Ritualwell

A Special Omer Gathering: Finding Purpose in Challenging Times
2026-05-20 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom
Join Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg for a powerful live conversation on living with purpose, integrity, and resilience.
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
1-2:00 p.m. EDT

Join Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg—an activist, author, and spiritual leader known for her work on justice, accountability, and Jewish ethics—for a powerful live conversation on living with purpose, integrity, and resilience.
Rabbi Danya brings a rare ability to weave Jewish wisdom with the urgent questions of our time, offering guidance that is both deeply grounded and immediately relevant. Her teaching helps us navigate complexity with clarity and compassion—especially when the path forward feels uncertain.
As we move through the Omer and approach its culmination, this gathering offers a space to pause, reflect, and reconnect with what matters most. Together, we’ll explore how we continue to show up with intention in a world that asks so much of us.
Come ready to listen, reflect, and leave feeling renewed in your sense of purpose.

Deepen Your Omer Journey
This gathering is part of Omer Counting for Purpose—a seven-week journey of reflection and creativity rooted in the sacred qualities of the Omer.
When you join, you’ll receive weekly teachings, short videos, and writing prompts to help you explore your purpose through qualities like love, strength, resilience, and connection.
What You’ll Receive

Weekly email teachings + short videos
Reflective writing prompts and practices
A guided journey through the seven sacred qualities of the Omer
Access to our culminating live event with Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg

When you join Omer Counting for Purpose, you’re not only stepping into a meaningful personal journey—you’re also supporting Ritualwell’s work of creativity, connection, and Jewish meaning-making.
Your gift helps keep these resources accessible and this community thriving.

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
2026-06-09 12:00 - 13:30
Tuesday, June 9, 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.

Sacred Words for a Fragile Democracy: A Jewish Creative Writing Lab
2026-06-16 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-06-23 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-06-30 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-07-07 12:00 - 13:30
Tuesdays, June 16, 23 & 30 and July 7, 2026
12-1:30 p.m.
$54

What does it mean to bring our full Jewish selves into this moment in American democracy?

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, many of us are reflecting on the promises, complexities, and unfinished work of this country. In this creative writing lab, we’ll explore how Jewish ritual, poetry, and prayer can help us respond—with honesty, imagination, and care.

Together, we’ll gather in a supportive, generative space to write original prayers and poems rooted in themes of justice, belonging, responsibility, and hope. Drawing on Jewish poetry and texts, personal and family histories, and our lived experiences, we’ll experiment with language that connects our inner lives to the wider world.

Our time together will culminate in an optional public reading and the opportunity to share your work as part of a broader collection on Ritualwell, amplifying Jewish voices in a time when they are deeply needed.

Come write, reflect, and imagine what is possible—together.
What to Expect:

A supportive, creative cohort space to explore writing Jewish ritual, poetry, and prayer
Guided prompts and inspiration from Jewish American poets, alongside Jewish texts and themes of democracy and justice
Time to write, reflect, and (optionally) share your work with others
Opportunities to connect personal and family stories to broader questions of civic belonging and responsibility
An optional public reading to share your work in community
The possibility of publication in a digital collection on Ritualwell, reaching a wide audience

This is a space for writers of all levels—whether you’re new to creative practice or have been writing for years. Bring your curiosity and a willingness to explore.
This initiative was made possible thanks to an ignition grant from A More Perfect Union as part of our participation in the Jewish Partnership for Democracy.

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

Dr. Joellyn Zollman holds a Ph.D in Jewish history from Brandeis University. She has taught classes on Jewish history, American religion, and religious art and architecture at San Diego State University, UCSD and the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture. Dr. Zollman also works as a writer, curator and travel scholar. She is the author of the Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning’s forthcoming new curriculum in honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States: We the People: The American Jewish Experience.

Gabrielle Ariella Kaplan-Mayer is Ritualwell’s Director of Virtual Content and Programs. She is an author, educator and spiritual director 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. 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. Find her work at gabriellekaplanmayer.com.

Advot End-of-Year Celebration and Poetry Reading
2026-06-25 19:00 - 20:30
Thursday, June 25, 2026
7-8:30 p.m. EDT

Join us to celebrate the contributions of our Advot@Ritualwell members and the unveiling of our fifth anthology showcasing their creations. Advot@Ritualwell serves as an online community for Jewish writers to learn, connect, and collaborate, providing a platform for mutual support in what can often be a solitary journey. Members bring their diverse backgrounds and expertise to share, co-create, and inspire one another. This event is their opportunity to showcase their work to you. Show your support by attending! Registrants will receive a 15% discount on their purchase of the anthology.

The members of our ADVOT community include: Nancy Abraham, Elliott batTzedek, Elizabeth Caplun, Alex Carter, Cathleen Cohen, Muriel Dance, Batya Diamond, Elisa Friedlander, Ona Gritz, Ziva Harmatz, Claire Helman, Chana Jacobs, Ann Kanter, Judith Kerman, Lucinda Kurtz, Rabbi Janet Madden, Meryl Paskow, Beverly Pincus, Rabbi Sonja K. Pilz, SJ Schlossman, Gail Simmons, Susan Spector, Janice Steinberg, Julie Stone, and Cantor Keren Webber.

