Ritualwell

Writing with Rebbe Nachman: Creating our own Spiritual Stories
2025-02-17 13:00 - 14:30, 2025-02-24 13:00 - 14:30, 2025-03-03 13:00 - 14:30, 2025-03-10 13:00 - 14:30, 2025-03-17 13:00 - 14:30, 2025-03-24 13:00 - 14:30 (America/New_York) | Zoom
Mondays, February 17, 24 & March 3, 10, 17 and 24, 2025
1:00-2:30 p.m. EST
$250

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772 – 1810) is an enigmatic figure whose life and teaching still exert enormous influence across the Jewish world. The stories of Rebbe Nachman draw upon deep, archetypal themes in our consciousness. These stories often read like fantastical children’s tales, or Kafka-esque puzzles, posing us questions intended to provoke awakening. They are based upon Rebbe Nachman’s profound grasp of Torah and Kabbalah, and have also been read in the light of broader creative and intellectual movements such as Romanticism and Existentialism. Rebbe Nachman himself said that the stories were his deepest, most powerful teachings.

Join Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein to learn about and discuss some of Rebbe Nachman’s key stories, discovering the meaning that they hold for us today. Then, building on this inspiration, we will take time to create our own stories, or at least begin them. There will also be time for optional sharing and feedback, so we can benefit from one another’s wisdom and perspective on what we have created.

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

Daniel Raphael Silverstein is a rabbi, educator, meditation teacher and MC/poet. He lives in Israel with his family, where he directs Applied Jewish Spirituality, an online portal which makes the transformative spiritual wisdom of our tradition accessible to all who seek it. Daniel is an accredited teacher of Jewish Mindfulness Meditation and regularly teaches classes and retreats. He was born and raised in London and received a BA from the University of Cambridge and an MA from Warwick University. After receiving semikha from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School, he served as Director of Jewish Life and Learning for Hillel of Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA. Daniel has performed and facilitated all over the world as a spoken word artist, MC, and creative educator, and the Jewish Week selected him as one of their “36 Under 36” young innovators reshaping the Jewish community. Daniel is a cofounder of Lines of Faith, a Muslim-Jewish hip hop and poetry collective that uses performances and workshops to challenge prejudice and build meaningful bonds between communities.

Honoring Loved Ones in Writing & Art
2025-03-04 12:00 - 13:30, 2025-03-11 12:00 - 13:30, 2025-03-18 12:00 - 13:30, 2025-03-25 12:00 - 13:30
Tuesdays, March 4, 11, 18 & 25, 2025
12:00-1:30 p.m.
$180

Now more than ever, we need the guidance of our ancestors, and creative expression provides a wonderful path for connection.

In Jewish tradition, there are many ways to honor both the living and those who have departed. Delve into, celebrate, and awaken the spirits of the teachers, mentors, friends, and loved ones who have impacted your life through the written and visual arts.

Join poet and painter Cathleen Cohen along with Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer from Ritualwell, an essayist and memoirist for a series of creative exercises and prompts designed to help you express your love and gratitude for those who have profoundly shaped your journey and to summon their wisdom into your own life.

Whether you are new to creative expression or a seasoned writer or artist, this workshop offers an opportunity to discover fresh creative techniques and pathways to enhance the strongest bonds in your life.

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

Cathleen Cohen was the 2019 Poet Laureate of Montgomery County, PA. A painter and teacher, she founded the We the Poets program at ArtWell, an arts education non-profit in Philadelphia. Her poems appear in journals such as Apiary, Baltimore Review, Cagibi, East Coast Ink, 6ix, North of Oxford, One Art, Passager, Philadelphia Stories, Rockvale Review and Rogue Agent. Camera Obscura (chapbook, Moonstone Press), appeared in 2017 and Etching the Ghost (Atmosphere Press) in 2021. She received the Interfaith Relations Award from the Montgomery County PA Human Rights Commission and the Public Service Award from National Association of Poetry Therapy. Her paintings are on view at Cerulean Arts Gallery (ceruleanarts.com).

