Rabbi Rachel Barenblat

Purple background. Bold letters read, SAVE GAZA, SAVE THE HOSTAGES, CEASEFIRE NOW, with the standing together logo at the bottom.

I don't have the words to express all the things I'm feeling on this #October7 as the bombardment of #Gaza continues and hostages continue to languish. I'm going to stay quiet and let others speak. Here's a sign from #StandingTogether.

The window of a sukkah looks out on autumn trees and sunlight. Hanging decorations adorn.

Two sparkly pumpkins, a lulav and etrog, and a coffee. In a sukkah.

Chag #sukkot sameach!

I love the ribbons!

I am totally in favor of a graham cracker and chocolate sukkah. My kid and I made a gingerbread sukkah one time. Delicious. :)

I love it!

Poetry Blog Digest 2025, Week 40 A personal selection of posts from the Poetry Blogging Network and beyond.

Despite everything, poetry. With @webbish6.bsky.social @velveteenrabbi.bsky.social @ren-powell.bsky.social @garybarwin.bsky.social @thepoetslizard.bsky.social @jamesmcconachie1.bsky.social @oyoguhito.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @emmalee1.bsky.social 3/3
www.vianegativa.us/2025/10/poet...

A small sukkah is illuminated from within with autumnal string lights and leaf cut-outs and papel picado flags. It is on a deck, about 20 feet above the ground. Behind it, a tall conifer stands alongside the full moon of Sukkot.

May there be joy in our #Sukkot, even in a year like this one. Especially in a year like this one. (Hey everbody, show me your #sukkah! I love seeing other people's sukkot all over the world.) #ZmanSimchateinu

Fragile rejoicing – songs for Sukkot Two years ago I wrote this pair of poems during Sukkot. My shul’s music director Adam Green set them to music, and our community choir sang them at our Tu biShvat concert last year: As soon a…

"Two years ago I wrote this pair of poems during Sukkot. My shul’s music director Adam Green set them to music..."
A new blog post featuring two love poems for Sukkot that still make my heart sing.

velveteenrabbi.com/2025/10/06/f...

This, y'all. So much this.

I don't want to alienate or freak out the people for whom the basic liturgy is already difficult. So when praying on my own or with other liturgically-savvy folks, I mix it up in all kinds of ways. With my kahal, I keep it simple. (But we still do imoteinu. :)

I think the real challenge is folks who don't understand the Hebrew, for whom changing or adding words is a complicating factor. For me -- yes Bilhah v'Zilpah, sure imoteinu, fine add v'al kol yoshvei teivel, while we're at it let's play with God-language too! Brucha at Yah Shekhinah etc! But

I always include imoteinu in the amidah; I grew up on that and it just feels normal. I've never seen the matriarchs added in Ashamnu / the vidui -- though I were to do that, I'd say horeinu, rather than avoteinu v'imoteinu, since it scans better. (And can be inclusive of nonbinary ancestors!)

From: Home Depot To: The Jewish people. • Upon the upcoming Sukkos season we apologize that we are out of stock of "The thing that holds the thing that connects the thing to the thing" Sorry Chag Sameach!

Sukkot connections I didn’t grow up observing Sukkot. It wasn’t really a holiday that was on my mom’s radar; she hadn’t grown up celebrating it. (I wish I had asked my dad whether he celebrate…

(2/2) He was pointing to my papel picado banners that depict the Seven Species that Torah lifts up as the harvest of the promised land: pomegranates, olives, dates, figs, wheat, barley, and grapes..."

Read the whole post here: velveteenrabbi.com/2025/10/05/s...

“I always forget how much I like doing this,” he said. “It’s like our version of a Christmas tree.” (His dad has a tree; we have a sukkah. The decorating does feel parallel.) “And these make me think of Dia de los Muertos or Cinco de Mayo!” (1/)

I am so. goddamn. sick of this "discourse." For heaven's sake, people, there are actual problems in the world and you're wasting your time yelling at Jews for calling ourselves by a Hebrew name that dates back to Jacob's actual wrestle with the angel?

Yeah, the Renewalniks I used to daven with often did the same thing. Rabbi Arthur Waskow, who is now 94 and still writing (may he live to 120 in good health ptu ptu ptu) always said it that way.

Yaaaaay pictures of your cat!

God laughs I see you’re going to give a Yom Kippur morning sermon about hakarat ha-tov, God said. About recognizing the good, even when things aren’t easy. Here, darling — you could use a ch…

"I see you’re going to give a Yom Kippur morning sermon about hakarat ha-tov, God said. About recognizing the good, even when things aren’t easy. Here, darling — you could use a challenge..."

velveteenrabbi.com/2025/10/03/g...

Mr. Hamill, you are a boon to the internet and a gift that keeps on giving. Thank you for actually being the kind of mensch you pretended to be on the silver screen.

I showed the Sound of Music to my teen last year. (He's 15 and had never seen it; I hadn't seen it in ages.) This scene moved both of us deeply. Landed differently for me now than it ever did when I was a kid.

A Jonah for 2025 that grapples with Gaza Around the world, Jews read the book of Jonah on Yom Kippur afternoon. It’s an amazing story — there is so much happening under the surface. (No pun intended.) Anyway: over the years I&…

Yes!

velveteenrabbi.com/2025/09/17/a...

I am... not as good at putting myself first as I should be. You're not wholly wrong. :) Fortunately I am blessed with friends who (and a teen) who are reading me the riot act on that front. So I'm going to try to be better at it.

I would love that. Rabbi at cbiberkshires dot com :-D

(I also think we need mikes designed to pick up multiple voices, rather than mikes that require one to eat them like an ice cream cone. But both may be true!)

I'm so delighted that they spoke to you! It made me so happy to see your name in the Zoom room. I'm sorry about audio difficulties. We're going to investigate getting some new microphones -- including some designed for picking up a whole choir or small ensemble -- for net year.

Home | A Mitzvah to Eat At A Mitzvah to Eat, we empower Jews needing ritual accommodations to safely connect to sacred Jewish practice and community. We provide resources, support, and advocacy for these Jews, as well as the...

I try to be both clear and adamant with my community that if fasting is contraindicated even a little bit, then it is a mitzvah to eat.

I love these folks: www.amitzvahtoeat.org

Thanks, my dear. HaRav Rachel Gavriela bat Leah v'Meir.

Hope, in the Now: Rosh Hashanah 5786 Prelude to the sermon This is the hardest sermon I have ever tried to write. My fear this morning is that when I say something that’s hard to hear, you might stop listening or close your heart to w…

I gave my version on Rosh Hashanah. It is in many ways gentler / less brave than hers -- but I think I threaded the needle of saying what I needed to say in a way that most of my kahal could hear.

velveteenrabbi.com/2025/09/23/h...

The aphasic glitches were WEIRD. I felt like I was above myself witnessing myself. I could see the sentence I wanted to say in my head, clear as day, but couldn't get the words to emerge. I am so sorry that #LongCOVID has introduced you to that experience. I am not a fan.

Noticing, in the Now: Yom Kippur 5786 / 2025 This summer I went on my first clergy retreat with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. As instructed, I detached from my technology. I wrote in a paper notebook instead of on a laptop. I didn’t …

And the d'var is here!

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