Prayer and Spirituality

Shabbat Rituals: The Oldest New Way to Friday

Ancient wisdom to reshape your week, every week.
Educator: Rabbi Jessica Minnen

Register now for Spring Cycle 2025

Deadline: March 7
Start learning on March 17
Course Details
Sessions
4
Recommended for
Everyone
Description

For our ancestors, ritual was a sort of spiritual technology. With meaning and intention, ritual accomplished something specific, something almost magical for them. How might we experience ritual in our modern lives with this same sense of meaning, intention, and accomplishment?

At OneTable, Shabbat dinner rituals are our specialty, and we take a DIY approach. We want to empower you to hold tradition in one hand and your own beliefs, experiences, and passions in the other. In order to do that, we welcome you to "The Oldest New Way to Friday," a four-session exploration of Friday night ritual — not only the words, but where they come from, why we say them, and what they are meant to do.

Every week, the Shabbat dinner table gives you an opportunity to take a break and be fully present in your life. Ritual and blessings can make that possible, helping you carve out a moment in your week to connect to yourself and others. We hope this course inspires you to experience ritual in a way that reflects you, not only where you come from but who you just might become, with meaning and intention. 

Sample Materials
Want to see a preview of this course’s self-guided learning materials? Download a source sheet.
Educator
Rabbi Jessica Minnen is the Director of Program at OneTable. Innovation inspires her rabbinate, and she delights in focusing on Friday night dinner as an ideal practice to meet the changing needs of emerging adults. Her fellowships include the Hartman Institute's Women's Rabbinic Mission, the UJA-Federation of New York's Ruskay Institute for Jewish Professional Leadership, the Eighteen:22 Schusterman Connection Point, The Conversation, and Reboot, and she was named to The Jewish Week's 36 Under 36 in 2014. Originally from Paducah, Kentucky, Jessica is an alumna of Washington University in St. Louis, the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, Paideia: The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden, Baltimore Hebrew University, and the Jewish Theological Seminary.