The Light Lab Podcast

Jewish educators in supplementary schools- please fill out our short community survey by May 1st! Shalom my friends! So grateful to bring you part two in our special pray-along series, live from Songleader Boot Camp. We've arrived at shacharit, the morning service. You'll hear (and are invited to sing/feel/pray along with) an amazing band of artists, plus new melodies co-created by the incomparable Hannah Zale. What a blessing to start the day together! How might t'fillah help us hold both the pain and beauty of the world at once?Shownotes, including melodies used and a follow-along prayerbook page, can be found here. Follow us on ⁠facebook⁠ and ⁠instagram⁠ @thelight.lab.And please share! :)  

Shalom my friends! We're back with a special three part pray-along series, live from Songleader Boot Camp. This episode is the afternoon service, mincha, with the incomparable Chava Mirel. Join us for a heart check-in, song, and silence. And keep listening for a behind-the-curtain conversation/class on what it takes to lead t'fillah that softens the heart. So glad to be back in the Light Lab with you! What would it take to make t'fillah an exercise in softening the heart?Show notes, including melodies used and a follow-along prayerbook page, can be found here. Follow us on ⁠facebook⁠ and ⁠instagram⁠ @thelight.lab.

This week, in our Shabbat at Home series, Eliana and Ellen consider the Midrashic possibilities of Hamotzi - the blessing over the challah. Topics include how challah holy-tizes all of our time, to tear or to cut, and which gardens grow bread trees. Plus, we listen to our favorite 90s Jewish hip hop classics!  As partners with g?d in the act of creation, how can we create that world of sustenance and goodness and support for all? Join our facebook group to comment. Check out this week's show notes and transcript @ www.lightlab.co/podcast/episode-66-hamotzi Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Support our show! Sponsor an episode or donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, we are elated to bring you our interview with Eliana and Casper ter Kuile. Casper is the author of The Power of Ritual, and the co-founder of Sacred Design Lab, Nearness and the podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text. We explore finding the sacred in the secular, where folks find spiritual community these days, and snuggling your dog as prayer.  Check out this week's show notes and transcript @ lightlab.co/podcast/episode-65-casper-ter-kuile What secular practice can you cultivate into prayer?Comment below or join our facebook group to connect around each episode.  Follow us on ⁠facebook⁠ and ⁠instagram⁠ @thelight.lab. Support our show! Sponsor and episode or donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, in our Shabbat at Home series, Eliana and Josh explore the hand washing. Topics include taking ownership over rituals, the act of giving and receiving to and of ourselves, and hand washing as a mikvah moment. Plus, we listen to our favorite hand washing nigunim!  Check out this week's show notes and transcript @ lightlab.co/episode-64-hand-washing Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Support our show! Sponsor an episode or donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, we are elated to bring your our interview with Eliana and Rabbi Adina Allen. Rabbi Adina is co-founder and creative director of the Jewish Studio Project. We explore expressing the divine spark within us, how to sit with discomfort, and how to teach our 3rd grade selves that art is their birthright.  Check out this week's show notes and transcript @ lightlab.co/podcast/episode-63-adina-allen  And pre-order Rabbi Allen's new book, The Place of All Possibility, here! Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Join our facebook group to connect around each episode. Support our show! Sponsor an episode or donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

