1-800-call-god
Hitbodedut: Your Direct Line to the Divine
WHEN / WHERE
UPCOMING: Jewish Community Center SF
September 10 - 29, 2026
Main Atrium
3200 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94118
ARTIST TALK: The Art of Sacred Conversation
Artist Samantha Grant & Rabbi Batshir Torchino
September 16, 2026, 6 - 730pm
3200 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94118
LABA LIVE @ THE MAGNES
2025 cohort of LABA Bay Artists
@ The Magnes Museum
2121 Alston Way, Berkeley, CA 94720
Sunday, November 16, 2025
FUTURE: support the
i and thou phone tour
Our goal is to get the I and Thou Phone in front of as many people as possible, so please contact us about partnerships, sponsorships, exhibition opportunities, and or foundations or individuals interested in supporting or exhibiting the work.
WHAT
THE I AND THOU PHONE, inspired by Martin Bubers seminal text “I and Thou,” is an interactive conceptual art installation that provides users with the opportunity to have a distraction free, private space to practice the Jewish meditation practice of Hitbodedut before engaging in conscious conversation with others in the community through Makloket L’shem Shemayim, or Sacred Arguing. Via Hitbodedut, users are encouraged to connect first with themselves and the divine, and then with others.
Presented as an antidote to the noise and narcissism that defines the iPhone era, The I and Thou Phone empowers users by providing a concrete tool with which to speak out loud, directly to the Divine, and thereby get in touch with their own still, small inner voice. Users enter a vintage phone booth, receive a prompt, and through hitbodedut, reflect on their own priorities and clarify their thinking before connecting with others in authentic, present dialogue. These “I and Thou” exchanges allow people to actually hear what others are saying when they speak, and to see the full humanity of our interlocuters.
JOIN the conversation
What are the hard conversations you’ve been avoiding?
What should we be talking about?
Contact us to add your conscious voice to the conversation.