Gabrielle Ariella Kaplan-Mayer is Ritualwell’s Director of Virtual Content and Programs. She is an author and educator whose work focuses on spirituality, creativity and disability. Her personal essays have been featured in Tablet, Shondaland, NBCThink, Wisdom Daily, WHYY and many other publications and she has published several nonfiction books as well as plays for children. Gabrielle is currently working on a memoir about the power of intuition and ongoing conversations with her ancestors. She writes a Substack newsletter called “Journey With The Seasons,” a weekly practice of meditative reading with creative self-expression prompts.
Gabrielle holds a BFA in theater and creative writing from Emerson College and an MA in Jewish Studies from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.

Humanizing Mitzvot Through Poetry
2025-03-06 12:00 - 14:00, 2025-03-13 12:00 - 14:00, 2025-03-20 12:00 - 14:00, 2025-03-27 12:00 - 14:00
Thursdays March 6, 13, 20 & 27, 12-1:30 PM ET
12-2 p.m. EST
$180

Join poet Rachel Neve-Midbar to explore three mitzvot–candlelighting, challah and mikveh–through the poetry of the body and everyday life.
In this this generative poetry workshop, we’ll deepen our understanding and emotional connections to traditional forms, freshened through a contemporary lens. We will address questions surrounding these mitzvot (traditionally considered “women’s” mitzvot), such as: Were they genuinely meant to be exclusive to women? How can we interpret them in the context of contemporary gender fluidity and feminist viewpoints?
Discover poetry to expand your understanding of these mitzvot and and craft your own poems inspired by newfound insights and interpretations of these rituals. All are welcome, no previous experience with these mitzvot or poetry writing is needed.

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

Poet, essayist, translator and Fulbright Scholar, Rachel Neve-Midbar’s collection Salaam of Birds was chosen by Dorothy Barresi for the Patricia Bibby First Book Prize and was published by Tebot Bach in January 2020. She is also the author of the chapbook, What the Light Reveals (Tebot Bach, 2014, winner of The Clockwork Prize). Rachel’s work has appeared widely in various publications and anthologies. Her awards include the Crab Orchard Review Richard Peterson Prize, The Passager Prize, and nominations for The Pushcart Prize. Rachel is a newly-minted PhD from The University of Southern California, where her research concerned menstruation in contemporary poetry. She is currently a Fulbright Post Doc in Israel translating the poems of Holocaust poet Abba Kovner. Rachel is also the co-editor of Stained: an anthology of creative writing about menstruation (Querencia Press, July 2023) and her scholarly work Thought and New Language in the Menstrual Poem is due out from Palgrave MacMillan in 2026.

Bringing Your Purim Story To Life
2025-03-12 12:00 - 13:30
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
12-1:30 p.m. EDT
$18

Purim is a tale of resilience, standing up and speaking out. Now more than ever, we need YOUR story!

Join Cantor and performing artist Karen Webber for a creative journey drawing inspiration from fairy tales, folk tales and the Purim story to craft your own narrative about finding courage, speaking your truth and fighting for justice. Whether you share your story for the holiday or another occasion, Purim is the perfect opportunity to embrace your role as a storyteller.

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

Karen Webber is a performance, teaching and liturgical artist who crafts music/theatre pieces for use in Zoom rooms, senior centers and on the bimah. Ordained as a cantor by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1990. Karen has served congregations large and small in all four corners of the U.S. and Canada. The Maryland State Arts Council awarded her a Creativity grant based on an original short film in 2022, and a Master/Apprentice grant in Yiddish folksong in 2023. In 2024, Karen was invited by the Maryland State Arts Council to join the Folk Arts panel to award grants, to be a regional judge for ‘Poetry Out Loud’ Her poems appear online and in print at Ritualwell, Poetica, Unlikely Places, Abandon Journal and The Torrid Literature Journal. Her Havdalah ritual was published in Lilith Magazine (2009) poems in Am Yisrael Chai (2023) and essays in Prophetic Voices: a Haftarah commentary published by CCAR Press (2023)

Discover Your Torah: Preparing for Shavuot with Meditation and Poetry
2025-05-07 13:00 - 2025-05-21 14:30
Wednesdays, May 7, 14 & 21, 2025
1:00-2:30 p.m. EDT
$150 for three sessions

Seven weeks after we celebrate Passover, the holiday of Shavuot arrives to mark the giving of the Torah. Torah, which includes the Five Books of Moses and other sacred texts, can also refer to the wisdom and insights gleaned from your own lived experiences.