Welcome to our spring SPARK! A more free-wheeling, connective conversation between our hosts that we hope sparks something new in you. In this SPARK, Eliana and Ellen explore our journey on the way to enoughness,   binding our wounds, & the furry shapes prophets sometimes inhabit. Plus, we listen to some of our favorite songs for the season! Check out this week's show notes and transcript @  lightlab.co/podcast/episode-62-spark-pesach  And check out the light lab podcast pesach spotify playlist! Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab.  Join our ⁠facebook group⁠ to connect and comment. Support our show! Contact welcome@lightlab.co to sponsor an episode. Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, we are honored to bring your our interview with Eliana and Rabbi Ilan Glazer. Rabbi Ilan is the founder of Our Jewish Recovery, author of the award-winning And God Created Recovery: Jewish Wisdom to Help You Break Free From Your Addiction, Heal Your Wounds, and Unleash Your Inner Freedom, and a Shatterproof Ambassador and Family Program Instructor. We explore the medicine of incorporating new and ancient melodies into t'fillah, how Jewish wisdom addresses addiction and recovery, and grounding grief in song. Plus, we listen to a few tracks on Rabbi Ilan's new album, Gam Ki Elech: Turning Our Sorrows Into Songs.  Check out this week's show notes and transcript @ lightlab.co/podcast/episode-61-ilan-glazer  Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab.  Join our ⁠⁠facebook group⁠⁠ to offer your heart wisdom. Sponsor an episode! Contact welcome@lightlab.co to to learn more. Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, we are delighted to bring you our interview with Eliana and Aharon Varady. Aharon  is the founding director and primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project. We explore the alchemy of a minyan, taking responsibility for your prayer, and how to make a container to cross-pollinate our own liturgical wisdom with other people.  Check out this week's show notes and transcript @ lightlab.co/episode-60-aharon-varady   Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Join our facebook group to connect around each episode.  Support our show! Contact Rachel at welcome@lightlab.co to sponsor an episode! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, we are ecstatic to bring you our interview with Eliana and Batya Levine. Batya (they/them) is a communal song leader, musician, shaliach tzibur (Jewish prayer leader), cultural organizer, and co-founder and the Director of Programs at Let My People Sing! We explore adversarial relationships with t'fillah, modeling pouring-out-your-heart davening, and how to nurture the song leader in you.  Support the creation of Batya's new album here! Check out this week's show notes and transcript @ lightlab.co/episode-59-batya-levine   Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Join our facebook group to connect around each episode.  Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, in our Shabbat at Home series, Eliana and Ellen explore the Kiddush. Topics include the opening the Shabbat space/time portal, toasting time, and how to exercise our awe and wonder muscles. Plus, we listen to our favorite interpretations of the Kiddush!  Check out this week's show notes and transcript @ lightlab.co/episode-58-kiddush  Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.labSupport our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, we are proud to bring you our interview with Eliana and Rabbi Josh Cahan. A t'fillah (prayer) educator in NYC, Josh compiled and edited the Yedid Nefesh bencher and is introducing the new Yedid Nefesh Haggadah this Spring. We explore the origin story of a t'fillah nerd, praying at sleepaway camp, and the challenges and opportunities of teaching t'fillah to kids. Is there a t'fillah nerd in your life who has inspired you as a pray-er? Join our ⁠facebook group⁠ to comment and connect.  Check out this week's show notes and transcript @ lightlab.co/podcast/episode-57-tfillah-nerd Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, in our third episode of our Shabbat at Home series, Eliana and Ellen explore the family blessings. Topics include the origin of this tradition, the Human-G?d-Compassion triumvirate of blessings, why should we want our kids to be like ephraim and Menashe, and how to choose your spouse anew each week. Plus, we listen to our favorite family blessing songs, including Eliana's! What challenges have been passed down to you that can be viewed as blessings? Join our facebook group to comment. Check out this week's show notes and transcript @ lightlab.co/episode-56-family-blessing   Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab.Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, we are proud to bring you our interview with Eliana and Rabbi Doctor Professor Ruth Langer. Professor Langer is a liturgy scholar and director of graduate studies at Boston College's Theology Department. We explore how liturgical change gets squashed, how the Talmud set the course for future liturgical halacha, and how prayers emerged throughout history.  What is the value of knowing liturgical history to the pray-er? Join our ⁠facebook group⁠ to share your thoughts.  Check out this week's show notes and transcript @ lightlab.co/podcast/episode-55-liturgy-origins  Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

