Gates of Awe: Writing New High Holiday Liturgy
2024-09-03 12:00 - 13:30, 2024-09-10 12:00 - 13:30, 2024-09-17 12:00 - 13:30, 2024-09-24 12:00 - 13:30 (America/New_York) | Zoom
Tuesdays, September 3, 10, 17, 24, 2024
12-1:30 p.m. EDT
$180 for four sessions

During the month of Elul, unleash your creativity and get ready for the High Holidays with poet and liturgist Alden Solovy. Dive into the richness and depth of four gems from our High Holy Day Mahzor – Un’taneh Tokef (Power of the Day), Vidui (Confession), Kol Nidre (Release), and Avinu Malkeinu (Almighty and Merciful) – through reading, discussions, and writing exercises. Additionally, get a sneak peek at Alden’s upcoming book, ‘Enter These Gates: Meditations for the Days of Awe,’ and respond to these meditations with your own writing. By drawing from both ancient and modern sources, you’ll be ready to welcome the new year with your unique, original prayers.

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

Alden Solovy is a modern day piytan, a traveling poet/preacher/teacher who uses Torah and verse to engage and inspire. Alden embodies the intersection of scholarship and heart and his presence is sought after in Jewish spiritual spaces around the world. Alden’s work challenges the boundaries between poetry, song, meditation, personal growth, storytelling, and prayer, appearing in both song and verse. His teaching spans from HUC-JIR and the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem to Limmud and Leo Baeck College in the UK, as well as synagogues throughout North America. Alden’s fifth volume of Torah and t’fillah inspired poetry, Enter These Gates: Meditations for the Days of Awe, is forthcoming this summer. His other CCAR Press volumes are: These Words: Poetic Midrash on the Language of Torah (2023), This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day (2017), This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings (2019), and This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer (2021). Alden made Aliyah to Jerusalem in 2012, where he is Liturgist in Residence at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. Find more of his work at www.tobendlight.com.

Reading and Writing the Mourner's Kaddish
2024-09-09 12:00 - 13:30
Monday, September 9, 2024
12-1:30 p.m. EDT

It has been noted that the Mourner’s Kaddish is not explicitly about death or loss; rather, on the surface, it appears to be a prayer of praise and exaltation. But what is the relationship between grief and praise? Who is the Mourner’s Kaddish for? What have been our own experiences of this prayer? Join us for a special Elul program where we get inside the structure of one of Judaism’s most powerful and enigmatic prayers, examining some of the context and history of this liturgy and then mapping and writing our own versions.

This event 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.

Resilience Boost: Spiritual Accelerant for the Election Season
2024-09-11 12:00 - 13:00
Wednesday, September 11, 2024

12–1:00 p.m. EDT
$18

Come together with the Ritualwell community on September 11 for a special hour dedicated to the Jewish values connected to pursuing justice.

We will begin with an opportunity to recognize and mourn those whose lives were lost on September 11, 2001. Then we will learn with Rabbi Mike Pollack, the Executive Director of March On Harrisburg, an organization dedicated to fighting for democracy. Rabbi Pollack will share Jewish texts that reinforce our commitment to pursuing justice and guide us in discussion and reflection.

We’ll close with a creative prompt to inspire you to craft an original poem or prayer reflecting on your intentions for the upcoming election season.

Registration for this event includes a special Resilience Boost package of curated resources of poetry and prayers to help keep your energy going strong through election season and (optional) weekly meditations for hope and equanimity arriving to you by text or email each Tuesday through the election. The printable PDF of resources will be sent to you electronically on 9/10.

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

Rabbi Michael Pollack grew up in Rockville, Maryland. During his last year of rabbinical school at RRC, he co-founded March On Harrisburg, a group dedicated to making corruption illegal and taking our democracy where it’s never been before by passing anti-corruption, pro-democracy bills in Pennsylvania. Michael is also a statewide tri-chair of the PA Poor People’s Campaign. He lives in Cheltenham, and his hobbies include convincing politicians to not be corrupt, long marches through the Pennsylvania countryside, and sitting down in inconvenient places in the State Capitol.

