Week 1: Living in the Moment (August 26th, 2020)

Today we’re sharing a song that brings up some really interesting and complicated ideas about Elul, but more broadly about how we should live our lives. It’s also a bit of a bop, so take a minute, put on your headphones or turn the volume up and listen to Jason Mraz’s 'Living in the Moment.' You can find the lyrics here.

Questions for Reflection

1. What appeals to you about the worldview that Mraz puts forth in this song?  

2. During Elul, we focus on making our relationships right and taking stock of how we grew and changed in the last year. Are there lyrics in this song that inspire how you want to approach your relationships or your personal development?

3. Included in this song is the stanza “I will not waste my days/Making up all kinds of ways/To worry about all the things/That will not happen to me.” If we truly ‘live in the moment,’ might that potentially mean abandoning self-reflection or maybe fighting for causes that matter? How would you reconcile living in the moment with continuing to “worry about things that will not happen to me” — because they happen to others?

Week 2: She is On Her Way (September 2, 2020)

Today, we want to share this beautiful song by Let My People Sing! called "She is on her way". The lyrics are inspired by the quote below by the author, Arundathi Roy. So, pour yourself a cup of tea, sit back and let the voices, the rhythm, the words wash over you and inspire you. 

She is On Her Way- Let Her People Sing

the policemen have thrown away their guns
they kiss their sons and their daughters and their souls are at peace
no more black boys black girls trans women dying
no more reasons that could ever justify their loss
and mothers send their teens out at night
to breathe the sweet summer air and exhale on the ground
the earth was made for them
the earth is made for them
she is on her way
and no one can be silent anymore
every death is a death that my family mourns
we've traded in our numbness and all of our fear
to fight for the lives we now hold dear
and everyone has come to greet the reckoning
the place where our hearts got smaller and smaller
now grows to hold the pain
the brokenness that leads to pain
she is on her way
another world's not only possible
on a quiet day I can hear her breathing
and when the world we're dreaming is ours
we'll be tall inside
there will be no more question
as we pray and sing
that we have each other and what that means
we'll finally get to be together
stare with our hearts at what has been
and find some place of home
she is on her way

Questions for reflection

1.  What do you do to cultivate a sense of hope, even when injustice or pain feels like more than you can manage? 

2. Where and when can you hear the sound of a new world breathing? What does that new, redeemed world look like when you imagine it? 

Week 3: September 9, 2020

Today, we're highlighting a story from Hey Alma. In this piece, author Jenna Goldman reflects on the power of seeing her values reflected in a genre that dominates the world she was raised in, but which all too often is inundated with Christian messaging, outdated gender roles, and conservative values. Moreover, Jenna talks about what it means to be a southern Jew - not necessarily fitting in with her surroundings, but not fitting a normative idea of what it means to be Jewish in America, either.

As a Jew From the South, The Chicks Helped Me Find Where I Belong

"The stereotypical Jewish character featured in a TV show or movie — the one with the loud Jewish (read: New York) accent — never resonated with me or my family’s experience. I went to fiddle camp (an Irish and American fiddle music intensive on my violin teacher’s farm), not sleepaway camp. We put out our white table cloth and drank sweet tea out of the good china on Shabbat, and after throwing bread into the lake in our backyard for tashlich on Rosh Hashanah, we would pull out a fishing rod and throw a few casts, just like my father did, and my father’s father. L’dor v’dor, y’all!"

Questions for reflection

1.  How do you define your own Jewish identity?  What do you include in or exclude from that definition? Why?

2. Are there cultural touchpoints that have been influential for you that might challenge the prescriptive definition of what makes someone Jewish?

Week 4: September 16, 2020

Libby and the Shofar

Today, we are sharing a story of brokenness and resilience. Libby and the Shofar, written by Michal Richardson on Medium is a reminder that sometimes change is painful, but growth sometimes requires it. 

This time of year can feel so high stakes, but this story is a beautiful depiction of what can happen if you let can go of what you expect for yourself and from the holidays.