Welcome to our second SPARK! A more free-wheeling, connective conversation between our hosts that we hope sparks something new in you. In this SPARK, Eliana, Ellen & Josh explore Hanukkah gematria, rituals that light up our lives, and spiritually exercises for the heart muscle. Plus, we listen to some of our favorite songs for the season!  Are there enough blessings for all of us? Join our facebook group to connect and comment.  Check out this week's show notes (including links to songs referenced) and transcript @ lightlab.co/podcast/episode-54-spark-hanukkah And check out the light lab podcast hanukkah spotify playlist! Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, in our second episode of our Shabbat at Home series, Eliana, Ellen, & Josh explore the liturgy of Shalom Aleichem. Topics include angels of good and evil at the table, different melodies used for the text, and what this poem sparks in us. Plus, we listen to our favorite versions of Shalom Aleichem!  What is your favorite Friday night Shabbat memory? Join our ⁠facebook group⁠ to connect and comment.  Check out this week's show notes and transcript @ lightlab.co/episode-53-shalom-aleichem  Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, in our first episode of our Shabbat at Home series, Eliana, Ellen, & Josh explore lighting the Shabbat candles. Topics include why we light, different melodies used for the blessing, and what this blessing sparks in us. Plus, we listen to our favorite songs about lighting Shabbat candles!  When does it start to feel like Shabbat for you? Join our facebook group⁠ to connect and discuss.  Check out this week's show notes and transcript @ lightlab.co/episode-52-candles Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, we are privileged to bring you our interview with Eliana and Rabbi Kohenet Jill Hammer, PhD. Hammer is an author, teacher, midrashist, mystic, poet, essayist, and priestess. We explore where to look for g?d, how to call on g?d, and the venn diagram of poetry and liturgy. Plus, we dive into Hammer's new book, Undertorah! How can dreams impact our liturgical selves? Join our facebook group to connect and comment.  Check out this week's show notes @ lightlab.co/podcast/episode-51-under-torah Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, Eliana, Ellen, & Josh go behind the music with Eliana's new album: ORAH HI. Topics include how to make an album with friends, making Hebrew songs accessible, and accessing vulnerability through song. Plus, we learn about the magic behind these sweet new tracks!  Is it more important to correctly conjugate g?d language or let the prayer flow uninhibited? Listen to ORAH HI on Spotify or support the artist and buy the album! Read the liner notes and purchase ORAH HI sheet music @ elianalight.com/orah-hi  Check out this week's show notes and transcript @ lightlab.co/podcast/episode-50-orah-hi  Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Join our facebook group to connect around each episode.  Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

Welcome to our first SPARK! A more free-wheeling, connective conversation between our hosts that we hope sparks something new in you. In this SPARK, Eliana, Ellen & Josh explore re-returning, joyful prayer at Yom Kippur, and the courage to bring g?dly acts into the world.  Plus, we listen to some of our favorite songs for the season!  What is the still small voice contained in the shofar blast saying to your heart this year? Join our facebook group to connect and comment.  Check out ⁠the light lab podcast SPARK high holidays Spotify playlist⁠! And check out this week's show notes and transcript @ lightlab.co/podcast/episode-49-spark-high-holidays  Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, Eliana, Ellen, & Josh explore the end of the Amidah journey. Topics include the Amidah as a personal AND communal experience, symbolism in the shape words take in our mouths, and license to create our own prayers. Plus, Josh and Coleen Dieker perform Elohai N'tzor live!  Do written prayers inhibit your extemporaneous prayer experience? Check out this week's show notes and transcript @ lightlab.co/podcast/episode-48-elohai-nitzor  And check out the Light Lab Podcast Elohai N'tzor Spotify Playlist! We'd love to do a live episode with your community- contact us at welcome@lightlab.co to learn more. Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Join our facebook group to connect around each episode.  Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, we are elated to bring you our interview with Billy Jonas. For over thirty years, Billy Jonas - performer, singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, educator, and playful pray-er extraordinaire - has perfected the art of the neo-tribal hootenanny with audiences around the globe. Using voice, guitar, and industrial re-percussion, each of his concerts is a soul-spelunking, heart-healing, joy-filled journey. We explore using curtains as an invitation to prayer, how to engage the very narrow bridge between the left and right brain in prayer, and when we first considered the benediction of a bird's song and the rustling of leaves as prayer. Were you also absent at Hebrew School the day they taught the similarities between Judaism and other ancient earth-based matrixes? Check out this week's show notes @ lightlab.co  Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Join our facebook group to connect around each episode.  Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, we are elated to bring you our interview with Rabbi Sarit Horwitz. Rabbi Sarit serves as clergy at Beth Shalom Synagogue in Memphis, TN. We explore creating opportunities for deep experiences in our communities, vulnerability in being a leader and pray-er, and that T'fillah is not meant to be a spectator sport.  Did you learn your prayers before you learned how to pray? It was wonderful to be live on zoom with Rabbi Sarit and Beth Sholom! We'd love to do a live episode with your community- contact us at ⁠welcome@lightlab.co⁠ to learn more.  Check out this week's show notes @ lightlab.co   Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Join our facebook group to connect around each episode. Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, Eliana, Ellen, & Josh explore the afternoon and evening peace prayer, Shalom Rav, with our very special guest, Cantor Jeff Klepper! Topics include Burt's bees, the 1960s, and Jeff's Jewish journey. Plus we get to listen in to the composing of the classic melody for Shalom Rav. What a treat!  Where are you feeling abundance in your life? Check out this week's show notes @ lightlab.co, including our Shalom Rav spotify playlist! Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Join our facebook group to connect around each episode.  Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you! 

