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Do I believe that with God’s strength I can do all things? How powerful would that be?

Rabbi Shefa Gold discussed the work of sacred Jewish chant with Ritualwell executive editor, Rabbi Deborah Glanzberg-Krainin, Ph.D. Here are highlights of their conversation:

The

This year’s rare confluence of two annual celebrations, one religious and one secular, garnered much attention and sparked a huge burst of creative energy. For those of us “living in two civilizations” Thanksgivukkah was the perfect storm of a holiday. But now that the last of the pumpkin sufganiyot are gone, the sweet potato latkes with cranberry sauce have all been eaten, and the menurkeys have been put away, the post-holiday blues are starting to set in.  

Ritualwell’s executive editor, Deborah Glanzberg-Krainin, sat down to talk with rabbis Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, Ph.D., and Sue Levi Elwell, Ph.D., editors of the newly published anthology Chapters of the Heart: Jewish Women Sharing the Torah of our Lives. The following is an edited version of the conversation.   DG-K: Tell me about the genesis of this project.  

As a young rabbinical student, I was full of zeal for unearthing obscure Jewish texts and bringing them to bear on modern issues. No more would we invoke the same tired old

Hanukkah has always been about thanksgiving.  

Making sense of the world can be challenging when you are a teen, especially with the myriad of confusing and even disturbing messages from peers and the media about what it means to be female and male.

We were planting the seeds for future tikkun olam work.

When I think and talk about teshuvah, I usually focus on change. How can we take stock of our lives and improve the parts of ourselves that we wish to change? This year I was struck by a different aspect of teshuvah. I realized that teshuvah doesn’t need to be focused solely on changing who we are. Teshuvah can also be about learning to accept and forgive ourselves, and learning how to embrace our abilities, limitations, bodies, and relationships.