“All Four (Are One),” riffing on the story in the haggadah of the four children, is a prayer-poem on the theme of intracommunal discord six months after October 7th (possibly reflected in the family dynamics at the seder table itself). Written by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat, it was first published on the website of Bayit: Building Jewish on 2 April 2024. . . .

A prayer-poem inspired by the ritual Havdallah, preparing a separation between Shabbat and weekday time. . . .

A paraliturgical translation of “k’Gavna” — a portion of the Zohar on parashat Terumah read before Ma’ariv in the ḥassidic-sefardic nusaḥ. . . .

“Listen up, y’all: An interpretive rendering of V’haya im shamoa” by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat was originally published 1 February 2016 at her website, Velveteen Rabbi. There she provided the following description, “This is a creative rendering of the second paragraph of the shema, Deuteronomy 11:13-21. It was written for the service I’m leading this morning with Rabbi David [Evan Markus] at Rabbis Without Borders. (I offer deep thanks to David both for co-leading davvenen with me, and for reading an early draft of this poem and offering wise suggestions.)” . . .

I wrote this a few days after the Boston Marathon bombing. It arose out of a meditation service which I led at my synagogue. The doors to our sanctuary were open, so we had the sounds of the nearby wetland in our ears, and I invited the meditators to join me in cultivating compassion and sending it toward Boston. The line “My heart is in the east and I am in the west” is adapted from the medieval Spanish poet Judah haLevi. . . .

Geshem and tal: rain and dew. We pray for each in its season, geshem all winter and tal as summer approaches…not everywhere, necessarily, but in the land of Israel where our prayers have their roots. In a desert climate, water is clearly a gift from God. It’s easy for us to forget that, here with all of this rain and snow. But our liturgy reminds us. Through the winter months, during our daily amidah we’ve prayed “mashiv ha-ruach u-morid ha-gashem” — You cause the winds to blow and the rains to fall! We only pray for rain during the rainy season, because it is frustrating both to us and to God when we pray for impossibilities. . . .

Tropified texts for Purim 2021 juxtaposing the text of Queen Esther with the words of Vice President Kamalla Harris and poet laureate Amanda Gorman. . . .

A prayer-poem supplication for the afternoon of Shabbat. . . .

A prayer-poem inspired from the liturgical prayer, Nishmat. . . .

The Bayit’s Tu BiShvat Seder Haggadah in PowerPoint presentation format was designed to be projected on a screen to save paper; accompanied by instructions for how to celebrate Tu BiShvat. . . .