This week we're grateful to bring you Ellen and Eliana's conversation with Rabbi Toba Spitzer, author of the book “God is Here: Reimagining the Divine.” Rabbi Spitzer takes us on a journey that includes Jewish liberation theology, playing dead (as in the grateful dead), liturgical gymnastics, and the three kinds of metaphors. Rabbi Spitzer's work has been hugely influential to our thinking around g?d-language and we were geeking out the whole time. We hope you enjoy our interview (and hope you buy her book!) How can g?d-metaphors influence and enhance our experiences of the Divine? Check out this week's show notes @ lightlab.co  Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Join our facebook group to connect around each episode. Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, Eliana & Ellen are joined by very special guest Rabbi Noah Diamondstein to explore Sim Shalom! We talk about “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once,” Paul Simon, the Force, and what “Shalom” is anyway. Plus, Noah shares the story behind his own beautiful melody for Sim Shalom and plays it for us live. What a treat!  How is your “Shalom” today? Check out this week's show notes @lightlab.co  Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab, and join our facebook group. Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you! 

This week, Ellen, Eliana, and Josh explore “v'al kulam” and the threefold blessing, bridging the gratitude and peace sections of the weekday Amidah. Topics include Glinda the good witch, gematria, Siddur differences (it's a full bingo board!), g?d's face, and the ancient art of duchenning.  What is your blessing?  Check out this week's show notes @ lightlab.co  Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Join our facebook group to connect around each episode. Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, we are honored to bring you our interview with organizer, coach, and leader April N. Baskin. April is the founder and CEO of Joyous Justice,  a “multiracial community-powered social justice and spiritual transformation organization that seeds and leads systemic change and healing.” We explore the intersection of justice work and spirituality, her path to becoming a Kohenet, and the work of “coming home.”  How do you access spiritual sustenance?  Check out this week's show notes on our website. Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Join our facebook group to connect around each episode.  Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you! 

This week we're re-airing episode 5 so “Modim Anachnu Lach” can take its rightful place in our Amidah journey! Josh, Ellen, and Eliana nerd out on Jewish-people-monikers, intertext, and gematria (numerology,) plus share our favorite melodies and Thanksgiving traditions. What a great excuse for gratitude! Check out this week's show notes on our new website! Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Join our facebook group to connect around each episode. Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

It's our first in person live episode! Join us at Temple Isaiah in Lexington MA as Eliana interviews Cantor Lisa Doob and Rabbi Daryl Crystal. We explore their respective spiritual journeys, what prayer means to them now, and their unique roles; Cantor Doob has been at Temple Isaiah many years, while Rabbi Crystal has served 17 congregations in 19 years as an interim Rabbi. When we lead t'fillah, who do we become? Check out this week's show notes on our new website! Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Join our facebook group to connect around each episode. Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

