The Light Lab Podcast
We (Rabbi Josh Warshawsky, Cantor Ellen Dreskin, Eliana Light, and special guests) believe that there is so much insight to be found in Jewish sacred heritage by holding the gems of our liturgy to the light. We see the immense value of personal, heart-opening, empathy-expanding prayer practice. And we love to talk about both!
Episode 62: SPARK - Pesach Edition
Welcome to our spring SPARK! A more free-wheeling, connective conversation between our hosts that we hope sparks something new in you. In this SPARK, Eliana and Ellen explore our journey on the way to enoughness, binding our wounds, & the furry shapes prophets sometimes inhabit. Plus, we listen to some of our favorite songs for the season!
How are you “Shema-ing” this year to actively soften your heart?
Episode 58: Shabbat at Home - Kiddush
This week, in our Shabbat at Home series, Eliana and Ellen explore the Kiddush. Topics include the opening the Shabbat space/time portal, toasting time, and how to exercise our awe and wonder muscles. Plus, we listen to our favorite interpretations of the Kiddush!
What helps you make time sacred?
Episode 56: Shabbat at Home - the Family Blessing
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?
Episode 54: SPARK - Hanukkah Edition
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?
Episode 53: Shabbat at Home - Shalom Aleichem
This week, in our first episode of our Shabbat at Home series, Eliana, Ellen, & Josh explore the liturgy of Shalom Aleichem. Topics include angels of good and evil at the table, different melodies used for the text, and what this poem sparks in us. Plus, we listen to our favorite versions of Shalom Aleichem!
What is your favorite Friday night Shabbat memory?
Episode 52: Shabbat at Home - the Candles
This week, in our first episode of our Shabbat at Home series, Eliana, Ellen, & Josh explore lighting the Shabbat candles. Topics include why we light, different melodies used for the blessing, and what this blessing sparks in us. Plus, we listen to our favorite songs about lighting Shabbat candles!
When does it start to feel like Shabbat for you?
Episode 50: ORAH HI - Behind the Music
This week, Eliana, Ellen, & Josh go behind the music with Eliana’s new album: ORAH HI. Topics include how to make an album with friends, making Hebrew songs accessible, and accessing vulnerability through song. Plus, we learn about the magic behind these sweet new tracks!
Is it more important to correctly conjugate g?d language vs. letting the prayer flow uninhibited?
Episode 49: SPARK - High Holidays Edition
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?
Episode 48: Elohai N’tzor - End of the Amidah Journey
This week, Eliana, Ellen, & Josh explore the end of the Amidah journey. Topics include the Amidah as a personal AND communal experience, symbolism in the shape words take in our mouths, and license to create our own prayers. Plus, Josh and Coleen Dieker perform Elohai N’tzor live!
Do written prayers inhibit your extemporaneous prayer experience?
Episode 42: What’s Next? (Amidah- V’al Kulam and Threefold Blessing)
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?
Episode 35: Holy Glue (Amidah Middle Blessings 9&10)
Your three regular podcast hosts are back as we continue our deep dive into the Amidah with a blessing that is more like a malediction than a benediction, “against enemies,” and its flipside, “for the righteous.” We do some ancestor empathy work and wrestle with language. Other topics include: theological coattail riding, the Talmudic power couple Bruriah and Rabbi Meir, and of course, holy glue.
Who are you dedicating your learning to today?
Episode 26: Diary of the Jewish People (with Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD)
We are so honored to share this conversation between Eliana, Ellen, and Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD. Rabbi Hoffman, (or “Larry” as good friends like Ellen call him) is one of the foremost liturgists and t’fillah teachers of our day. He has written and edited dozens of books on the subject, including the series “My People’s Prayerbook” which we reference for this podcast constantly! Rabbi Hoffman regales us with tales of his childhood, how camp transformed him and the Jewish world, siddur as identity-marker, and what he sees for the future. Plus before the interview, Eliana shares some thoughts on t’fillah in dark times.
