Rabbi Rachel Barenblat

Rabbi Rachel Barenblat was ordained by ALEPH in 2011. She is the author of 70 Faces (Phoenicia, 2011), a collection of Torah poems, and serves Congregation Beth Israel in North Adams, MA.

Visiting When Someone in the Family is Ill

Rabbi Rachel Barenblat

When we visit the sick, it is our job to be present, kind, and ready to listen, all of which can be more challenging if the person we are visiting is part of our family.

That Special Yearning for Shabbat

Rabbi Rachel Barenblat

You know that feeling you get sometimes when you hear a piece of music and it makes your heart want to leap right out of your chest? Maybe it's because of what the words mean, or because of how the melody lifts you, or because of what the song represents in

Anticipating the Return of the Sun

Rabbi Rachel Barenblat

Human beings have been paying attention to the ebb and flow of daylight for a very, very long time. Stonehenge, that iconic circle of stone slabs in Great Britain, was built sometime between 3000 BCE and 2000 BCE. Its central sight-lines point to the location

An Unexpected Messenger on Shabbat

Rabbi Rachel Barenblat

I walked to Jerusalem's Ben Yehuda Street toward the end of Shabbat, thinking that I was going to wait on a park bench until Shabbat ended and the stores opened, in order to try to buy a Spiderman kippah for our son. (I should've just bought one in Tzfat when

Right Here, Right Now: How Meditation is Like Shabbat

Rabbi Rachel Barenblat

"Take a moment to settle in to being here," I say aloud. My eyes are closed, but I know there are three other people in the room this morning. I heard them walk in, each to their own place in the sanctuary, and I waited until the sounds of their arrival had