thelight.lab

We are so excited to announce the first-ever cohort of Light Lab Ignite! These 17 fellows chosen from around the country will gather in Durham in June for a deep dive into making High Holiday Family T’fillah accessible, meaningful, and spiritually-resonant for their people. We look forward to new connections, colleague-ship, and community! Thank you to the for making this dream a reality 🍎🍯

💡Hanukkah is just around the corner, but here .lab we’re already thinking ahead to the High Holidays, an incredible opportunity for growth, connection, & resilience-building for kiddos and adults alike. To that end, we are beyond excited to announce a new immersive training experience we’re calling… Light Lab Ignite! Ignite! is designed to support leaders in co-creating accessible, meaningful, & spiritually resonant High Holiday prayer experiences for families in their communities.

Will you be leading High Holiday family t’fillah this fall? Would you like to visit beautiful Durham, NC from June 15th-17th for a learning retreat with & Cantor & other special guests? Would you like to connect in person and online with other passionate educators, songleaders, & clergy for support & celebration? 

Learn more & apply now at http://lightlab.co/ignite ! With tremendous thanks to for making this possible!!

💡New episode! Welcome back to our three part pray-along series, live from Songleader Boot Camp We’re closing it out in the evening with some ma’ariv magic. Join a glorious group of musicians, prayer-leaders, and participants to sing, feel, and perhaps open to something unexpected. And remember to register for our s*ngs ab-ut g?d curriculum & educator training in August!

Click the link in the first comment to listen, share, and subscribe (and learn more about the training!) ❤️

How can t’fillah-as-encounter help us encounter the world anew?

First slide: on a blue watercolor background the slide reads “Evening as Encounter: Ma’ariv & Workshop Live from SLBC.” Includes the light lab podcast logo with a crystal heart-shaped lightbulb and a photo from the service of Steven Chaitman, Ari Weinbaum, Mayta Cohen, and Noah Diamondstein.

Second slide: On the same background is a quote from Eliana: “Each service has its own vibes, its own potentiality. And the evening service is p’giah- encounter. Like our spiritual ancestor Ya’akov, who encountered the Divine, in that place where the Divine was always there and he just did not notice. What do we need for an encounter? Just to be present and open for whatever arrives...and the song is not the prayer- the prayer is the presentness, and the noticing, and the encounter. You already have everything you need to do that.”

💡New episode! So grateful to bring you part two in our special pray-along series, live from Songleader Boot Camp . We’ve arrived at shacharit, the morning service, an opportunity to ground in goodness as we start our day. You’ll hear (and are invited to sing/feel/pray along with) an amazing band of artists, plus new melodies co-created by the incomparable Hannah Zale. What a blessing to start the day together!

Click the link in the first comment to listen, share, and subscribe! ❤️

Can t’fillah help us hold both the pain and beauty of the world at once?

First slide: on a yellow watercolor background the slide reads “We Hold It All: Shacharit Live from SLBC.” Includes the light lab podcast logo with a crystal heart-shaped lightbulb and a photo from the service of Jack Leopold, Michelle Cohn Levy, Eliana Light, Chava Mirel, and Nava Teller.
Second slide: On the same background is a quote from Eliana: “[said before the Amidah] We pray- what is that? Noticing and responding. So if you’d like some things to feel about: what are you grateful for? What makes you say wow? What are your hopes for the world? Something our tradition invites us to do, especially here, is to hold both of these truths at once. Life is so beautiful; Life is so hard.

💡Shalom my friends! We’re back with a special three part pray-along series, live from Songleader Boot Camp. This episode is the afternoon service, mincha, with the incomparable Chava Mirel. Join us for a heart check-in, song, and silence. And keep listening for a behind-the-curtain conversation/class on what it takes to lead t’fillah that softens the heart. So glad to be back in the Light Lab with you!

https://www.lightlab.co/podcast/mincha-at-slbc

What would it take to make t’fillah an exercise in softening the heart?

First slide: on a pink watercolor background the slide reads “Softening the Heart: Mincha & Workshop Live from SLBC (with Chava Mirel & Eliana Light).” Includes the light lab podcast logo with a crystal heart-shaped lightbulb and a photo of Eliana and Chava teaching.

Second slide: On the same background is a quote from Chava: “They all know that everyone is struggling with mental health right now. The kids all know that. I'm not telling them something new. But what I'm telling them is that we happen to possess a technology that addresses that. And if we use the technology-part of the technology being gathering in a room together, part of it being singing together-It's a biological thing, really, for humans… And I think softening the heart is the goal.”

💡This week, in our Shabbat at Home series, and 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!