In preparation for Shavuot, join us for a three-part series engaging in mindfulness meditation, poetry, and generative writing practices to explore themes related to Shavuot. This special collaboration between the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and Ritualwell brings you two expert instructors, Rabbi Dan Liben and poet and sound artist Elana Bell, as your guides. As we count the Omer and mark the weeks leading to Shavuot, find inspiration within community while creating your own meaningful kavannot (intentions) for receiving wisdom.

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

Elana 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 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.

Mussar for This Moment
2025-05-13 12:00 - 13:30, 2025-05-20 12:00 - 13:30, 2025-05-27 12:00 - 13:30, 2025-06-03 12:00 - 13:30, 2025-06-10 12:00 - 13:30
Tuesdays, May 13, 20, 27 and June 10, 2025
12-1:30 p.m. EDT
$180

The first two questions the Torah asks are, “Where are you?” and a few chapters later, “Where is your brother?” As if one can’t answer the first question without also answering the second question; as if they are in fact the same question. Mussar is the tradition within Judaism that asks, how did these two questions become separated?

In periods of uncertainty, Mussar can be a practice that helps us see more clearly and not merge with our sense of despair. Join Rabbi Joshua Boettiger for a four session immersion where we will explore this ancient lineage tradition – studying middot (precepts) and practices from the Mussar masters. In each session, we will also read and compose poetry related to Mussar themes – poetry of proximity, relationality, perplexity, responsibility. No previous experience of Mussar or poetry is required–this immersion is inclusive of everyone’s background and lived experiences.

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

Rabbi Joshua Boettiger is Jewish Chaplain and Visiting Assistant Professor of Humanities at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. He is the current Rosh Yeshiva for the Center for Contemporary Mussar and for the last decade, directed the Mussar program at Temple Emek Shalom in Ashland, Oregon. Joshua also teaches Jewish Meditation and co-leads silent retreats. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Pacific University and his poetry has appeared in the Missouri Review, the Southern Review, B O D Y, and elsewhere.

Being with Grief: Jewish Wisdom for Supporting Mourners
2025-05-29 12:00 - 13:30, 2025-06-05 12:00 - 13:30, 2025-06-12 12:00 - 13:30
Thursdays, May 29 and June 5 & 12, 2025
12:00-1:30 p.m. EDT
$154

This intimate learning journey draws on Jewish wisdom and contemporary insights to explore how we can better support those experiencing the loss of loved ones. We’ll examine how grief tests the limits of language, explore models for understanding loss, and study Jewish practices that create meaningful containers for grief. Discover pathways to deeper connection—whether supporting mourners, processing personal losses, or seeking wisdom for life’s challenging transitions through text study, reflection, and experiential exercises.

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

Chloe Zelkha is the incoming rabbi at Congregation Eitz Chayim in Cambridge, MA. Drawn to grief work after the sudden loss of her father in 2017, Chloe trained as a chaplain in a residency at UCSF Mission Bay Hospital, offering spiritual care to patients and their families. Supported by a fellowship with Atra: Center for Rabbinic Innovation, Chloe has run annual residential grief retreats for young people who have lost parents, siblings, partners, and dear friends for many years. She was the co-founder of the Covid Grief Network (now part of Reimagine), a mutual aid network that offered free support to those grieving family to COVID-19. Chloe is also the author of Being with Grief, a creative workbook for loss, and maintains a private practice for those facing terminal illness as a death doula. She holds a B.A. in Religion from Carleton College and an M.A. in Education from Harvard University, and completes her rabbinic studies at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College as a Wexner Graduate Fellow this May.