This week, Eliana, Ellen, and Josh explore the last of the petitionary prayers of the Amidah and the transitional section, “r'tzei.” Topics include our favorite sounds, g?d (not) as vending machine, sacrifice and service, and the present (and presence) of present tense. Plus we share some favorite melodies! What does it mean to hear our prayers? Check out this week's show notes on our new website! Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab. Join our facebook group to connect around each episode. Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

We're so honored this week to be joined by educator extraordinaire Evelyn Goldfinger! Evelyn is a spiritual leader, performer, storyteller, and author, most recently of “Words from my Heart,” a hands-on prayer book for kids. In addition to sharing insights into her incredible new book, Ms. Eve also delivers her t'fillah journey in four acts, explores how prayer and theater are connected, and sings a sweet prayer song for healing in Hebrew, English, and Spanish. She also spontaneously prays for the internet to come back in the most beautiful way! How might you share the words from your heart? Check out this week's show notes on our new website! Our Deep Dive: Shema series has begun and it's not too late to join. Learn more and register here. Learn more about Eliana's two new albums and help make them happen here! Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab, and join our facebook group to connect about all things t'fillah education. If you like the Light Lab, please rate, subscribe, and share around. We appreciate it so much!

Our Amidah journey continues! This week Ellen, Eliana, and Josh explore and wrestle with blessings on rebuilding Jerusalem and salvation through messiah. There is so much variation amongst prayer books on these two! Topics covered include infrastructure bills, snowy white donkeys, Karens, horns, and classic Jewish jokes. How can we help a better world blossom into being? Check out this week's show notes on our new website! Our Deep Dive: Shema series starts at the end of January! Learn more and register here. Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around. Thank you!

We are thrilled to bring you this interview with renowned liturgist Rabbi Reuven Kimelman. Rabbi Kimelman is an expert in the themes, structure, and poetics of the Jewish prayerbook, and shares enough wisdom to blow Eliana's mind multiple times. Topics include t'fillah as an aural experience, the multi-mystical levels of Lecha Dodi, the power and point of the mourner's kaddish, and so much more. Announcing the Deep Dive: Shema! Join us for six gatherings over three weeks diving into the three units of this central piece of liturgy with our heads and our hearts. Taught by Rabbi Reuven Kimelman and Light Lab founder Eliana Light. Learn more and register here. Check out this week's Transcript And Show notes Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab Support our show! Donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around.

Your three regular podcast hosts are back as we continue our deep dive into the Amidah with a blessing that is more like a malediction than a benediction, “against enemies,” and its flipside, “for the righteous.” We do some ancestor empathy work and wrestle with language. Other topics include: theological coattail riding, the Talmudic power couple Bruriah and Rabbi Meir, and of course, holy glue. Who are you dedicating your learning to today? Check out this week's Transcript And Show notes Follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab Support our show! Become a member here, donate here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around.

We are thrilled to share this interview with educator, songstress, and space-holder extraordinaire Marni Loffman. Marni connects to thousands over social media with their soulful voice and warm presence, both of which they bring to our conversation (stay through the end for a spiritual song practice!) Through sharing their journey with prayer, liturgy, and g?d, Marni makes space for us to hold multiplicity, curiosity, awareness, wholeness, and healing. How can we connect to the human experience inherent in liturgy? How can we add our voice to this everlasting story? Be sure to check out this week's Transcript Show notes And follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab Join our new facebook group to connect with other listeners! Support our show! Become a member here and please rate, subscribe, and share around.

It's our first year-iversary! Aka one whole year of the Light Lab Podcast. In this ever so special minisode, Ellen, Eliana, and Josh check-in, share favorite moments, and look towards what's next. There's a baby, there's water aerobics, there's Cheshvan appreciation, and there's a whole lot of love. Thank you for being on this journey with us. Here's to many more years! Join our new facebook group to connect with other listeners and get more t'fillah education goodness! Be sure to check out this week's Transcript Show notes And follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab Support our show! Become a member here and please rate, subscribe, and share around.