Reading and Writing Mi Shebeirach Le'Holim, the Jewish Prayer for Healing
2024-09-16 12:00 - 13:30
Monday, September 16, 2024
12-1:30 p.m. EDT

In another special Elul event, we will study the origins of Judaism’s central healing prayer; reading between the lines in an effort to discover its theological underpinnings, and how/when/why it has been utilized historically. What does the Mi Shebeirach teach us about how Judaism understands healing? Are there risks in saying it or not saying it? We will also and craft and share our own original versions of this healing prayer.

This event 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.

Writing Letters: Dispatches to the Divine
2024-09-18 12:00 - 13:30
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
12-1:30 p.m. EDT
$36

Throughout history, letters in the form of prayers have been a longstanding tradition: the act of direct prayer to God traces back to Abraham, who pleaded for the righteous in Sodom. Join memoirist Ellen Blum Barish, just weeks before Rosh Hashanah, to discover how letter writing can enhance your spiritual life and strengthen your bond with the Divine. This practice is a timely opportunity to prepare for a meaningful transition into the High Holy Days.

As the Days of Awe draw near, we are all reflecting on the past year – grateful for what we have and hopeful for what we aim to mend. Composing a letter, whether to yourself, a loved one, or to the Divine, is a way to articulate your thoughts. Similar to prayers, letters can express gratitude, admiration, and devotion, as well as make requests, seek guidance, confess, and find comfort, forgiveness, or divine support.

Now it your time to write the letter that’s in your heart.

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

Ellen Blum Barish is the author of the spiritual memoir Seven Springs (Shanti Arts, 2021), the essay collection Views from the Home Office Window (Adams Street Publishing, 2007), and a contributor to Chicago Storytellers From Stage to Page (Chicago Story Press, 2020). You can find her personal essays in Tablet, Lilith, Brevity’s Blog, Full Grown People, Literary Mama, and The Chicago Tribune and hear them on Chicago Public Radio. She founded the literary publication Thread, which earned four notables in Best American Essays. Ellen has taught writing at Northwestern University, Chicago-area synagogues, and writer’s studios, including Story Studio Chicago and Lighthouse Lit Fest. She works privately with writers on essay collections and memoir.

The Poetry of Your Ancestors
2024-09-25 12:00 - 13:30
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
12- 1:30 p.m. EDT

Join us as we investigate, conjure, and generate new poetry from our ancestral wisdom, and delve into our prophetic ancestors in our Jewish sacred texts. Led by Anna Goodman Herrick, author of A Speaker is a Wilderness: Poems on the Sacred Path from Broken Whole , this Rituawell Event aligns with the month of Elul, a time of introspection and reflection in the Jewish calendar. At this moment in Jewish time, we re-examine our spiritual goals in order to get ourselves ready for the Days of Awe. Learn innovative and nourishing approaches to engaging with sacred texts and connect with your own sacred wisdom, transforming it into poetry. For new and seasoned writers alike. No prior writing experience necessary.

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

Anna Goodman Herrick is the author of A Speaker is a Wilderness: Poems on the Sacred Path from Broken Whole (Monkfish, 2024). She works at the intersection of spirituality, sacred words, and human rights, towards collective liberation. Anna has performed her poetry at the Emily Dickinson Museum and One Billion Rising’s Artist Uprising at the El Paso Border, and shared her work at the Library of Congress, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Bloomsday on Broadway. She has recent and upcoming poetry in Spirituality + Health Magazine, Rattle, and the Los Angeles Press. Anna has created work for television and branded content for platforms like Teen Vogue, Sony, ABC Family, Oprah Winfrey Network, MTV, and the Sundance Channel, and created installations based on her poetry for museums and galleries worldwide.
