Many Jews find it hard to connect to Jewish ritual, and yet, Jewish ritual has the potential to deepen our emotional lives. In this course, Elana Stein Hain explores three rituals and how each one might strengthen our capacity to express and harness emotions, like anger, joy, or grief. She takes us through the High Holidays by examining key moments of the season. 

The course begins with Kol Nidre, a central ritual of Yom Kippur, moves into Sukkot as a ritualized expression of joy, and concludes with the rituals of avelut or mourning, reflecting the consciousness of mortality that hovers over this period.