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We welcome your submissions for a virtual “assembly” of voices that weave in Jewish teachings, rituals, and prayers in response to climate change

"Elul calls us to be deep sea divers into our souls." Jewels of Elul is a project created by Craig Taubman that offers 29 inspirational insights for the month of Elul. The following blog post by Rabbi David Wolpe, first published at the Jewels of Elul website, introduces the Jewels of 2015 on their 10-year anniversary. Mazel Tov!

Grief begins to feel like the humidity of northeast summer: a ubiquitous discomfort that we’ve come to accept as normal. 

I continued to wonder how a Jew-by-choice goes about honoring a dead loved one in a way that doesn’t offend non-Jewish relatives and honors my adopted Jewish traditions.

Four months ago I was about to get ready for bed when my cellphone rang. I ignored it because it was from an unknown caller. When I ignored it a second time, the caller left a voicemail. It was my stepmother's friend, whom I had never met, calling from a hospital in Texas.

This past Friday afternoon, we hosted the third in our series of #ReimagineRitual Twitter chats, this one on #ReimagineLoss. We discussed ways to remagine Jewish mourning rituals, touching on subjects such as how ritual provides structure for our grief, making sense of the phrase "Baruch Dayan Ha-emet," and grieving practices in Jewish interfaith families. We appreciate the many voices represented in this chat. The aim of these chats is to be the first step in ongoing conversations.

While I have always found Jewish mourning rituals to be meaningful, providing a structure through which to process one of life’s most difficult moments, I have also noticed over the years a few areas in which these rituals could be augmented to mark significant moments for the mourning family and the community that supports them. As someone who is deeply involved in organizations that specifically address Jewish mourning practices, I am particularly interested in seeing creative additions to the repertoire of Jewish mourning rituals.

At the end of

Typically when we think of access in general and in Jewish community specifically, we first default to thinking about physical access—is the

This past Friday afternoon, while Twitter experienced a "glut" of tweets recognizing #NationalDonutDay, @Ritualwell had a slightly different agenda. We hosted the second in our series of #ReimagineRitual Twitter chats, this one on #ReimagineDisability. Following a successful first chat on #ReimagineBnaiMitzvah, this chat started a conversation on ways in which the Jewish community can become more inclusive of folks with disabilities.