About rbarenblat

My name is Rachel Barenblat. I'm a student in the Aleph rabbinic program; I blog at Velveteen Rabbi (http://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/), named one of Time.com's top 25 blogs. My most poetry collection is chaplainbook, (laupe house press 2006), a collection of poems arising out of hospital chaplaincy work.

Allah is the Light: Prayer in Ramadan and Elul

By September 15, 2009

It is a sticky August evening in Garrison, New York. I’m sitting on a park bench at a retreat center with a woman I’ve only just met. I’m wearing capris, a tank top, and my rainbow kippah. She’s wearing a … Read More

Hearing the Call: Rabbi Arthur Waskow

By October 10, 2008

Rabbi Arthur Waskow turns 75 this month. In honor of that milestone, we sat down over Skype to talk. I first met Arthur in 2002 when I attended a week-long class on tikkun olam which he was teaching at the … Read More

Dreaming with Rodger Kamenetz

By June 5, 2008

"A dream provides an exact tincture of the soul…to wake us from a faint-hearted life." So writes Rodger Kamenetz in The History of Last Night’s Dream. Kamenetz is probably best known as the poet who accompanied a diverse group of … Read More

Three Poems from The Brakhot Cycle

By May 27, 2008

From The Brakhot Cycle   One whose dead lies before him May be in no position to pray or to converse comfortably or even to make plans for the funeral, reschedule his haircut, inform the book group or the bowling … Read More

Roundtable: The Synagogue/ Israeli Politics Mash-Up

By May 6, 2008

Zeek Contributing Editor (and Velveteen Rabbi) Rachel Barenblat asked Rabbis Camille Angel (Reform), Lynn Gottlieb (Renewal), Fred Guttman (Reform), and Meyer Schiller (Orthodox/Hasidic) to discuss the impact of the Israeli state and its politics on their rabbinate. Zeek: Thank you … Read More