{"id":19,"date":"2026-09-19T14:52:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T14:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spiritualhumanisticjudaism.org\/?page_id=19"},"modified":"2026-09-19T15:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T15:31:14","slug":"our-practice","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/spiritualhumanisticjudaism.org\/?page_id=19","title":{"rendered":"Our Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Our Practice<\/h1>\n\n\n

Shaping sacred time, cultivating presence, making meaning together<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Spiritual Humanistic Judaism combines a human-centred philosophy with the spirituality of Jewish life: shaping time, cultivating presence, and making meaning together. It is non-theistic \u2014 in that it does not appeal to a supernatural power \u2014 yet it is fully spiritual, valuing awe, gratitude, courage, love, grief, and joy as real dimensions of human experience deserving of our attention.<\/p>\n\n\n

Prayer (Tefillah)<\/h2>\n\n\n

Tefilla is not prayer in the petitionary sense. It transcends the idea of personal communication with a deity and instead offers a multidirectional, communal practice of reflection, aspiration, and connection. The Hebrew root lehitpalel<\/em> is reflexive, suggesting not a plea to the divine but an act of internal alignment \u2014 a dynamic form of self-examination and communal expression.<\/p>\n\n\n

Whereas \u201cprayer\u201d in English often implies hierarchy \u2014 a plea from the human to the divine \u2014 Tefilla as a Spiritual Humanistic Jewish practice is fundamentally horizontal. It draws us inward and outward simultaneously: inward toward our values, and outward toward community and shared responsibility. As Mordecai Kaplan wrote, \u201cwe must mean what we say when we pray.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

A berach\u00e1<\/em> (\u201cblessing\u201d) doesn’t confer power from on high; it names the good and strengthens our commitment to it. We say things like \u201cBlessed is the light in life\u201d to train attention on what is life-giving and to cultivate gratitude. Tefilla is also communal art: through shared melodies, Hebrew texts, and intentional ritual, we build and sustain our people. When we sing together, we are not merely reciting \u2014 we are creating community.<\/p>\n\n\n

Sacred Time<\/h2>\n\n\n

Shabbat and the festivals are \u201ctemples in time,\u201d set apart for rest, renewal, and ethical clarity. We cross their threshold with breath, silence, poetry, and song. The goal isn’t to escape the world; it’s to return to it more awake and more accountable. Spiritual Humanistic Judaism treats the Jewish calendar, rhythm, and beauty as tools for the inner life and for community repair.<\/p>\n\n\n

Ritual<\/h2>\n\n\n

We keep beloved forms \u2014 Hebrew, melodies, candles, wine, bread, tallit \u2014 as aesthetic, ethical, and communal practices. Candle-lighting is a sensory pause that welcomes Shabbat’s gentleness. Kiddush anchors joy in gratitude. Donning a tallit is a meditation on clothing ourselves in \u1e25esed<\/em> (lovingkindness) and \u1e25eml\u00e1<\/em> (compassion). Each ritual is transparent about its meaning and purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n

Community<\/h2>\n\n\n

Spiritual Humanism places the \u201choly\u201d between people. We sit in circles, share readings, sing together, and value silent contemplation as well as rigorous discussion. Leadership is facilitation, not hierarchy, cultivating a culture where every voice matters \u2014 no one prays for<\/em> us; rather, we pray with<\/em> one another. The community’s courage, care, and accountability are the \u201canswer\u201d to our prayers.<\/p>\n\n\n

Language & Music<\/h2>\n\n\n

We honour Jewish language and music for their beauty and memory, whilst speaking plainly about what we mean. Traditional texts are reframed to align with our contemporary beliefs and values \u2014 we keep the poetry, the metaphor, and the elevated tone, and release statements we no longer hold to be true. In this way, Hebrew remains a living vessel for the liturgical articulation of our spirituality.<\/p>\n\n\n

Ethics<\/h2>\n\n\n

The measure of our worship is the weekday. If the liturgy lifts our spirits but leaves our neighbour hungry or our world burning, it has failed. Spiritual Humanistic Judaism ties gratitude to generosity, awe to responsibility, and rest to resistance against exploitation \u2014 at home, at work, and in the public square.<\/p>\n\n\n

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What this gives us is a path that preserves beauty without supernaturalism, devotion without dogma, and tradition without pretence. It invites us to breathe, to bless, to sing, to argue, to grieve, to celebrate \u2014 and then to act. In short: Spiritual Humanistic Judaism is the art of shaping sacred time and honest language so that our lives, together, tilt toward wisdom, compassion, and joy.<\/p>\n\n\n

Watch & Listen<\/h2>\n\n\n

A recorded service \u2014 Shabbat Toledot: watch on YouTube \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

Our full liturgy, Tefilotenu: Prayerbook of Spiritual Humanistic Judaism<\/em><\/a> \u2014 a non-theistic Shabbat siddur in Hebrew with facing transliteration and English \u2014 is used in our community. Learn more and get the siddur \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spiritual Humanistic Judaism combines a human-centred philosophy with the spirituality of Jewish life: shaping time, cultivating presence, and making meaning together. It is non-theistic \u2014 in that it does not appeal to a supernatural power \u2014 yet it is fully spiritual, valuing awe, gratitude, courage, love, grief, and joy as real dimensions of human experience […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-19","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritualhumanisticjudaism.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritualhumanisticjudaism.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritualhumanisticjudaism.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritualhumanisticjudaism.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritualhumanisticjudaism.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spiritualhumanisticjudaism.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45,"href":"https:\/\/spiritualhumanisticjudaism.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19\/revisions\/45"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritualhumanisticjudaism.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}