At the heart of my work is cultivating our capacity for authentic connection, resilience, and meaningful engagement with life.
Drawing on Jewish wisdom, embodied practice, and contemporary understandings of resilience and well-being, I create opportunities for learning, reflection, and meaningful connection. I believe that wisdom is not only something we study, but something we experience and live.
Whether in classrooms, congregations, individual sessions, or hospice care, I am blessed to accompany people as they navigate uncertainty, celebrate what matters, and seek connection with themselves, one another, and something greater.
Short Bio+
Creator of Prayer Keys. I’m a rabbi, educator, prayer leader, hospice spiritual counselor, and certified Somatic Experiencing® practitioner. My work draws on Jewish texts and traditions, experiential education, somatic awareness, prayer, song, and movement.
I serve as Associate Rabbi at Temple Sinai in Marblehead, a guest prayer leader and educator at Temple Beth David in Westwood, and a spiritual counselor with Brighton Hospice. I also teach in Hebrew College’s Master’s in Jewish Education program, developing graduate-level courses on Jewish wisdom, well-being, and spiritual resilience.
I received rabbinic ordination and a Master’s in Jewish Education from Hebrew College and am a certified Somatic Experiencing® practitioner. I created Prayer Keys through the M² Pedagogies of T’fillah Research Fellowship.
TORAH & TEACHING
Ancient wisdom. Living questions.
What becomes possible when we encounter Jewish texts through our questions, relationships, bodies, and everyday lives?
My teaching brings close engagement with Jewish wisdom into conversation with contemporary research on resilience and well-being, embodied practice, and experiential learning. I invite participants to explore the material, notice their own responses, and develop meaningful relationships with the tradition.
At Hebrew College, I develop and teach graduate courses including Judaism, Resilience, and Well-Being and Cultivating Spiritual Resilience in Jewish Educational Settings.
I welcome invitations for workshops, retreats, guest teaching, and scholar-in-residence engagements.
Prayer and song that invite participation and connection.
Weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, funerals, and personal rituals that honor your story and traditions. Together, we can explore what feels meaningful for you and your community.
I offer individual sessions as a certified Somatic Experiencing® practitioner. Together, we attend to bodily sensations, pacing, and the resources that support steadiness and connection.
The work makes room for curiosity about your experience and for noticing possibilities for greater awareness and choice. You do not need a Jewish background or a particular spiritual orientation to work with me.
Movement offers another way to explore rhythm, expression, relationship, and aliveness.
Dance and movement are part of my personal practice and inform how I teach, lead prayer, and engage with Jewish wisdom. Alongside text, prayer, and song, movement creates opportunities to encounter wisdom through experience.
TOOLS OF ATTUNEMENT
Prayer Keys
Turn your attention to what is true— in the siddur, and in you.
A deck and companion practice for noticing the living rhythms of prayer and your own inner experience.
Turn your attention to what is true— in the siddur, and in you.
A printed deck and companion practice for noticing what is present, absent, changing, or staying the same. You don’t need to feel any particular way to begin.
Opening & closing. Expansion & contraction. And the moments in between.
This rhythm moves through the siddur—and through our lives.
FINDING YOUR WAY
Meet the Keys.
Related experiences. Different ways to notice.
Explore the cards. Flip them over; follow the arrow to turn them around.
Press Enter or Space to flip a card. Tab to its arrow and press Enter to turn it; Escape returns to the front.
BEGIN HEREOpening / Closing+
Begin with the gold Key to explore opening and closing. Two expressions share one card; turning it brings the other upright and invites you to consider their relationship.
Paired Keys+
Explore further pairs of expressions, noticing how they relate within prayer and your own experience.
Teen-Inspired Keys+
Language shaped by and for teens, inviting curiosity, relevance, and emotional honesty. Use these Keys independently or alongside the others.
In-Between Keys+
Pause, rest, integration, and serenity: experiences that belong within the living rhythm of prayer.
No prior knowledge of Hebrew or liturgy is needed—only curiosity and a willingness to notice.
When can I use the Keys?+
Before, during, or after t’fillah, alone, with a partner, or in a group or community prayer.
What if I don’t feel what my Key names?+
There is no pressure to find the experience named on your Prayer Key. Notice whether it is present or absent. If you do not encounter it, that too is something to notice.
Where should I begin?+
Begin with the gold Opening / Closing Key or the purple Rest Key. You might make a shape or sound that reflects the expression on your card right now.
Prayer Keys began through the Pedagogies of T’fillah Research Fellowship, a collaboration between M² and the Hadar Institute. Batya continues to refine the Keys through her teaching, research, design, and practice.
THE IDEAS BEHIND THE KEYS
Read the Thought Piece
Explore the ideas and research underlying Prayer Keys.
Created by Rabbi Batya Elana Ellinoy. This resource was developed through the Pedagogies of T’fillah Research Fellowship, a collaboration between M² and the Hadar Institute.
Graphic design by Nechama Rosenstein.
With love and deep gratitude to Elijah Shirman for his care, insight, and invaluable partnership throughout.
With gratitude to all who offered inspiration, encouragement, and feedback, and who explored this practice with me and with others. Your contributions helped shape these Prayer Keys and the practice they invite.
