheres): Jeffrey Summit: 9780190497088: Amazon.com: Books
• Abayudaya: The Jews of Uganda: Richard Sobol, Jeffrey A. Summit: 9780789207760: Amazon.com: Books
• The Lord's Song in a Strange Land: Music and Identity in Contemporary Jewish Worship Book and CD (American Musicspheres): Jeffrey A. Summit: 9780195116779: Amazon.com: Books
• One More Time - Rev. James Moore & the Mississippi Mass Choir - YouTube
• לכה דודי - ליאו לבנדובסקי Lecha Dodi - L. Lewandowski - YouTube
• Author Talk with Rabbi Jeffrey A Summit - YouTube — Delicious Peace: Coffee, Music and

The holiday of Shavuot is approaching. This year (2018) on the secular calendar it begins on Saturday evening, May 19. On Shavuot, we celebrate receiving the Torah, the foundational text of the Jewish people. "Torah" has multiple meanings in Jewish tradition. Most folks know it as the Five Books of Moses. But “Torah” in a broader sense is much more. It’s the collection of each and every generation’s engagement with sacred text and with our efforts to live lives of holiness and connection — to each other and to the divine.

In that expansive spirit, we are bringing you a two-part podcast series leading up to Shavuot. In this episode, Rabbi Mira Wasserman and I discuss Midrash, the way ancient rabbis read scripture in new and creative ways, giving old words new life, meaning and relevance.

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This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.

Special Guest: Rabbi Mira Wasserman.

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Links:

• Ritualwell: 5 Creative Resources for Torah Study
• About our name and theme song: Hashivenu
• Lamentations 5:21 — הֲשִׁיבֵ֨נוּ הי אֵלֶ֙יךָ֙ ונשוב [וְֽנָשׁ֔וּבָה] חַדֵּ֥שׁ יָמֵ֖ינוּ כְּקֶֽדֶם׃
• Midrash Eichah Rabbah
• Jews, Gentiles, and Other Animals: the Talmud after the humanities — In Jews, Gentiles, and Other Animals, Mira Beth Wasserman undertakes a close reading of Avoda Zara, arguably the Talmud's most scandalous tractate, to uncover the hidden architecture of this classic work of Jewish religious thought. She proposes a new way of reading the Talmud that brings it into conversation with the humanities, including animal studies, the new materialisms, and other areas of critical theory that have been reshaping the understanding of what it is to be a human being.
• New Books Network podcast: Mira Beth Wasserman, “Jews, Gentiles, and Other Animals: The Talmud After the Humanities”

The holiday of Shavuot is approaching. This year on the secular calendar it begins on Saturday evening, May 19. On Shavuot, we celebrate receiving the Torah, the foundational text of the Jewish people. "Torah" has multiple meanings in Jewish tradition. Most folks know it as the Five Books of Moses. But “Torah” in a broader sense is much more. It’s the collection of each and every generation’s engagement with sacred text and with our efforts to live lives of holiness and connection—to each other and to the divine.

In that expansive spirit, we are bringing you a two-part podcast series leading up to Shavuot. In this episode, I speak with Rabbi Jeremy Schwartz about modern Hebrew poetry, a recent expression of Jewish text. We talk about how modern Hebrew poets take apart traditional language and ideas and create something new from ancient building blocks.

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This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.

Special Guest: Rabbi Jeremy Schwartz.

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Links:

• Ritualwell: 5 Resources to Inspire Your Writing
• Soul and Gone: Hebrew Poetry
• Poetry International
• "The Jews" by Yehuda Amichai (PDF)
• Tourists - Yehuda Amichai
• Our eyes are open but we cannot see the unbelievable - Books - Haaretz.com
• Amazon.com: Open Closed Open: Poems : Yehuda Amichai
• The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse (Penguin Classics): Various, T. Carmi: 9780140424676: Amazon.com: Books
• From Jerusalem to the Edge of Heaven: Dr. Ari Elon
• Amazon.com: The Book of Words: Talking Spiritual Life, Living Spiritual Talk (Kushner) (9781580230209): Rabbi Lawrence Kushner: Books
• Shabbat Celebration and Services - Temple Bnai Israel

For Rabbi Jonathan Kligler, prayer is a whole-body experience, helping us reboot our awareness of how good it is to be alive, even -- or especially -- in a troubled world. Join us for his deep conversation with Rabbi Deborah Waxman on this episode of Hashivenu.

