Resource Library

Explore the connections between Judaism and mental health with our educational resources! Below you will find articles, downloadable activity sheets, videos and podcasts, and more about Jewish holidays and concepts, and the ways Judaism addresses mental illness. (Library disclaimer)

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Mahjong: My Surprisingly Jewish Self-Care Practice

By Gabby Spatt | Listening to my mother’s stories, something clicked: My grandmothers were practicing self-care through mahjong and baking long before we had the language for it, connecting to each other and their families through a combination of shared baking and quality time. And now, this game and coffee cake recipe were passed down to me by my grandmothers and my mom. L’dor v’dor, from generation to generation. I even have a mahjong set that belonged to one of my grandmothers, purchased in Hong Kong in the 1960s.
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Shemini Atzeret: A Holiday of Holding

Simchat Torah is one of the most joyful days of the year, filled with music, dancing, and celebration of the Torah. However, its roots in Shemini Atzeret remind us that joy can take many forms, and the boisterous celebrations traditionally practiced on Simchat Torah may not be the kind of joy everyone needs as the High Holiday season comes to a close. Some of us find the most joy in the quiet embrace of those we love.
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From Gap to Gain: Why Measuring Backward Moves You Forward

That six-minute personal best happened because I spent less energy worrying about where I wasn't and more energy appreciating where I was. My body responded to gratitude and confidence instead of stress and anxiety. The course didn't get shorter. I just stopped racing toward the horizon and started measuring the ground under my feet.
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The Rule of Threes: A Jewish Way to Say You’re Sorry

The High Holidays are a season of forgiveness—a time dedicated to improving ourselves and making amends with God and the people we’ve wronged in the past year. Some might see this exercise as trite: Why would we need to be reminded to say we’re sorry to our friends? Others might see it as disingenuous if we all do it at the same time every year, but sometimes we need that external push to actually do it. But how?
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Soul (From Hineni: Caring for the Caregiver)

Spirituality is so much more than lighting candles on Shabbat or sitting in services every week. Our spirituality has the potential to be an infinite source of energy and support. We want you to explore this aspect of yourself as a caregiver, and identify how it can best serve you in your journey.
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Body (From Hineni: Caring for the Caregiver)

Mental health IS physical health and vice versa. We are only beginning to fully understand the way this works and how our actions affect our physical being. In addition, emotions can be a very physical experience, and we gain from learning the skill of tuning in.
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Mind (From Hineni: Caring for the Caregiver)

Mental illness is rarely logical. Thoughts and feelings can collide in ways that make no sense; illness can make someone reject help they know they need and do things that can harm. We attempt to explain what we can, suggest strategies for maintaining objectivity, and point you toward resources that can provide more information.
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Hineni | Caring for the Caregiver

This is a companion guide, not a “manual.” We don’t intend to lecture; we want you to feel as if we are sitting with you at the breakfast table, helping you to step back from your own reactions and look at things objectively. We want it to feel conversational, e.g., one parent/caregiver talking to another, and provide you with information to educate you as a caregiver and accompany you on what is often an incredibly isolating and thankless job. Our team’s extensive experience working with families and educating communities has taught us a great deal about ways to offer support, and we wish to share some of that experience with you and say, “Hineni.”
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Sanctifying Social Media: Doomscrolling and Mental Health

The Hebrew word for being holy/sanctified is “kadosh,” However, many scholars stress that to be kadosh also means to be separate. This dual meaning — to make something holy is to separate it from other parts of our lives — is significant. Separating ourselves from things that are potentially harmful to our mental health like social media would mean making our lives kadosh, holy.
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Accordion Content

The Blue Dove Foundation resource library is constantly growing as we create and collect meaningful content to share. As you are engaging with our resource library, please let us know if you see anything that is out of date or that needs to be updated, whether it regards mental health information or Jewish content. 

Blue Dove both serves and works with members of all kinds of Jewish communities, from the ultra-Orthodox to the unaffiliated. To be as inclusive as possible and respectful of different communities and traditions, we have decided to spell God as such — with no hyphen in place of the “o.” And much like we avoid using “him” or “her” to describe a person (opting for “them” instead), we agreed to treat God as a gender-neutral term. When quoting a resource or text directly, however, we keep the original terms used by the author.

We hope our resources can be used in a variety of settings with different audiences. We invite you to adapt resources in whichever way meets the needs of the group you are working with. To explore how to adapt our resources, please view our webinar with the Jewish Education Project, where we explore adapting our resources: Through the Portal: Exploring the Connections between Judaism and Mental Health with the Blue Dove Foundation.

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