Each prayer its own world. With its own Torah to teach us.
Most Friday night services move through fifteen prayers in one sitting. Shabbat Unbound asks a different question: what if we took just one prayer — and really stayed with it?
Over eight episodes, we give one prayer our full, undivided attention. Its history. Its language. Its music. The arguments it has sparked, the comfort it has given, and the questions it refuses to resolve.
How Each Episode Works
One prayer. All the way in. No rushing. No catalogue. A singular prayer, explored from every direction.
Song
We listen to how the prayer sounds — its melodies, its variations, the way different communities have sung it across centuries and continents.
Study
We open the words themselves — unpacking the Hebrew, the layers of meaning, the rabbinic debates and the poets who shaped every syllable.
Story
We bring each prayer to life through the people who wrote it, prayed it, and found themselves changed by it.
Eight Prayers. Eight Worlds.
One episode drops the fourth Friday of every month. Start anywhere — or start from the beginning.
Each episode connects to our Shabbat Unbound resource page, providing further tunes, translations, creative interpretations and opportunities for study.
Episode 1 drops on May 22nd, until then check out the lineup below.
01 · Yedid Nefesh
02 ·Shiru L’Adonai
03 · Ana Bakoach
04 · Lecha Dodi
05 · Veahavta
06 · Oseh Shalom
07 · Aleinu
08 · Kaddish
Wherever your Sabbath finds you.
Listen while you cook Friday night. While you walk. While you rest. While you set the table. While Shabbat arrives.
The Podcast Is Just the Beginning
Live Events · Shabbat Unbound Live
Join us in person for the full Friday night experience — song, study, and sacred conversation around one prayer, together in community. Over twelve months, we'll make our way through the world's longest-ever Friday night service.
Further Learning · Resources & Study Materials
Texts, recordings, and curated sources to carry you further into each episode's prayer — between Shabbatot and beyond.
Upcoming Shabbat Unbound Gatherings:
Your hosts:
Miriam Terlinchamp (she/her) is the Executive Director of Judaism Unbound and host of the Tales of the Unbound Podcast. Miriam served as Senior Rabbi of Temple Sholom in Cincinnati, Ohio for 13 years, founded JustLOVE, a multi-faith movement for activists and teaches in the UnYeshiva and at HUC-JIR. She is active on several boards and committees within the Cincinnati community, including serving as immediate past president of the Board of Rabbis and sits on the National Clergy Advisory Council for Faith in Action. Miriam was ordained in 2010 at HUC-JIR, Los Angeles and received her BA in Philosophy of Religion and Studio Art from Scripps College. Miriam loves to write, paint, and make ridiculously fun videos about Jewish values. She lives in Ohio with her daughters, husband, and dog.
Lex Rofeberg (he/him), in his role as Senior Jewish Educator of Judaism Unbound, co-hosts and produces its weekly podcast, facilitates many of its live digital events, and oversees the UnYeshiva: a digital center for Jewish learning and unlearning. He graduated from Brown University with a degree in Judaic Studies, and was ordained as a rabbi in 2021 by ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. You didn’t ask, but he would like you to know that his rabbinic ordination speech looked at OutKast’s song “Hey Ya” through the lens of Jewish numerology. A native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Lex lived for two years in Jackson, Mississippi — working for the Institute of Southern Jewish Life — and he currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with his wife Valerie. He serves on advisory boards, or boards of directors for The Shalom Center, Tikkun Olam Productions, Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations, and Mitzvah Matzos.