Exploring Jewish Meditation & Spirituality: Shabbat Edition

The week is long. The end of it should not be. Shabbat is a time for rest, rejuvenation and shedding what we’ve collected during the week that requires release! Join Rabbi Elissa Sachs-Kohen and Third Space resident musician, Ami Yares, for a Shabbat gathering that leans deeply into music, poetry, and meditation. Together we will reach for wonder, awe, and respite from an increasingly chaotic world. No prior experience with Shabbat or meditation needed.

In this poetry, reflection, and song-filled gathering we’ll invite calm, sweetness and joy. No prior experience with Shabbat needed. Come with all that has piled up in the first six days of the week and we’ll lift each other up as we welcome the seventh.

Two complimentary but essentially different concepts are at the root of all Jewish prayer rituals. One, called Keva, ( קבע) is the fixed structure of our prayers — what we say, when and how. The second, called Kavanah ( כבנה) is the intention, the internal experience, the “spirit” with which we pray.

In this Shabbat Evening service, we will lean deeply into Kavanah through music, poetry, and meditation. Some traditional prayer structure, Keva, will guide us while we make space for deep, and perhaps new, relationships with the prayers, ourselves, and the One to whom we offer our prayers.

Come with an open heart and curiosity. We will welcome the peace of Shabbat together.

Rabbi Elissa Sachs-Kohen served two Reform congregations for a total of 26 years: Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford, CT and Baltimore Hebrew Congregation in Baltimore, MD. Her rabbinate and personal spiritual life are deeply shaped by her participation in the Clergy Leadership Program with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, an 18-month fellowship bringing together early Chasidic wisdom, mindfulness meditation, yoga, music, and prayer. Join Rabbi Sachs-Kohen for Mediation Workshops in November, January, and into 2027.