Boulder Jewish News Arts, Culture, Events, Lifestyles, Holidays, Synagogues, Education
By Dalia Rotter Youngerwood
As the People of the Book, Jews have always turned to words. We study them, debate them, preserve them, and pass them from one generation to the next. But Judaism has never been only about reading. It has always been about participating.
We ask questions. We wrestle with ideas. We return to the same Torah portions and the same holidays year after year, discovering that familiar texts often speak differently because we ourselves have changed.
That idea became the foundation for SHAVUA: A Guided Weekly Journal Rooted in Jewish Wisdom and the Rhythm of Jewish Time.
Built around the Jewish calendar, each of SHAVUA’s fifty-five weekly entries pairs carefully chosen Jewish wisdom with thoughtful questions and generous space for personal reflection. It is designed to accompany the reader through the Jewish year, encouraging engagement with timeless ideas in a deeply personal way.
One of the guiding ideas behind SHAVUA is that Jewish wisdom has the power to connect us. By engaging personally with these texts and ideas, our own questions and experiences become part of something much larger than ourselves. What begins as a personal reflection becomes part of a shared Jewish conversation.
The past several years have reminded many of us how important it is to stay connected—to our values, to one another, and to the wisdom that has sustained the Jewish people through every chapter of our history. That conviction only strengthened our commitment to creating SHAVUA.
As we approach Rosh Hashanah, many of us naturally begin reflecting on the year behind us and the one ahead. We ask ourselves what we’ve learned, how we’ve changed, and who we hope to become. Jewish tradition has long encouraged us to engage with those questions, not just during the High Holidays, but throughout the year.
My hope is that SHAVUA becomes one small companion in that process—a place to pause, to reflect, and to connect more deeply with Jewish wisdom, with one another, and with the ongoing Jewish conversation that has always been at the heart of our tradition.
