ACC & CCAR Program: Giving Thanks, Singing Our Days: Spiritual Practices for The Shir Shel Yom with Rabbi Debra J Robbins and Cantor Richard Cohn

Cosponsored with the CCAR. Click here for the recording.

Explore the rich opportunities for engaging with the Psalm of the Day, using New Each Day: A Spiritual Practice for Reading Psalms by Rabbi Debra Robbins. The practice includes a sequence of nigunim to be chanted in coordination with the seven-day cycle, composed by Cantor Richard Cohn. Learn how colleagues collaborated on this project and how to explore this new expression of an old tradition in your own life and with your community.

Please note: We expect all participants will be prepared to have Zoom video turned “on” so we can talk and sing together. In addition, it will be helpful (but not necessary) to have a copy of the book, as well as a pencil and paper. Sheet music and recordings will be available!

Presenter Bio:

Rabbi Debra J. Robbins has served Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, Texas since 1991. She has served CCAR as chair of the Convention committee, Vice President for Leadership, chair of the Task Force for Convening, and as a mentor for the Ethics Committee. She has continued to deepen her practice and completed the 18-month program of study, prayer, meditation, and yoga with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, Rabbinic Cohort 7, and participates regularly in the Hevrayah alumni retreats and study opportunities. 

Rabbi Robbins has contributed essays to a variety of publications, and is the author of Opening Your Heart with Psalm 27: A Spiritual Practice for the Jewish New Year (CCAR Press, 2019) and New Each Day: A Spiritual Practice for Reading Psalms (CCAR Press, 2023). 

Presenter Bio:

Cantor Richard Cohn serves Temple Beth Israel in Skokie, Illinois as Cantor-in-Residence.  He was previously Director of the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music at HUC-JIR, New York, following thirty-four years of service to Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, Texas, North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe, Illinois, and Oak Park Temple B’nai Abraham Zion, Oak Park, Illinois. He has a continuing role in t’filah activities for HUC-JIR.

Cantor Cohn is a past-president of the American Conference of Cantors and a faculty member of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Clergy Leadership Program. He has appeared as a soloist and conductor in Jewish music programming throughout the United States and abroad.