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

Holding Each Other
2026-07-20 12:00 - 12:30
Monday, July 20, 2026
12-12:15 p.m. EDT

Now more than ever, we need each other.

Every Monday, join “Holding Each Other,” a 15-minute online minyan, facilitated by a leading Ritualwell contributor. Together, we’ll recite Mourners’ Kaddish and Mi Shebeirach, the prayer for healing. To foster our spiritual resilience, we’ll engage with a brief creative meditation.

Weekly, gather your strength and provide support to others.

Grief and Healing: A Generative Poetry Workshop
2026-07-21 13:00 - 14:30, 2026-07-28 13:00 - 14:30
Tuesdays, July 21 & 28, 2026
1-2:30 PM EDT
$72

In this two-session workshop, you are invited to enter poetry as a sacred space—one that can help you hold grief, memory, reflection, and renewal.
The days leading up to Tisha B’Av are among the most solemn in the Jewish calendar, a time when we turn toward loss: the destruction of the Temples, the experience of exile, and the many forms of brokenness that echo across generations and in our own lives. In our session before Tisha B’Av, we will read poems that dwell within sorrow and tenderness, exploring the textures of grief—personal and collective, spoken and unspoken. Through guided writing, you will have space to give language to what is often hidden, difficult to name, or held in silence.
Together, we will read poems by writers such as Gerald Stern, Marie Howe, Yehuda Amichai, Emily Dickinson, and Robert Frost—voices that accompany us through ache, longing, memory, and meaning-making, offering companionship as you begin to write your own poems.
In our second session, following Tisha B’Av, we will explore poems that hold consolation and resilience, emphasizing how healing can emerge—not by erasing grief, but by learning how to carry it with greater tenderness. Together, we will write toward restoration, compassion, and quiet renewal.
No prior experience with poetry is necessary—only curiosity and a willingness to read, reflect, and write.
This series will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.
Dr. Eve Grubin is the author of the book of poems Boat of Letters (Four Way Books). She is also the author of Morning Prayer (Sheep Meadow Press), The House of Our First Loving (Rack Press) and Grief Dialogue (Rack Press). Eve holds a PhD on the poetics of reticence, and she is a lecturer at NYU London and a tutor at the Poetry School.

The Nearness of Shekhinah: Writing Through Elul
2026-08-05 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-08-12 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-08-19 12:00 - 13:30, 2026-08-26 12:00 - 13:30
Wednesdays, August 5, 12, 19 and 26, 2026
12-1:30pm ET
$180

The traditional Elul and High Holiday liturgy and ritual is brimming with images of God intended to inspire us to imagine God as close enough to hear and know and judge and forgive us. But evocative as these ancient images are, they can also make God seem distant, judgmental rather than compassionate, and inspire shame, guilt, and fear rather than teshuvah, the process of turning back to and experiencing divinity as the source and sustainer of our lives.

But Judaism also offers a radically different approach to divinity, the Shekhinah tradition, which encourages us to imagine divinity not as looking down on us from above but as with us, in us, all around us, present in human space, time, and lives.

The Shekhinah tradition is not only an ancient treasury of images that emphasize the nearness of divinity. The tradition empowers us to creatively adapt and develop the images we need to find, recognize, and respond to divine presence in ways that speak to our own joys, doubts, needs, vulnerabilities, angers, experiences, and lives.

This series is designed to help us participate in the Shekhinah tradition and make it our own by discussing examples that highlight different ways to think and write about divine nearness. We will explore these texts from a creative writing perspective, treating them as models, inspirations, provocations, and foundations for our own ways of writing about, imagining, or otherwise relating to divinity. Each class will include voluntary writing assignments based on the texts we discussed, and include time for at least a little sharing of our writing.

The class is open to all who are interested, regardless of your beliefs or prior experience with Judaism, text study, creative writing, or theology. It’s designed to complement and build on earlier Shekinah classes offered by Dr. Joy Ladin, emphasizing class discussion and creativity over theory, theology, and history, and offering a different focus, examples, and writing prompts. Elul is the ideal time to immerse in the Shekhinah tradition.

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

Dr. 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.wordpress.com.

Jewish Writers' Circle Anthology Celebration and Reading
2026-09-08 12:00 - 13:00
Tuesday, September 8, 2026
12-1 p.m. ET

Join us to celebrate the contributions of our Jewish Writers’ Circles members and the launch of our first anthology showcasing their creations. Jewish Writers’ Circles are grassroots peer-led communities of writers who meet monthly for in-person gatherings (e.g. homes and cafes). Jewish Writers’ Circle (JWC) participants explore Jewish wisdom texts, deepen relationships and grow in their writing practice. This event is their opportunity to showcase their work to you as we launch our second year of this inititaive.

