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Judith’s Bat Mitzvah Service: The Launch of Reconstructionist Innovation
Reconstructionist experimentation beginning with the bat mitzvah — and continuing on in so many different ways — has been profoundly impactful and transformative. That’s where the revolution happened and continues to unfold.
Hope Amidst the Ruins: Living Through the Crisis
We need to reimagine globally how we live without using fossil fuel and make significant changes in a very short span of time.
Reconstructionism, Chosenness, and the Abrahamic Dialogue
*This article was first published in the ZEEK issue “Reconstructionism: Denominationalism That Works?” (Fall 2010)* The first time I encountered the idea that Jews were a “chosen people,” I learned that this was a mistaken and...
Transcription of Cultivating Resilience Through the Practice of Lament, a talk by Dr. Koach Baruch Frazier from “Avodah Presents: Speak Torah to Power”
Shalom aleikhem. [Aleikhem shalom from audience.] We have a tradition of dedicating our learning to people who have inspired us. And on Friday, a good friend and teacher of mine passed from this world to the next. And so,...
Jewish Theologies and Spiritual Direction
From Jewish Spiritual Direction: An Innovative Guide from Traditional and Contemporary Sources, edited by Howard A. Addison and Barbara Eve Breitman (Jewish Lights, 2006) Is the practice of Spiritual Direction authentically...
The Healing Serpent: Recovering Long Lost Jewish Fragments in Parashat Hukkat (Numbers 19:1-22:1)
From Torah Queeries, edited by David Shneer, Greg Drinkwater, and Joshua Lesser, New York University Press, 2009 When Ezra returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian exile, he brought a version of the Torah virtually identical to...
Preparing for Psalm 27
One thing I ask.[1] And another thing: let my thyroid, please, function with sufficient vigor, lest days drift by without focus. And if I catch the flu this winter, may it not become bronchitis. Night coughing and...
All Souls
Come, my beloved, let’s greet the source of blessing.[1] I recognized you during the fifth stanza. Your neck flushed red, and the hairs on mine tingled as I heard your voice distinct above the effervescent chorus singing,...
First Rung
Come together that I may tell you what is to befall you in days to come.[1] You should have known. The ladder can be ascended by the wounded. You who had seen the intersection of heaven and earth could not discern:...
Facing You Facing Me
Moses misunderstood in the cleft of the rock. He was trapped in the essentialist fallacy. Up on the mountain, on top of the world, after forty days suspended over the clear, crisp desert vistas, of leaning into Your muscular...
Jacob Staub: Student and Teacher of Middot
This piece describes Jacob’s experience as a student, practitioner and teacher of Mussar through his involvement with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Tikkun Middot Project.
Building a Future for Reconstructing Judaism: A Tribute to Jacob J. Staub
Jacob played an indispensable role in creating a generation of Reconstructionist rabbis that is...
Tribute for Rabbi Jacob Staub, Ph.D.
I am a Reconstructionist rabbi and leader of the Reconstructionist movement in no small part...
Queer Delicacy: An Ancient Approach to Halakhah
At the age of 10, I was presented with one of the greatest theological and spiritual challenges of...
Jacob Staub’s Impact on Reconstructionist Rabbinical Education
Ask any student or alumnus of RRC, “What is distinctive about a Reconstructionist rabbinical education,” and you will probably hear a few things repeatedly. Among them are the civilizational approach to Judaism, the integration...
Evolve is a project of Reconstructing Judaism
