Intergenerational Psalm-Writing Workshop

RRC students joined with a diverse group of elders from the community for an intergenerational psalm-writing workshop in March 2007. Singer-songwriter Judith-Kate Friedman and Hiddur Director Rabbi Dayle A. Friedman led the participants, who ranged in age from 25 to 95.

The group studied the traditional Psalm 92, drawing out its themes as a basis for a new version. Then participants worked together on creative writing and on setting the new psalm, "The Shabbat of Our Lives," to music.

Click on the image to view Judith-Kate Friedman singing "The Shabbat of Our Lives."

Read the words of "The Shabbat of Our Lives"©:
The Shabbat of our lives
May we have more days
To love and inspire
And sing Your praise.
Though life is short
And full of woe
With twists and turns
So far to go,

Enjoy the day,
Shabbat has come,
And give us strength
To go on (to the….)

The Shabbat of our lives
May we have more days
To love and inspire
And sing Your praise.

The Shabbat of Our Lives©, a contemporary interpretation of Psalm 92, was
written and set to music by Hiddur: The Center for Aging and Judaism.
The workshop used the Psalms, Songs and Stories© methodology developed by Judith-Kate Friedman and Rabbi Sheldon Marder at the Jewish Home in San Francisco.