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The Hidden Light of Hanukkah: A Journey in Poetry & Presence

December 16 @ 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm EST

|Recurring Event (See all)

An event every week that begins at 1:00 pm on Tuesday, repeating until December 16, 2025

$154
Lit menorahs with candles and oil cups glowing on a reflective surface, celebrating Hanukkah.
Tuesdays, December 2, 9 & 16, 2025
1-2:30 p.m.
$154
 
Welcome the warmth and light of Hanukkah with a unique program that weaves together mindfulness, poetry, and generative writing. Join instructors Elana Bell and Rabbi Dan Liben for a three-part series, presented in collaboration with the Institute of Jewish Spirituality.
 
The Hidden Light of Hanukkah: A Journey in Poetry & Presence is designed to be a balm for your spirit and an invitation to deepen your connection to the holiday. Through reflective meditation, soulful poetry, and writing practice, you’ll be guided to:
✨ Slow down and create sacred space in the midst of holiday busyness
✨ Listen inwardly for the sparks of hidden light that live within you
✨ Explore ancient and contemporary poetry as inspiration for your own creative voice
✨ Discover new ways to experience the miracle of resilience, hope, and gratitude in our broken world
 
Together, we’ll celebrate Hanukkah’s spiritual essence—not only remembering the miracles of the past, but also uncovering the light we carry forward today. Come prepared to write, reflect, and rekindle your own flame of joy and renewal.
 
 
 
 
a star of david created a series of green leaves
 
All sessions will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.
 
headshot of elana bellElana Bell is a poet, sound practitioner and creative guide. She facilitates artistic rituals and processes that support individuals and groups in accessing their authentic voice and alchemizing raw experience and emotion into artistic expression. Elana is the author of Mother Country (BOA Editions 2020), poems about fertility, motherhood, and mental illness. Elana’s debut collection of poetry, Eyes, Stones (LSU Press 2012), was selected by Fanny Howe as the winner of the 2011 Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets and brings her complex heritage as the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors to consider the difficult question of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In addition to leading her own embodied Creative Fire workshops, Elana teaches poetry to actors at the Juilliard School and sings with the Resistance Revival Chorus, a group of women activists and musicians committed to bringing joy and song to the resistance movement. She is also the founder of the Mother Artist Salon, a community dedicated to supporting mothers in their artistic practice. www.elanabell.com
 

Rabbi Dan Liben has grey hair and glasses. He smiles at the camera

Rabbi Dan Liben was ordained by JTS and is the Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Israel of Natick, MA. Dan began practicing Mindfulness Meditation at Elat Hayyim, where his teachers included Rabbis Sheila Weinberg and Jeff Roth, Sylvia Boorstein and Norman Fisher. That led him to the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS), where he completed the Rabbinic Leadership Program (R4) and the Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training program (Cohorts1 and 2). He taught Mindfulness Meditation for IJS Rabbinic Cohort 7, and served on IJS’s Board for six years. In 2017, Rabbi Liben completed Hebrew Union College’s Bekhol Levavkha, a two-year training program in Spiritual Direction. He is currently on the staff of Spiritual Directors offering Spiritual Direction to Rabbinical students at Hebrew College, Hebrew Union College, and the Jewish Theological Seminary.
 
 

Details

Date:
December 16
Time:
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
EST
Cost:
$154
Event Category:
Event Tags:
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Venue

Zoom

The Reconstructionist Network

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