Transformative Teshuvah: a High Holiday Resource For a More Just World

The previous year-and-a-half included seismic shifts in the ways we see, face, understand and discuss injustice. From the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic to racial justice uprisings to threats to democracy to ongoing catastrophes of economic, climate, carceral and housing injustice, we have seen even more deeply how all of those intersect. As we head towards the start of this new year, many of us are trying to find our way back to what feels like normal. But we have to remember, in the words of Sonya Renee Taylor, “Normal never was.” It is essential that we not turn away from all that we’ve seen and learned about the deep inequities that have recently led to even more death and suffering than before. Our tradition provides an ideal opportunity each year for exactly this kind of personal and communal work on our accountability and growth, and this resource is offered as a way to take advantage of this period of extended reflection.

Transformative Teshuvah: a High Holidays Resource for a More Just World from the Avodah Institute for Social Change contains a series of text studies, tools for reflection, artistic interpretations, and activities providing different pathways to explore the question: How do we turn towards change?

Each section includes sources for reflection created by a range of rabbis and Jewish educators. This resource is designed to be used in as many different ways as possible. You might decide to engage with one piece of learning each day in the weeks leading up to and through the High Holiday period or delve deeply into a few of these learnings over the holidays. However you explore this, we hope it will offer a pathway for deep introspection, additional learning, and ways to orient ourselves towards sustained and effective engagement in work for justice.