Episode 2: Making Ritual Yours with Rabbi Vanessa Ochs
Regeneration: A Podcast About Crafting DIY Jewish RitualShow Notes
On today’s episode, a conversation with Rabbi Vanessa Ochs, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at UVA, and author of Inventing Jewish Ritual, Sarah Laughed, and the Passover Haggadah: A Biography.
Through her work and interview, Rabbi Ochs describes the parallels between rituals and choreographed performance – and how both elevate experiences, mark time, and help us understand who we are as people.
Your home has always been a sacred stage. This guidebook — inspired by scholar and author Rabbi Vanessa Ochs — explores how ordinary objects and everyday moments become Jewish ritual. You'll discover how to hang a mezuzah with intention, create a personalized home blessing, bring Shabbat into your week with simple blessings, and mark the first flowers of spring. Along the way: writing prompts, a chevruta reflection on the theater of daily life, and a blessing for imperfect homes. No grand gestures required. Just your home, your people, and a willingness to pay attention.
Reach more about Vanessa Ochs here.
Check out Moments That Matter: Marking Transitions in Midlife and Beyond
Book by Beth Lieberman and Laura Geller.
Visit our website here to download guidebooks for each episode: recustom.com/regeneration
Get ideas and resources for Jewish family connection at jewishgrandparentsnetwork.org.
If you’d like to sponsor a future episode or share feedback, you can reach us at [email protected].
Regeneration is hosted by Eileen Levinson and Debra Weinberg and produced by Josh Gilbert and Kate Mishkin.
More from Regeneration: A Podcast About Crafting DIY Jewish Ritual
On today’s episode, we speak with Lee Hendler, co-founder and president of the Jewish Grandparents Network. She is also the founder of Freedom’s Feast, an initiative that explores American holidays as opportunities to connect with our values, history, and traditions, and the author of The Year Mom Got Religion: One Woman’s Midlife Journey into Judaism.
On today’s episode, we welcome Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, who thinks deeply and lives deeply in these life cycles, particularly in two major ways: through the environment, and through issues of infertility. In this episode, we talk about the responsibilities the individual has to the community and vice versa, the elasticity of ritual, and the ritual of making lemons into lemonade.
In this episode, we welcome Rabbi Josh Feigelson, PhD, President & CEO at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality – a haven for those looking for Jewish mindfulness.
Today, we speak with Rabbi Shira Stutman, senior rabbi at the Aspen Jewish Congregation, author of The Jewish Way to a Good Life, and host of the beloved PRX podcast “Chutzpod.”
At Recustom, we have a saying: We want to help you make ritual your own, so you can welcome whatever life brings. Rituals are a way to ready ourselves against the unpredictability of life. In this episode, we consider rituals as a way to usher in gratitude, and to be reminded of what we already have.