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 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 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 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!