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This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.

Special Guest: Rabbi Jonathan Kligler.

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Links:

• 10 Embodied Rituals — Below are 10 embodied rituals recommended by Ritualwell. 
• Selection of Morning Blessings from Kol Haneshamah — The Morning Blessings are discussed extensively in this episode. This excerpt from the Reconstructionist prayerbook Kol Haneshamah includes Hebrew, English, transliteration, and commentary on these blessings.
• Reconstructionist Press - Kol Haneshamah: Shabbat Vehagim
• Rabbi Jonathan Kligler's homepage
• Woodstock Jewish Congregation
• Recordings - Rabbi Jonathan Kligler
• Hineni: Essays and Torah Commentaries from Twenty-Five Years on the Bimah: Rabbi Jonathan Kligler

In this special extended episode for Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), we hear from Rabbi Phillip Lazowski, who survived the Holocaust as a child. He shares experiences that shaped his vision and sense of purpose: amidst horror and loss, episodes of hope and humanity.

Thanks so much for listening to Hashivenu. I want to let you know that this episode is slightly different from most of our episodes. It’s a conversation with my childhood rabbi, Rabbi Phillip Lazowski, a really wonderful man. Rabbi Lazowski is a Holocaust survivor and this episode is to commemorate Yom Hasho’ah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. His story truly embodies resilience, and it’s a very hard story, full of loss and horror. So first, a warning that some of what he talks about is not appropriate for young children.

We made a decision here at Reconstructing Judaism not to cut his story short, so while most episodes of Hashivenu are about 25 minutes long, this is longer, about 43 minutes. This won’t be our habit, but we thought it appropriate for this episode.

I wanted to give you the heads up to listen especially for Mrs. Rabinowitz, the nurse who plays an incredibly important role in Rabbi Lazowski’s survival. She first appears around 7 minutes into the interview, but you’ll hear about her two more times, and it’s an amazing story. Rabbi Lazowski, Mrs. Rabinowitz and everyone he talks about demonstrate that we can, even in the most extreme circumstances, choose to act in ways that affirm life and connection and love. May this remembrance teach us.

Below: Rabbi Phillip Lazowski blessing (now rabbi) Deborah Waxman as she became bat mitzvah on November 17, 1979.

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Special Guest: Rabbi Phillip Lazowski.

Support Hashivenu

Links:

• Reconstructing Judaism
• 5 Rituals and Prayers for Yom HaShoah from Ritualwell
• Profile of Rabbi Lazowski - Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford
• Rabbi Emeritus Phillip Lazowski (Beth Hillel Synagogue)
• Rabbi Philip Lazowski Says Sharing His Painful Holocaust Experiences Has Been Therapeutic; Also An Obligation, So The World Won't Forget - Hartford Courant
• Conversation with Rabbi Philip Lazowski - Jewish Ledger
• Amazon.com: Philip Lazowski: Books
• Rabbi Philip Lazowski blessing (now rabbi) Deborah Waxman as she became bat mitzvah on November 17, 1979.

On Passover, we retell our history as strangers and slaves in Egypt. What obligations flow from this memory? We speak with Rabbi Elliott Tepperman, whose congregation recently made a decision to serve as a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants. Join us as we discuss the Jewish values that moved his community to action.

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Special Guest: Rabbi Elliott Tepperman.

Support Hashivenu

Links:

• 10 Social Justice Haggadot and Supplements — We have gathered ten haggadot and supplements that focus on social justice themes. The haggadot and supplements below explore confrontation, hope, resilience, and finally, the potential for social and political transformation.       
• Bnai Keshet
• Synagogues Show Solidarity With Detained Immigrants on Holy Day - WNYC News - WNYC
• Prepare me to be a Sanctuary: Rosh Hashanah Day 1
• Mikdash: The Jewish Sanctuary Movement | T'ruah — T’ruah works as part of an interfaith network to mobilize synagogues and other communities to protect those facing deportation or other immigration challenges. By becoming “mikdash” or sanctuary synagogues, communities pledge to take concrete actions, which may include legal support, housing, financial help, and other assistance for the sojourners in our midst.
• Brightness Of Noon — Rabbi Tepperman appears in this documentary.