High Holidays, Inclusivity, Jewish Holiday, Ritual, Shabbat
The Spirit of Water
Torah in the Tub Program Outline
Framing:
- Before passing out the sheets (found below), ask: “When I say ‘water,’ what do you think of?”
- Be sure to repeat responses if not everyone in the group can hear
- Bring up the layers of water in your situation. For example, “We are in a hot tub, on a cruise ship, in the middle of the ocean… we’re in water, on water, in water.” Take in group reactions to this. See if there are responses such as “we’re also drinking water!” or “our bodies are made of water!”
- Acknowledge that the conversation is about to get a bit strange, in-the-weeds, but that it’ll be more fruitful if participants open their minds and allow themselves to “go there.”
- Pose the question: “When I say ‘Jewish water,’ what do you think of?”
- Example responses are: wells, mikvah, Red Sea, Dead Sea, the creation story, salt water on a seder plate, etc.
- Group participants in pairs so they have a discussion buddies and pass out source sheets. Again encourage them to lean into the “woo-woo” nature of the task. Encourage them to see what they can “soak up” from these texts that they might not be able to in other spaces.
- You can dive into (hehe) other puns about water/wet — it can actually really help people loosen up and get excited about learning new texts because it shows it doesn’t have to be intimidating.
Learning:
- Print these sheets single-sided, and pick two pages that you’re interested in or you think your community may like.
- Half the group will learn one page and half will learn the other page, and the host will walk around to ask questions, keep conversations going, and spread encouragement. Make a mental note of who makes interesting connections that the rest of the group may want to hear or that may connect with something that someone from another group says.
- After around 10 minutes, go around to each group and give them a 2-minute warning.
Sharing:
- Thank everyone for sharing!
- Depending on timing, you can either wrap it up here, or you can loosely wrap it up and say something like:
- I know this was kinda woo-woo, and I really appreciate you diving into the unknown with me (get it?)! I’d love to hear what you’re thinking about as we close is out — Is there anything that someone else said that’s sticking with you?
- Asking “What’s something that someone else said that you are thinking about” elevates other people’s voices, and builds connections between people, which is a great step to building community.
Hosting a program on the water? Looking to do a fun water tasting? Or, Rosh Chodesh rituals with water? Check out the spiritual elements of water in Judaism: