Shavuot 5785: Remembering Uncle Arthur
On erev Shavuot 1993, a Volkswagen van pulled up outside our house in Ann Arbor. I was finishing my junior year in high school, and we were preparing for the holiday. An unfamiliar older couple exited van and came to the door. I honestly don't remember the interaction that followed, but the long and short of it is that this was my father's brother Arthur and his wife Kate. They had driven from their home in Montana. Art was dying and he wanted to see my father before he passed away. My Dad was the youngest of three children. And while my brothers and I knew our Aunt Marilyn, who moved out to California early in her adult life, we didn't hear much about our Uncle Arthur. I remember seeing a...
Behar-Bechukotai 5785: Arriving Home
Last Friday our family experienced a mini ingathering of the exiles: Our oldest came home for the summer, our middle one returned from nine months on a gap year program, our youngest didn't have a classmate's b-mitzvah to attend. And so, for the first time since last summer, our whole crew was around the table for Shabbat dinner. However briefly (I left on a business trip Sunday morning), we got to feel a special sense of at-homeness that can happen when all the chickens are in the coop. Of course, having everyone at home isn't all sunshine, rainbows, and lollipops. Everyone needs to eat, and everyone has different foods they like or don't like, so the regular "Have you had any thoughts...
Amen: Seeking Presence with Prayer, Poetry, and Mindfulness Practice
Episode 45: Amen: Seeking Presence with Prayer, Poetry, and Mindfulness Practice Is prayer poetry? Is poetry prayer? What is the orientation of mind and heart that one needs to bring to be able to do one, the other, or both? Rabbi Karyn Kedar -- author, poet, spiritual director, and IJS alumna -- invites us into her investigation of these questions through her recent book. Read the episode...
PrayerFull Guide to Prayer Practice – Part 2
Episode 44: PrayerFull Guide to Prayer Practice - Part 2 We welcome back Rabbanit Leah and Rabba Dina to reap the benefits of their work together. In this episode, we will hear their most recent PrayerFull podcast on Great Love. Read the episode transcript
PrayerFull Guide to Prayer Practice – Part 1
Episode 43: PrayerFull Guide to Prayer Practice - Part 1 Just as there are varied prayer traditions in different communities, so there are many ways to enter into prayer. Rabba Dina Brawer and Rabbanit Leah Sarna, Orthodox rabbis, have created a podcast of curated, thematic offerings for personal, contemplative prayer. We have a wide-ranging conversation about prayer, to prepare us to listen to...
Omer 5781: Seven Weeks of Exploration
From Passover through Shavuot, IJS invited its community to count the Omer with us. Each week, we shared an email with an exploration of that week’s particular middah, prepared by IJS faculty. Throughout the Omer, IJS’s free daily offerings helped us focus on the middah of each particular week, and to grow in our ability to embody it in our lives.We are pleased to share the seven...
Thank You, Shekhinah, for Blessing This Day
Episode 42: Thank You, Shekhinah, for Blessing This Day Rabbi Jill Hammer is the co-founder of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, which is a training program in earth based embodied feminist Jewish leadership and spiritual life. She invites us to join in a davvening practice rooted in the Kohenet community, and which she would engage in herself, sitting in Central Park, or at home on...
A Theological Discussion with Dr. Michael Fishbane
We are delighted to share a recording of a special evening with Dr. Michael Fishbane in conversation with Rabbi Nancy Flam. This live public event sponsored by IJS, took place on Wednesday, May 12, 2021. Dr. Michael Fishbane discusses his recently published book Fragile Finitude: A Jewish Hermeneutical Theology. Dr. Michael Fishbane of the University of Chicago is a well-known...
Opening, through Song and Chant, to My Body and Soul
Episode 41: Opening, through Song and Chant, to My Body and Soul Particularly in the West, body and soul exist in two different domains. This is true for classical Judaism, as well. But, they are not separate, they live in one, intimate unity. It takes work to awaken to that truth. Prayer -- particularly through breath in song and chant -- can be a means toward inner and outer unification. Rabbi...
