Live Streaming Shabbaton with Rabbis Rachel Barenblat and David Markus

AN EMERGING JUDAISM; GLOBAL DIGITAL CONVENING

 We invite you to join our very first livestreaming Shabbaton celebrating spiritual connectivity in the legacy of Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (1924-2014), pathfinder and futurist for Jewish spirituality in the emerging digital age.

This year’s Reb Zalman Scholars are Rabbi Rachel Barenblat and Rabbi David Markus, next-generation visionaries and riveting teachers for the next transformations of Jewish life.

With music, poetry, spirited prayer with liturgy old and new, mystic visioning, and re-mixing of ancient text, together we’ll bring forward visions for a Jewish digital future worthy of us all.

It’s a spiritual future Reb Zalman began to imagine long ago – but left for future generations to bring into being. That time is unfolding before our eyes, on our screens, in our homes, and in a society changing with once unimaginable speed.

Join us for a weekend of depth and height as we surf those changes in the only true way we ever can – together.

Registration: https://havurahshirhadash.org/shabbaton-2020/#more-21223

$18 per student/those with financial need

$36 per person

$72 per couple/family

SHABBATON SCHEDULE

Kabbalat Shabbat & Global Convening                     Friday, June 12           6:30pm PT

Shabbat Morning Service & Visioning                        Saturday, June 13      10:00am PT

Lunch and Learn: Mishkan Sandbox                          Saturday, June 13      1:00pm PT

Malave Malkah: Poems of Yearning                           Saturday, June 13      8:30pm PT

#BeALight Havdalah                                                   Saturday, June 13      9:00pm PT

FRIDAY KEYNOTE – GETTING REAL, DIGITAL EDITION (Rabbi Barenblat)

Today we’re distant from each other physically because of covid-19. At times we may feel distant from community and from God for all kinds of reasons. The answer to that distance is emotional keruv, drawing-near: but how? How can we use the words of our prayers (both those we’ve inherited, and those we remix and create anew) to connect across distance both physical and spiritual? How can we be real with our prayer lives and with each other even when we feel (or are) alone? How can we safely let ourselves feel, even in this time of pandemic, so that we can be spiritually authentic with ourselves, each other, and our Source?

SATURDAY KEYNOTE – THE MISHKAN’S NEXT DIGITAL (R)EVOLUTION (Rabbi Markus)

Since history began, we’ve danced with the sacred in forms that evolved with us. Jewish history of a desert-wandering Mishkan settled in a place, then a Temple, then another Temple, then out to exile. Homes and learning centers became society’s sacred spaces. Eventually synagogues and clergy roles re-exerted centralizing influence. Now with covid-19 hastening society’s digital leaps, what’s next? As sacred gatherings de-center to living rooms and pixels, what will be our Mishkan? How will we build it to channel “me” and “we,” here and there, tradition and change?

 LUNCH AND LEARN – MISHKAN SANDBOX FOR THE GENERATIONS

Exactly how can we uplift spiritual connection when we’re physically separated, even sheltering in place? What specific best practices, individually and collectively, can co-create a vibrant Mishkan exactly where we are? Join our multi-generational panel with Rabbis Barenblat, Markus and Zaslow as together we sandbox tangible practices to enliven spiritual life for this digital moment of transformation.

MELAVE MALKAH – POEMS OF YEARNING

Before creation, there was an eit ratzon – a time of yearning.  Rabbi Barenblat will lead us into that eit ratzon through poetry and niggunim.

#BEALIGHT HAVDALAH – PASSING THE LIGHT FORWARD

Rabbi Markus will lead a #BeALight havdalah, bridging into the new week and rededicating ourselves to building a world of connection, justice and love.

ABOUT OUR SCHOLARS

RABBI RACHEL BARENBLAT is one of “America’s most inspiring rabbis” (Forward 2016).  Barenblat serves as rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel (North Adams, MA); her Velveteen Rabbi blog was rated as one of the top sites on the Internet (TIME, 2008).  Barenblat is an accomplished poet and narrator of Jewish spiritual life: books include Texts to the Holy (Ben Yehuda 2018), Open My Lips (Ben Yehuda 2016), Waiting to Unfold (Phoenicia 2013) and 70 faces: Torah poems (Phoenicia 2011). With Rabbi Markus (and others), she co-founded Bayit: Building Jewish.

RABBI DAVID MARKUS is the only U.S. pulpit rabbi simultaneously holding a full-time public oath of office.  In spiritual life, Markus serves as rabbi and music director for Temple Beth El (New York, NY), rabbinics and theology faculty at the Academy for Jewish Religion, spiritual director in faculty and private practice, and co-founder of Bayit: Building Jewish. In secular life, Markus presides in New York Supreme Court in a parallel public service career that spanned all branches and levels of government, from presidential campaigns to local environmental causes.  Markus was named a global “Innovator in Public Service” (Harvard University 2001).