Today we're so honored to share our interview with Rabbi Minna Bromberg, PhD. Rabbi Bromberg is the founder and president of Fat Torah, an initiative dedicated to ending weight stigma in the Jewish community and raising up body liberation through a Jewish lens. Fat Torah is also a community with a presence on facebook for Jewish fat folks and allies, a first of its kind. Rabbi Bromberg shares her t'fillah and body liberation journey, what inspired Fat Torah (it involves a song leader and a jelly doughnut), and how to make our prayer spaces inclusive for fat folks. How can we see all bodies as reflections of the divine image, including our own? How can we move our community from narrowness to freedom? Follow Fat Torah on instagram here! Be sure to check out this week's Transcript Show notes And follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab Support our show! Become a member here and please rate, subscribe, and share around.

Today we're excited to share our interview with Jewish educator and social media influencer extraordinaire, Tony J. Westbrook, Jr. You might know him better as @frumjewishblackboy if you're one of his 39k+ followers on TikTok or Instagram (and if you aren't yet, we highly recommend it!) Tony talks about the questions that led him on his Jewish journey, blessings as intentions, wisdom as liturgy, combating social media junk with Jewish joy, and more. So take a listen- it's only 49 TikToks long! Be sure to check out this week's Transcript Show notes And follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab Support our show! Become a member here and please rate, subscribe, and share around.

From the start of the month of Elul through the fall holidays, it is customary to say Psalm 27. This “psalm for the days of awe” is full of evocative imagery, poetry, and a seemingly unshakable protagonist. But in this week's episode, we are diving deep into just one line- verse 4, also known as “Achat Sha'alti.” What is this “one thing I ask?” Why is this line so popular, and how do different melodies shape our understanding? And speaking of song, we are blessed to be joined by musician and mindfulness teacher Chava Mirel, who shares her insights and takes us behind the music. Listen to her melody (and many more) on this week's praylist! Be sure to check out this week's Transcript Show notes And follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab Support our show! Become a member here or give a tax-deductible donation here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around.

This week we're excited to share a double-interview recorded live at the Ramah Darom Pesach retreat this past spring. Maharat Rori Picker Neiss is the Executive Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis and an inspiring activist and advocate. Rabbi Shai Held is president and dean of the Hadar Institute and a foremost theologian, scholar, and teacher. Neither of thought they had much to say about liturgy or prayer. I would disagree! Our guests explore prayerfulness, history, Jewish parenting, t'fillah education, synagogues, the post/mid-covid world, and more. It's a reminder that not all people feel the most “prayerful” in prayer, and that Jewish life contains multitudes. So take a listen, even if you don't think of yourself as a “t'fillah person” either :) Be sure to check out this week's Transcript And show notes And follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab Support our show! Become a member here or give a tax-deductible donation here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around.

This week, Eliana and Ellen are live from the NewCAJE Jewish education conference! Together we dive deep into, appropriately, the blessing for studying Torah. Whether it's the Torah of the James Webb Space Telescope or the Torah of grammar nerdery, small-t torah or big-T Torah, a knot in a string of pearls or a sparkly letter “aleph,” it is sweet and it is your business. Be sure to check out this week's Transcript And show notes And follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab Support our show! Become a member here or give a tax-deductible donation here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around.

We are thrilled to be joined this week by Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz, Director of Music and T'fillah at the Hadar Institute. Deborah is an acclaimed teacher, leader, and composer of prayer, and has collaborated on over two dozen albums of original Jewish music. Her beautiful debut album “The Narrow and the Expanse” was released in 2020. In our interview, Deborah reflects on her t'fillah journey (including her years studying ethnomusicology), the prayer leader's toolbox, and her work guiding communities. There are so many gems to excavate! Be sure to check out this week's Transcript And show notes And follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab Support our show! Become a member here or give a tax-deductible donation here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around.

This week continues our journey through the weekday Amidah with the middle blessings on “in-gathering” and “justice.” It's a full bingo board- multiple translations, scrambling to find intertext, mentions of Shai Held and musical theater, and of course, exploring what these blessings might mean for each of us. What is home to you? Be sure to check out this week's Transcript And show notes And follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab Support our show! Become a member here or give a tax-deductible donation here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around.