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

Out of the Depths: A Journey through the Days of Awe
2026-09-15 12:00 - 13:00
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
12-1 p.m. ET
$18

Prepare your heart for the Days of Awe with a new Ritualwell companion booklet of reflections, poetry, prayers, and creative prompts designed to guide you from Elul through Yom Kippur. Whether used for daily reflection or moments of pause throughout the season, this collection offers pathways into deeper awareness, renewal, and spiritual practice. This printable PDF will be delivered electronically and accessible online, ready to bring to your table when you register.

As part of this sacred journey, we invite you to gather live with Rabbi Yael Levy on September 15, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, for an exploration of Psalm 130. Rabbi Levy, author of Psalms: Ancient Songs for These Times, will help us engage this ancient prayer of longing and hope as a guide for the inner work of the Yamim Noraim. Together, we’ll reflect on what it means to call out from the depths, embrace the possibility of return, and remain openhearted in these challenging times.

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

Rabbi Yael Levy is the founder and rabbinic director of A Way In, Rabbi Yael’s teachings offer “a way in” to spiritual practice and awareness that uses the language of Jewish tradition and address universal issues. Named one of “America’s Most Inspiring Rabbis” by the Jewish Forward, Rabbi Yael has created daily and weekly online teachings and unique contemplative Shabbat and holiday services. She leads weekly call-in meditation “sits,” retreats and classes in Jewish Mindfulness. A Way In grew out of her part-time work as a rabbi at Mishkan Shalom Reconstructionist congregation for over 20 years. She is now Rabbi Emerita.

A graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Rabbi Yael has worked with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, co-leading retreats in Alaska for Jewish professionals and writing an online mindfulness guide to the Torah portions of the week. She also serves as a spiritual director to rabbinical students.

She is the author of Directing the Heart: Weekly Mindfulness Teachings and Practices from the Torah, Journey through the Wilderness: A Mindfulness Approach to the Ancient Jewish Practice of Counting the Omer and Chanukah Lights: Psalms for Hallel.

Grounded Poetry: Sensitivity to Setting
2026-10-14 12:00 - 13:30
Whether it’s the Western Wall in Jerusalem, a neglected backyard garden, or the landscape of memory itself, every place holds a story. In poetry, setting is never just a backdrop—it can reveal longing, loss, joy, identity, and what matters most. Sometimes, paying close attention to a place can also help us notice what is sacred within it—and within ourselves.
Together, we’ll explore how Jewish poets including Grace Paley, Louise Glück, and Gerald Stern use vivid details of time and place to create unforgettable poems. We’ll see how setting can deepen emotion, illuminate character, and invite us into a richer relationship with the world around us.
Through close reading, discussion, and a guided writing exercise inspired by former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s “Abandoned Farmhouse,” you’ll discover how paying close attention to place can unlock surprising insights about your poem’s speaker—and yourself. Whether you’re writing about a sacred landscape, a childhood home, or an ordinary corner of your everyday life, you’ll leave with new tools for creating poems that are rich, grounded, and alive—and perhaps with a renewed sense of the holiness that can be found in the places we inhabit.
All sessions will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.
Susan Comninos is the author of a recent book of poems, “Out of Nowhere” (SFA Press/Texas A&M, 2022). Her individual poems have appeared in the Harvard Review Online, Rattle, The Common, Prairie Schooner and North American Review, among others. She’s taught writing to undergraduates at Siena College, The College of St. Rose, and SUNY Albany, as well as adults in the community. At present, she serves as poetry editor of Judith magazine and is at work on a second collection of poems, “Wild Joy of Receiving.” The title poem, published by The Baltimore Review, is forthcoming this spring in the anthology “The Color Wheel” (Terrapin Books, 2026).

The Ritual of Small Moments
2026-11-09 12:00 - 13:00
Monday, November 9, 2026
12-1:00 p.m. EDT

Join writer, musician, and Torah teacher Rabbi Alicia Jo Rabins for an inspiring exploration of how ordinary moments can become sacred through mindful attention and Jewish ritual practice. Drawing from her new memoir, When We’re Born We Forget Everything, Alicia will share reflections on finding holiness in everyday life, followed by a creative writing prompt inviting participants to notice and honor the sacred moments woven throughout their own lives.

This gathering is part of Ritual Lab, Ritualwell’s new monthly series celebrating innovation in contemporary Jewish ritual. Each session features visionary writers, artists, and spiritual leaders who are expanding Jewish ritual practice in creative, meaningful, and accessible ways.

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

Alicia Jo Rabins is a writer, musician, performer, and Torah teacher. The New York Times calls her voice “gorgeous,” and BookPage calls her writing “a balm against all the hurt places of humanity.” She is the author of five books including a spiritual memoir, When We’re Born We Forget Everything (Schocken Books, 2026), and the poetry collection, Divinity School, winner of the American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize, As a singer-songwriter, Rabins tours internationally with Girls in Trouble, her indie-folk song cycle about Biblical women. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her family.
