Disability Wisdom As Soul Care
With Rabbi Lauren Tuchman
Disability Wisdom as Soul Care (DWASC) is a Mussar va’ad/study group that centers disabled experiences and equips participants with Jewish spiritual wisdom and tools for personal and spiritual development, builds much-needed community, and helps support anti-ableism justice work.
We approach learning from a disability wisdom perspective and honor Torah found in classic Jewish texts and in those from Jews and others with disabilities. We believe spiritual wisdom can be found in many places and through many voices, and honor that our spiritual practice is inseparable from our embodied experiences. In this cohort, we will bring our full selves to developing our spiritual practice together as we create a holy container for practice and growth through Mussar (applied Jewish wisdom) and Chassidut (applied Jewish Mysticism).​
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Interested in joining?
We are growing this program—please keep scrolling below to learn more. If you’re interested in getting more deeply involved in the expansion of this program, whether as a facilitator, community member, or participant, please fill out the form below, and we’ll be in touch.
The work of more deeply developing the inner and spiritual lives of Jews with disabilities is essential to providing care, offering repair, and building a more inclusive and anti-ableist community.
We Are Growing
Kirva is honored to be a recipient of Covenant’s 2026 Signature Grant to grow this vital work. With Covenant’s generous support, alongside funding from the Jewish Liberation Fund and dedicated individual donors, we will expand DWASC over the next three years by developing a teacher training program that equips facilitators with disabilities to bring this curriculum to Jewish communities across North America. We hope you'll join us in this next chapter.
Get Trained to Lead this Program
For those with disabilities or chronic illness who feel called to teach and facilitate this work. Through the facilitator training, participants deepen their own spiritual practice while learning to teach and hold this program with care, skill, and integrity—building capacity to bring DWASC to local or digital communities that could benefit from this work.
Bring this Program to Your Community
For community members, organizers, clergy, or leaders—whether or not you identify as someone with a disability or chronic illness—who want to help bring Disability Wisdom as Soul Care to a synagogue, organization, local, or digital network. In this role, participants support the vision and help steward the program in their community, even if they are not facilitating it themselves.
Join A Cohort
For those with disabilities or chronic illness, or who are exploring that identification for themselves, or who want to experience DWASC as participants. Cohorts offer space for connection, learning, healing, and nourishment through disability wisdom and Jewish spiritual practice. Participants are held in a space that centers personal and collective growth within a supportive learning community. Cohorts will be more widely available in 2027 and 2028.
Our Theory of Change
By creating access points to this area of Torah and applied spiritual practice, Disability Wisdom as Soul Care teaches the relevance of Torah-based values and ideas, how to apply them to accessibility and inclusion advocacy, and cultivates accessible community around Jewish learning. Centering Jews with disabilities while welcoming all who are drawn to this work, the program affirms that disability wisdom holds essential insight for Jewish life—and that everyone benefits when all voices are honored as Torah. Through cultivating spaces for learning, healing, and connection, this program supports individuals in showing up as their full selves—more resourced, more connected, and better equipped to build the world we want to live in.
Meet Rabbi Lauren
Rabbi Lauren Tuchman is a sought-after speaker, spiritual leader, and educator ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2018. Based in the Washington, D.C. area, she teaches, consults, and leads workshops across North America on disability access and inclusion, bringing a deep commitment to radical inclusivity and the belief that anyone can take hold of Torah and contribute their unique insights. An alum of the SVARA Kollel and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Clergy Leadership Program, Rabbi Tuchman is a teacher in multiple Jewish mindfulness and meditation communities and is completing advanced training in Jewish contemplative practice. In 2024, she launched Disability Wisdom As Soul Care in partnership with Kirva, and she writes the Contemplative Torah Substack.
Thank you to Our Funders
This program is made possible thanks to generous funding from the Covenant Foundation, the Amy Adina Schulman Fund, and the Jewish Liberation Fund.
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We are actively seeking funding for the growth of this program. If you'd like to donate any amount towards this program, please be in touch with Sam.
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