The Light Lab Podcast

Jewish educators in supplementary schools- please fill out our short community survey by May 1st! Shalom my friends! 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. 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! How might t’fillah help us hold both the pain and beauty of the world at once?Shownotes, including melodies used and a follow-along prayerbook page, can be found here. Follow us on ⁠facebook⁠ and ⁠instagram⁠ @thelight.lab.And please share! :)

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!

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 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, 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 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!

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, 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!

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, 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!

This week, Eliana, Ellen, & Josh explore the afternoon and evening peace prayer, Shalom Rav, with our very special guest, Cantor Jeff Klepper! Topics include Burt’s bees, the 1960s, and Jeff’s Jewish journey. Plus we get to listen in to the composing of the classic melody for Shalom Rav. What a treat! Where are you feeling abundance in your life? Check out this week’s show notes @ lightlab.co, including our Shalom Rav spotify playlist! 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, Ellen, Eliana, and Josh explore “v’al kulam” and the threefold blessing, bridging the gratitude and peace sections of the weekday Amidah. Topics include Glinda the good witch, gematria, Siddur differences (it’s a full bingo board!), g?d’s face, and the ancient art of duchenning. What is your blessing? 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!

This week we’re re-airing episode 5 so “Modim Anachnu Lach” can take its rightful place in our Amidah journey! Josh, Ellen, and Eliana nerd out on Jewish-people-monikers, intertext, and gematria (numerology,) plus share our favorite melodies and Thanksgiving traditions. What a great excuse for gratitude! Check out this week’s show notes on our new website!  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!