About Me

My work as a rabbi, educator, prayer leader, hospice spiritual counselor, and Somatic Experiencing® practitioner connects classrooms, congregations, individual sessions, and hospice care. Across these settings, I accompany people as they navigate uncertainty, celebrate what matters, and seek connection with themselves and one another.My approach draws on Jewish texts and traditions, experiential education, somatic awareness, prayer, song, and movement, with curiosity and respect for each person’s experience.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

Jewish wisdom in conversation with lived experience.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 exploring Jewish wisdom, spiritual resilience, and embodied prayer.

• Teaching enquiries
• Embodied Prayer research

Prayer Keys
A deck and companion practice I created to help individuals and communities notice the living rhythms of Jewish prayer and their own inner experience.

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Somatic Experiencing®

A gentle, body-oriented approach to stress and trauma.I offer individual Somatic Experiencing® sessions as a certified 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.

• Individual sessions

Dance & Movement

The body, too, has a voice.Dance and movement are part of my personal practice and inform how I teach, lead prayer, and engage with Jewish wisdom.Movement offers another way to explore rhythm, expression, relationship, and aliveness. Alongside text, prayer, and song, it creates opportunities to encounter wisdom through experience.

Offerings & Contact

✧ Spiritual Counseling & Accompaniment
Conversations about meaning, faith, grief, and change, informed by my work as a hospice spiritual counselor.✧ Somatic Experiencing®
Individual sessions supporting bodily awareness, steadiness, and connection.✧ Lifecycle Ceremonies & Personal Rituals
Weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, funerals, and rituals that honor your story and traditions.✧ Prayer Leadership
Prayer and song that invite participation and connection.✧ Teaching, Workshops & Retreats
Jewish wisdom, embodied practice, and spiritual resilience for communities and educators.✧ Educational Collaboration
Curriculum development, institutional partnerships, and collaborations around Prayer Keys.Tell me a little about what you’re looking for, whether for yourself, a celebration, or your community.[email protected]

• Email Batya

Companion cards for prayer · Tools of attunement

Prayer Keys

Tools of attunement for the living rhythms of prayer.Prayer Keys is a deck and companion practice I created to help individuals and communities notice the rhythms of Jewish prayer and their own inner experience.The cards offer invitations to explore expansion and contraction, gathering and sharing, rest, and other movements within prayer. They encourage curiosity about what is actually happening, without requiring a particular feeling or spiritual experience.Developed through the M² Pedagogies of T’fillah Research Fellowship, Prayer Keys connects Jewish prayer with embodied awareness, resilience, and sacred regeneration.

• Prayer Keys enquiries

Companion Guide

A companion for prayer. An invitation to notice what is true.Prayer Keys (Maftechot T’fillah) are tools of attunement: cards that help us notice and name what is happening in prayer and within ourselves. They invite attention to a living rhythm of opening and closing, gathering and sharing, expansion and contraction, and the moments of rest between. No prior knowledge of Hebrew or liturgy is needed, only curiosity and a willingness to notice.Begin gentlyUse the cards alone, with a partner, or in community, before, during, or after prayer. There is no right or wrong way to use them.1 · ArrivePause and look around. Notice three things you see. Feel your feet on the floor and, if you have one, the siddur in your hands.2 · ChooseSelect a card that draws your attention, or draw one at random. New to the practice? Begin with the gold Opening / Closing card or the purple Rest card. You might make a shape or sound that reflects the expression on your card right now.3 · CarryHold your card, use it as a bookmark, or keep it in sight. Notice whether its expression is present or absent in your prayer or inner experience. What words, movements, sensations, images, or emotions let you know? Notice whether it changes, stays the same, or exists alongside another experience. There is no pressure to find it. Its absence is something to notice, too.4 · ReflectWhat did your card help you notice, appreciate, or wonder about? What, if anything, would you like to carry with you?Finding your way through the deckGold & blue · Paired Keys
Two related expressions appear at opposite ends of a card. Turn it 180° to explore the other expression. Begin with gold Opening / Closing; the blue cards offer further pairs as your practice deepens.Purple · In-Between Keys
Rest, pause, integration, transition, stillness, and lingering belong to the rhythm itself. These cards invite attention to thresholds and the spaces between.Green · Teen-Inspired Keys
An expansion pack shaped by and for teens, inviting playfulness, emotional honesty, and relevance. Use these on their own or alongside the other cards.Further explorationWhat does opening feel like today? Can closing also be supportive? What becomes noticeable when you turn the card?These are additional reflection invitations, alongside the practice in the deck. Let your own experience set the pace.Creator & collaborationCreated 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.© 2026 Batya Elana Ellinoy. All rights reserved.

• Embodied Prayer
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Embodied Prayer

Prayer as a lived rhythm of awareness, connection, and sacred regeneration.My M² research explores how Jewish prayer can support embodied resilience through attention to the rhythms of expansion and contraction within the siddur and within ourselves.It asks how noticing these movements can deepen our participation in prayer and support awareness, connection, and choice. Prayer Keys translates this inquiry into an accessible companion practice for individuals and communities.T’fillah as a Pedagogy of Embodied Resilience and Sacred RegenerationAttuning to the Sacred, Life-Giving Rhythm of Expansion and Contraction in PrayerRabbi Batya Elana Ellinoy · M² Research Fellowship · March 2026

• M² publication
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