RESEARCH PAPERS AND EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Explore new jewish pedagogies
During M² Research Fellowships, each fellow develops a new educational practice that addresses the contemporary challenges in Jewish education. Explore and use them with your learners and colleagues.
The Language of Intention: A Practical Lexicon of Kabbalistic Prayer
Rav Jeremy Tibbetts
Co-Director and Rabbi
OU-JLIC
To learn the language of intention is to translate mystical Kabbalistic practices into practical, inner-life guidance for your own spiritual experience.
Access ResourceT’fillah: A Home for the Soul
Rabbi Becca Weintraub
Associate Rabbi
B'nai Jeshurun
To view the siddur as a home for the soul is to use "sticky notes of cleaving" to notice your inner experience and grow through gentle awareness.
Access ResourceHitnakdut: A Reflective Practice for Spiritual Preparation Before Leading Prayer
Rory Katz
Children and Family Educator
Chochmat HaLev Synagogue
To use the practice of Hitnakdut is to engage in spiritual preparation that transforms prayer leadership into a shared practice of grounded presence.
Access ResourcePraying with Playing Cards, Playing with “Praying Cards”
Oren Kaunfer
Madrich Ruchani
JCDS, Boston's Jewish Community Day School
To play with "Praying Cards" is to build a personal, spiritual, and emotional connection to the most essential words in the siddur.
Access ResourceHow to Listen Deeply to the Words of Prayer: אִם־שָׁמוֹעַ תִּשְׁמְעוּ
Jessica Kate Meyer
Rosh Tefillah and Artist-in-Residence
Hebrew College
To listen deeply to the words of prayer is to "enter the word" through embodied engagement, making the liturgy a formative spiritual discipline.
Access ResourceGirsa deYankuta: A Pedagogical Approach to Hazzanut
Isaac Montagu
Freelance educator and hazzan; editor of Sidduré Or
To embrace Girsa deYankuta is to prioritize multivocal listening and group chanting to restore depth and lived continuity to prayer traditions.
Access Resourceהֲלָכָה חָדְשִׁית:A Pedagogy of Invitation to Playful Praxis
Rabbi Scott Slarskey
Director of Jewish Life
Milton Gottesman Jewish Community School Of The Nation's Capital
To engage in Halakha Chadashit (Monthly Jewish Law) is to accept a playful invitation to physically, intellectually, and emotionally explore embodied prayer practices.
Access ResourceIn Her Image: A Pedagogy for Feminine Prayer and Transforming Community
Rabbi Stacey Blank
Director of Education and Leadership Development
World Union for Progressive Judaism
To incorporate feminine language and theology is to raise awareness of how gender affects our prayer and create more equality in the community.
Access ResourceT’fillah as a Pedagogy of Embodied Resilience and Sacred Regeneration: Attuning to the Sacred, Life-Giving Rhythm of Expansion and Contraction in Prayer
Rabbi Batya Elana Ellinoy
Associate Rabbi
Temple Sinai
To attune to the rhythm of expansion and contraction is to cultivate resilience and agency by noticing the living movements within the siddur and yourself.
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