Click the link in bio to listen, share, subscribe, support, and check out Eliana’s song, Around the Shabbos Table!

First slide: on a blue watercolor background with gold textured confetti, the slide reads “Episode 66: Shabbat at Home - Hamotzi. Includes the light lab podcast logo with a crystal heart-shaped lightbulb and a photo of a challah.
Second slide: On the same background is a quote from Cantor Ellen Dreskin: “What happens in prayer doesn’t stay in prayer. What happens in blessing something can’t just stay with that moment and that blessing. It has to take root in our heart. It has to go out the door with us at the end of the day and become a part of our lives.”

💡New episode! This week, we are elated to bring you our interview with and . 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.

Click the link in bio to listen, share, subscribe, and support.

First slide: on an orange watercolor background, the slide reads “Episode 65: Opening the Treasure Box of Tradition (with Casper ter Kuile)”. Includes the light lab podcast logo with a crystal heart-shaped lightbulb and a photo of Casper.
Second slide: On the same background is a quote from Casper: “Where do we draw that line between the secular and the sacred? Usually we think about it as a vertical line, right? You separate this from that. I think the way to think about it is really as a horizontal line, that everything has a kind of shallowness but also everything has depth. And so the sacred is about finding that depth wherever you are, whatever you love.”
Third slide: On the same background reads, “Celebrate a simcha by bringing gems of liturgy to the light…sponsor an episode of [the light lab podcast logo with a crystal heart-shaped lightbulb]”.

This week, in our Shabbat at Home series, and 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.

Click the link in bio to listen, share, subscribe, support, and check out Eliana’s hand washing song! Shabbat Shalom 💖

First slide: on a peach watercolor background with gold textured corners, the slide reads “Episode 64: Shabbat at Home - Hand Washing. Includes the light lab podcast logo with a crystal heart-shaped lightbulb and a photo of ritual hand washing.
Second slide: On the same background is a quote from Eliana Light: “The work of our hands outlives us. What responsibility can that bring into our awareness about what is it that we are creating that will last? So much of Shabbat is about tasting the potential of what the world could be, not to stay in it forever and not to say, well, I have Shabbat and so I don’t have to do anything for other people, but to wonder what would it be like if it was Shabbat more often for more people.”
Third slide: On the same background reads, “Celebrate a simcha by bringing gems of liturgy to the light…sponsor an episode of [the light lab podcast logo with a crystal heart-shaped lightbulb]”.

💡New episode! This week, we are elated to bring your our interview with and Rabbi Rabbi Adina is co-founder and creative director of the 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.

Click the link in bio to listen, share, subscribe, support, and pre-order Rabbi Adina Allen’s new book, The Place of All Possibility.

First slide: on a pink watercolor background with gold textured corners, the slide reads “Episode 63: Creativity - Codeword for g?d with Rabbi Adina Allen”. Includes the light lab podcast logo with a crystal heart-shaped lightbulb.
Second slide: On the same background is a quote: “[on art-making and t’fillah] We need to handle this material, turn it around, touch it, work with it. Intermix the calls of who we are with the cells of what it is so that something new can be born through that alchemical process. Engaging regularly into t’fillah is a way of handling that, and engaging in art-making through this process is another way of handling it, turning it around, taking it into you, seeing what is the mirror of the self that’s reflected through our interaction with that line or that text today.” -Rabbi Adina Allen
Third Slide: image of Rabbi Allen’s new book, The Place of All Possibility
Fourth slide: On the watercolor background reads, “Celebrating a simcha and want to honor it by bringing gems of liturgy to the light? Sponsor an episode of the light lab” Includes the light lab podcast logo with a crystal heart-shaped lightbulb and music notes.

💡This week, in our third episode of our Shabbat at Home series, and explore the family blessing. Topics include 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 get a special blessing from Eliana’s mom!

Click the link in bio to listen, share, subscribe, support, and check out the light lab family blessing playlist!

First slide: on a peach watercolor background with gold textured corners, the slide reads “Episode 56: the family blessing - Shabbat at Home. Includes the light lab podcast logo with a crystal heart-shaped lightbulb.
Second slide: On the same background is a quote from Cantor Ellen Dreskin: “Not every family is filled with people who are running around saying all the time, I love you, I see you,
I bless you, I hear you, even though they do. And it's kind of like the rest of our prayers - we don't often remember to say them aloud. So it's a good thing that we have a responsibility and we have ritual, this entire ritual around saying to your children, I see you. I hear you. I love you.”
Third slide: On the same background reads, “Check out the official family blessing Spotify playlist! Includes the light lab podcast logo with a crystal heart-shaped lightbulb and music notes.