We are so honored to share this conversation between Eliana, Ellen, and Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD. Rabbi Hoffman, (or “Larry” as good friends like Ellen call him) is one of the foremost liturgists and t'fillah teachers of our day. He has written and edited dozens of books on the subject, including the series “My People's Prayerbook” which we reference for this podcast constantly! Rabbi Hoffman regales us with tales of his childhood, how camp transformed him and the Jewish world, siddur as identity-marker, and what he sees for the future. Plus before the interview, Eliana shares some thoughts on t'fillah in dark times. Be sure to check out this week's Transcript And show notes And follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab Support our show! Become a member here or give a tax-deductible donation here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around.

It's time to talk about time. And trees! We're back in the flow of the weekday Amidah, exploring the sixth of the middle petitionary blessings. We get into the connection between time and land, being “farmer-adjacent,” giving the earth a voice, and the shmita year of land-rest. Plus, an interview with Hazzan Jessi Roemer about t'fillah, shmita, and her beautiful song “Seij Años.” Support us on ko-fi! Membership tiers are now live. There are fun perks to be had! To support the show without perks, you can make a tax-deductible donation here. And please rate, subscribe, and share! It means the world to us, and we are so grateful. Thank you! Be sure to check out this week's Transcript And show notes And follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab

How can we make our spiritual communities accessible both spatially and theologically? This is the question that animates Rabbi Emily Aronson, founder of Chronic Congregation. In our interview, Rabbi Aronson gives us so much to think about, including: disability theology, the power of the prayer for healing, and building a better sanctuary. Plus, she shares an original prayer with us, one of many she has written for everyday moments of comfort, rage, and community. How can we put the promise of collective care into practice? Be sure to check out this week's Transcript And show notes And follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab Support our show! Become a member here or give a tax-deductible donation here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around.

This week, we're back in the flow of the Amidah exploring the 4th and 5th middle weekday blessings. We talk timeless personal Passover stories, S&H green stamps, healing vs cure, and being in the body. There's also lots of inter-text, lots of liturgical variation, and lots of questions to be had. Support us on ko-fi! Membership tiers are now live. There are fun perks to be had! To support the show without perks, you can make a tax-deductible donation here. And please rate, subscribe, and share! It means the world to us, and we are so grateful. Thank you! Be sure to check out this week's Transcript And show notes And follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab

To honor the life of Rabbi Steve Sager, in the light of his passing on May 15th, we are re-sharing Eliana's interviews with him, conducted in fall 2021. Rabbi Sager was an extraordinary teacher, seeker, and human being. His presence is deeply missed, and his light lives on in all who knew him. Yehi Zichro Baruch- May his memory be a blessing Obituary for Rabbi Sager Notes for episode 12 (prayer is not so linear) and episode 14 (listen to the siddur) Recorded classes taught by Rabbi Sager: The Patriarchs and Aging, Part I (March 13) and Part II (April 12)

Rabbi Sid Schwarz has started impactful organizations, written insightful books, and led many groups of Jews to greater meaning and personal engagement with Judaism. We are so grateful to share this interview full of gems, from Rabbi Sid's social justice work, to his “davenning out of the box” experience, to what he sees for the Jewish future, all connected to t'fillah. How can you internalize your prayer and hold it out to the world? Be sure to check out this week's Transcript And show notes And follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab Support our show! Become a member here or give a tax-deductible donation here, and please rate, subscribe, and share around.

We return to our Amidah series for what seems like a mini High Holidays: talk (or not) of g?d as father and king, longing for return, repentance, and forgiveness. Ellen, Eliana, and Josh dive deep into the text and talk g?d names, meditation, rowboats, and more. Plus a prayer-song exploder for Eliana's song “Lead Me Back.” What are you returning to? Support us on ko-fi! Membership tiers are now live. There are fun perks to be had! To support the show without perks, you can make a tax-deductible donation here. And please rate, subscribe, and share! It means the world to us, and we are so grateful. Thank you! Be sure to check out this week's Transcript And show notes And follow us on facebook and instagram @thelight.lab