Ritualwell

Omer Counting for Purpose
2026-05-20 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom
Join us for seven weeks of prompts, practices, and a communal gathering with Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg that will ground you in your life’s purpose.

Over the seven weeks of the Counting of the Omer, we are invited to clarify and commit to the purpose that wakes us in the morning, guides us through the day, and brings a sense of meaning when we close our eyes at night. Anchoring ourselves in our why can give us strength, courage, and compassion as we share our gifts with the world and shape it in the ways we are called to.

As Viktor E. Frankl wrote in Man’s Search for Meaning, “Those who have a why to live can bear almost any how.” In challenging times, this wisdom reminds us that purpose can sustain us even when the path forward feels uncertain.

As we enter the Omer, we invite you to support Ritualwell’s annual campaign that helps sustain this work of creativity, connection, and Jewish meaning-making. Your gift is an invitation into a shared journey—one of reflection, learning, and discovering what is yours to offer.

During this challenging time, the Omer offers a space to reconnect with what matters most, be lifted by sacred middot (values), and notice, name, and be guided by your unique purpose. Supporters of the campaign are invited to join a special seven-week journey of reflection and creativity. Each week, participants will receive teachings, short videos, and writing prompts exploring the sacred qualities within us—love, strength, compassion, resilience, humility, connection, and presence—and asking a deeper question: What is mine to offer the world? Those who join the journey will also be invited to gather for a special culminating event.

Culminating Event with Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
1-2:00 p.m. EDT

When we gather for this closing event, we will honor the path we’ve walked and the moment we are living in. In a time when many feel overwhelmed or unsure how to respond to the challenges around us, this gathering lifts up a powerful truth: each of us carries a unique way of serving, creating, and bringing healing to our communities and our world.

We are honored to welcome Rabbi Ruttenberg, an award-winning author, teacher, and activist whose work explores the intersection of Jewish wisdom, accountability, justice, and spiritual purpose. Drawing from the themes of her National Jewish Book Award–winning book On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World, she will offer insight, inspiration, and grounding for the sacred work of living our values in complicated times.

Together, we will reflect on the spiritual growth of the Omer journey and explore how our individual gifts, voices, and actions can help shape a more just and compassionate world.

Come to be nourished by community, guided by wisdom, and reminded that your presence—and your purpose—matter.

This session will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg is an award-winning author of eight books who now makes her primary writing home with the newsletter/magazine LifeIsASacredText.com. She has received the Lives of Commitment Award from Auburn Seminary, and the Rabbinic Human Rights Hero Award from the human rights organization T’ruah, was named by Newsweek as a “rabbi to watch,” and as a “faith leader to watch” by the Center for American Progress, and has been a Sunday Washington Post crossword clue (83 Down). Her most recent book, On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World is a National Jewish Book Award winner and an American Library Association’s Sophie Brody Honor Book. It was hailed by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley as “A must read for anyone navigating the work of justice and healing.”
She has written for a number of publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and been featured on NPR, the Today Show, USA Today, MTV News, and elsewhere. Her activism has taken her from the jail cell to the White House and back again, and has included advising lawmakers; organizing 2,500 rabbis in the fight for reproductive freedom through the fall of Roe; and mobilizing Jewish communities around economic justice and abuse accountability. Her North Star is the belief that we have a moral and religious obligation to care for one another, and to fight for a more just world.

Tree of Life: A Mind‑Body‑Spirit Practice
2026-06-02 12:00 - 13:30
Tuesday, June 2, 2026
12-1:30 p.m. EST
$18

As we move through the luminous days following Shavuot and step toward the fullness of summer, join us for a unique exploration of ritual, awareness, movement, and light.
Rabbi Tsurah August, a teacher rooted in somatic practice, mindfulness, and Jewish mystical tradition, invites us into Embodying the Light — a session to awaken our bodies, our hearts, and our spiritual vision.
In this gathering we will:

Set a mindful tone for the season, grounding our awareness and centering in presence.
Use gentle movement, breath, and guided reflection to awaken our capacity to sense light within and around us.
Explore how revelation continues in the body — how we receive, carry, and radiate the light of insight, wisdom, and connection.
Offer prompts and moments for creative embodiment — through movement, drawing, journaling, or simply listening and witnessing.

Shavuot invites us into revelation; summer invites us into expansion. Together, we’ll explore what it means to embody what we’ve received — to let wisdom take root in muscle and breath, and to carry it forward into our lives.
Whether you’re familiar with mindfulness or new to embodied ritual, this practice is open and inclusive. Come as you are — with openness, curiosity, and your own unique presence. Bring a journal or sketch pad if you wish, wear comfortable clothing, and prepare to move, breathe, reflect, and kindle the light that is already within you.
We look forward to gathering with you — to awaken together, and to carry that light into our lives, our relationships, and our world.

This session will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Before becoming a rabbi and chaplain, Tsurah was a professional dancer, choreographer and movement educator for people with a broad range of movement and cognitive abilities. Dance is still her beloved form of prayer.