Episode 25: Tree Time (Amidah Middle Blessing 6) (with Hazzan Jessi Roemer)
It’s time to talk about time. And trees! We’re back in the flow of the weekday Amidah, exploring the sixth of the middle petitionary blessings. We get into the connection between time and land, being “farmer-adjacent,” giving the earth a voice, and the shmita year of land-rest. Plus, an interview with Hazzan Jessi Roemer about t’fillah, shmita, and her beautiful song “Seij Años.”
Episode 24: Chronic Congregation (with Rabbi Emily Aronson)
How can we make our spiritual communities accessible both spatially and theologically? This is the question that animates Rabbi Emily Aronson, founder of Chronic Congregation. In our interview, Rabbi Aronson gives us so much to think about, including: disability theology, the power of the prayer for healing, and building a better sanctuary. Plus, she shares an original prayer with us, one of many she has written for everyday moments of comfort, rage, and community.
How can we put the promise of collective care into practice?
Episode 23: An Exercise in Sensitization (Amidah- Middle Blessings 4&5)
This week, we’re back in the flow of the Amidah exploring the 4th and 5th middle weekday blessings. We talk timeless personal Passover stories, S&H green stamps, healing vs cure, and being in the body. There's also lots of inter-text, lots of liturgical variation, and lots of questions to be had.
Episode 22: Freeze-Dried Experience (with Rabbi Sid Schwarz)
Rabbi Sid Schwarz has started impactful organizations, written insightful books, and led many groups of Jews to greater meaning and personal engagement with Judaism. We are so grateful to share this interview full of gems, from Rabbi Sid’s social justice work, to his “davenning out of the box” experience, to what he sees for the Jewish future, all connected to t’fillah.
How can you internalize your prayer and hold it out to the world?
Episode 16: Activating Shechina (with Rishe Groner)
What a joy to interview (spi)ritualist, writer, educator, and friend Rishe Groner of the Gene-Sis. A channel of ecstatic & embodied Jewish practice, Rishe lives and breathes prayer- so much so that she has an incredible prayer podcast of her own, Just Pray. We talk about this new project, plus her childhood in a Chabad family in Melbourne Australia, walking in prayer, the keva-kavanah (fixed liturgy-intention) tension, and exploring t’fillah with kids. Plus even more beautiful bits of wisdom. May this blessed back-and-forth activate Divine presence in your day!
Episode 15: Acknowledging What Is (G’vurot)
It’s the second blessing of the Amidah, the fourth installment of our Amidah series, and an all-around enlivening episode! By diving deep into G’vurot, Josh, Ellen, and Eliana explore many questions including: What does it mean to be brought back to life? How is g?d the “owner of the powers,” and can they be rented? And how many movie and musical theater references can we make in an hour without really trying? Plus, listen to the end to hear a song of Eliana’s all about gratitude.
What is YOUR superpower?
Episode 14: Listen to the Siddur (with Rabbi Steve Sager)
Grateful to share another meaningful conversation with Rabbi Steve Sager. If you haven’t gotten a chance, listen back to episode 12 for our first interview. In this continuation, Rabbi Sager reflects on t’fillah through his own life, including his upbringing, his encounter with Mordecai Kaplan, and his path to Rabbinical school. Plus we continue to explore blessings, play and imagination, praying in English, and what it means to listen to the siddur.
What are the moments that make your breath catch in your throat? Where is your wonder?
Episode 13: Who is Present? (Avot V'Imahot)
Now that we’ve taken three steps back and three steps forward, and delved into the first three words of each bracha, it’s time to explore the first blessing of the Amidah- Avot V’Imahot, patriarchs, and as we discuss, also matriarchs. There is so much to uncover in just this one paragraph, including: Our feelings about adding to prayer, Poetic language that goes up to the heavens and back down to earth, inter-text galore, many musical modes, and Jedi ghosts. Really.