fbpx

Resource Category: Community

Passover: Four Cups Toward Freedom – Exploration of Liberation and How to Reclaim the Passover Seder for Ourselves with the T’Shuvah Center

Leaving Egypt is not just about our story and journey on the road to freedom. It is a foundational roadmap to liberation, both for a community and individuals and offers us a story of recovery. Each year, we retell it as a reminder to leave behind constrictions and slavery, and instead choose freedom and sovereignty. Jewish tradition commands us, as we are telling the story, to see ourselves as if we have left Egypt. Egypt is not just a country, an ancient place, or a space. It is not just the setting of the enslavement that we’ve endured. It is also an edict about how we leave Egypt internally.
Read more

V’NAHAFOCH HU: A Guide to Throwing an Inclusive Purim Party

In this resource, we seek to address how we can talk about Purim and Purim celebrations in an inclusive way that allows everyone to celebrate safely and doesn’t call anyone out for how they choose to celebrate? Included are an alternative reading of the Mitzvah of Intoxication on Purim, a guide to how to promote your event, and a guide to how to make your spaces safer for those experiencing alcohol and substance addiction.
Read more

V’NAHAFOCH HU: Turn it Upside Down – An Alternative Reading to the Mitzvah of Intoxication on Purim

From Arielle Krule and the T’shuvah Center Team | There is an oft-used statement from the Talmud on Purim that “a person is obligated to become intoxicated on Purim until they do not know the difference between the curse of Haman and righteousness of Mordechai.” This statement has been used as the guiding principle for what Purim celebrations have comprised in the Jewish community, but that statement contains a deeper meaning, hidden right beneath the surface.
Read more

What Connects Moses and Esther? Imposter Syndrome

Masks are a major part of the celebration of Purim — but also the way we operate in the world. Depending on the social setting, masks are the things we hide behind to conceal our true selves for fear of rejection. Often, the use of masks in public spaces is out of an insecurity that deep down, we aren’t who people think we are — otherwise known as imposter syndrome.
Read more

Death and Sorting

By Rabbi Sandra Cohen | After the death of her father-in-law, Rabbi Sandra reflects on grief is funny. "Just when you think you have a handle on your feelings and on the physical energy around mourning, it creeps up on you from behind and nails you to the wall."
Read more

A Helpful Reminder of Kavod Habriyut

For JDAIM and beyond, learn about kavod habriyut - the value of unqualified universal respect applies to all human beings, whether young or old, sick or healthy, tzadik (righteous person) or rasha (criminal), independent of social status, identity or context. Related to that idea is the Jewish value — and our mental health value — of all human beings being created in the image of God, b'tzelem Elohim.
Read more