The Words of the Siddur: Evocative Poetry of the Soul
Episode 40: The Words of the Siddur: Evocative Poetry of the Soul Often, when a book is placed before us we think we have to read it. But, that is not what we are supposed to do with the prayer-book. We're supposed to use it to open our hearts to prayer. Rabbi Ruth Sohn shares her personal practice of morning prayer, using the words of the siddur to prompt her own heart to prayer. Join her! Read...
Bringing God Into Our Bodies through Reiki, the Sefirot, and Adon Olam
Episode 39: Bringing God Into Our Bodies through Reiki, the Sefirot, and Adon Olam Spiritual life is all encompassing, and there is no dimension of our lived experience that is outside of its concern. In the same way, most spiritual traditions intuit and focus on shared awareness and experience. Cantor Louise Treitman brings together the healing sensation of Reiki, the energy of the Sefirot, and...
Finding Balance Each Morning
Episode 38: Finding Balance Each Morning How do you start your day? What does it mean to "get out on the wrong side of the bed"? What prepares you to meet the world fully, with the whole of your being? Cantor Bat-Ami Moses offers us a practice of bringing Netzach -- energy and determination -- and Hod --acceptance and receptivity -- into balance in heart, mind, body and soul to begin our day....
Unify Our Hearts — in Love
Episode 37: Unify Our Hearts -- in Love So much of our lives can feel scattered. What should I be doing now? Is there somewhere I should be (or not be)? What am I feeling? How is my heart? We pray "Unify our hearts to love and reverence Your Name" -- and through this prayer, we may find our own inner wholeness. Chant and pray with Cantor Lizzie Shammash in this moving practice of unification....
Praying in the “In-Between”
Episode 36: Praying in the "In-Between" We often think of prayer as coming in prescribed times or in specific places. But, often the most profound prayers come at those "in-between" moments, when things can go this way or that, or when we sense those important (but not necessarilly unusual) transitions in our lives. Dasee Berkowitz shares her "in-between" prayers, and invites us to live, pray,...
Becoming a Soulful Parent: A Path to the Wisdom Within
Episode 35: Becoming a Soulful Parent: A Path to the Wisdom Within "Ayeka", "where are you?" is the first question in the Bible, address to Adam after he had eaten of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. That's a question every parent probably asks their child -- in some form -- when the child does something out of bounds. But, do parents ask themselves the same question? Dasee...
Gratitude and Spiritual Protection Before Getting Out of Bed
Episode 34: Gratitude and Spiritual Protection Before Getting Out of Bed The transition from sleep to wakefulness can be fraught. For some, it is a time to jump out of bed and get the day going. Others just pull the covers over their heads and hide from the morning light. Rabbi Amy Grossblatt Pessah welcomes her soul back to her body and envisions being wrapped in light to set out on her day. We...
Parenting on a Prayer: Ancient Jewish Secrets for Raising Modern Children
Episode 33: Parenting on a Prayer: Ancient Jewish Secrets for Raising Modern Children There are tons of parenting books on the market, most of which are prescriptive and often lead to self-judgment. This week and next, we meet two authors who have reflected on their own experiences as parents and found wisdom to support themselves and others in the complex but delightful and revelatory practice...
Spiritual Journaling as Spiritual Listening
Episode 32: Spiritual Journaling as Spiritual Listening Alden Solovy spoke movingly about how poetry and prayer emerged in his life, and have sustained and nurtured him through very difficult circumstances. Now, he shares a key element of his morning prayer practice: sacred journaling. Listening deeply to his own heart, he touches on Awarnesses, Gratitudes, and Intentions to ground his life, and...
Alden Solovy: “This Precious Life”
Episode 31: Alden Solovy: "This Precious Life" We begin a series of three interviews with authors in the field of prayer. The first is with Alden Solovy, who writes at tobendlight.com, and who has recently published "This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer". His project is to offer us all entry into expressing our own prayers, and finding our way into the prayerbook as...
Praying to the Beloved
Episode 30: Praying to the Beloved Contemplative practice -- for instance, meditation -- can settle the body and mind and help us to sense the deep Oneness of all beings. But, it can also be lonely. We human beings also need connection and relationship. Rabbi Lavey Dereby shares his personal practice of passionate, heart-felt prayer, of reaching out to the One, as Beloved. [Note: the prayer...