Writing Jewish, Writing Funny
2025-07-08 12:00 - 13:30, 2025-07-15 12:00 - 13:30
Tuesdays, July 8, 15, 22 & 29, 2025
12-1:30 p.m. EDT
$180

Join us for an engaging adventure with Emmy-winning TV writer and LMU film school professor Rob Kutner as we delve into how Jews have utilized humor to navigate their challenging history. Together, we will explore various “tricks of the trade” to spread joy to ourselves and others during these tough times.
Kutner will share examples of how humor has played a crucial role in overcoming adversity throughout history, showcasing how these techniques can be applied to contemporary challenges.
Over the course of four sessions, participants will have the opportunity to:

Pitch their creative ideas
Engage in comedic writing exercises
Receive constructive feedback from both the instructor and fellow participants
Participate in guided revision sessions

No prior writing or comedy experience is necessary; this enjoyable and interactive experience is crafted for everyone!
All sessions will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.

Rob Kutner has won 5 Emmys, a Peabody, a TCA, and a Grammy writing for such shows as TBS’ “CONAN” and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and HBO’s “Dennis Miller Live.” He has published humor pieces for the New York Times, Esquire, Huffington Post, McSweeney’s, and the Weekly Forward. He is also the author of the sci-fi humor books Apocalypse How: Turn the End Times into the Best of Times! , The Future According to Me, the kids’ graphic novel Snot Goblins & Other Tasteless Tales, and the new comedic Jewish history book, The Jews: 5,000 Years and Counting.

Finding Shekhinah
2025-07-09 12:00 - 13:30, 2025-07-16 12:00 - 13:30
Wednesdays, July 9, 16, 23 & 30, 2025
12-1:30 p.m. EDT
$180

What and where is the Shekhinah, the divine presence, how can we find Her in our world and our lives, hear Her voice, feel Her within and around us?

Each of our four meetings will explore these questions by considering one of the Shekhinah’s many incarnations in Jewish tradition through text study, discussion, and creative exercises (sharing will be optional) intended to help us examine our ideas about and experiences of divinity, and imaginatively trying out different relations to divine presence.

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

Joy Ladin has published ten books of poetry, including her new collection, Shekhinah Speaks (Selva Oscura Press); The Book of Anna, winner of the National Jewish Book Award; and Transmigration, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. She is also the author of a memoir of gender transition, Through the Door of Life, which was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, and The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards and the Triangle Award. Ladin has received fellowships and scholarships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies Research, among other honors. A nationally recognized speaker on transgender issues, she convenes an online conversation series, “Containing Multitudes,” which is available at JewishLive.org/multitudes. Her writing is available at joyladin.com.

Deep Body Poetry
2025-07-10 12:00 - 13:30, 2025-07-17 12:00 - 13:30
Thursdays, July 10, 17, 24 & 31, 2025
12-1:30 p.m. EDT
$180

If the body was given ultimate agency what would it say? What stories would it tell?

Poetry universalizes the human experience, the experience of having a body—a body that holds our psychic experience even more deeply and better than our minds do. Mining the poetry of the body happens through the bravery of those who have written these poems. Deep body poetry is the poetry of the disabled body, the queer & trans body and the menstruating body. It’s the poetry where no metaphor, simile or nuance stands between the reader and the subject; where the body is open and ready to speak. Join us as we read the lyric emotional truths of other poets, allowing our minds and hearts to awaken to begin to ask our body to reveal its secrets, and from there to generate creative expression,

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

Rachel Neve-Midbar is a poet and essayist. Her first full-length poetry collection, Salaam of Birds, was chosen by Dorothy Barresi for the Patricia Bibby First Book Prize and was published by Tebot Bach in January 2020. She is also the author of the 2014 chapbook, What the Light Reveals. Her work has appeared in many journals and anthologies. A current Ph.D. candidate at the University of Southern California, Rachel is also editor of Stained: An Anthology of Writing about Menstruation for the AuntFlo2020 Project. More at rachelnevemidbar.com.
