Forgotten but in the End Remembered (Ekev 5786)
When folks ask me these days, “How’s your mom?” my answer is still, “She’s the world’s best Alzheimer’s patient.” But her world definitely feels like it’s shrinking. We’re approaching a decade since she was diagnosed. While she has blessedly been spared the kind of major personality change many dementia patients can experience, our conversations don’t have much room to roam. We stay close to talking about the meal that will be served next on her floor, what I’m up to today, and, when I visit, listening to music together. At this stage I often get the question, “Does she still recognize you?” That’s hard to answer. She definitely doesn’t recognize most people, though she is totally friendly...
Crisis of Faith (Vaetchanan 5786)
Years ago, when I was a rabbi on a college campus, I found that one of the most wonderful parts of my job was when a student would come to me with a crisis of faith. “College costs so much,” I would tell them. “If it doesn’t provoke at least one serious crisis of faith, you should ask for your money back.” I said this, in part, because of my own experience as a student. In college, I lived across the street from the Hillel building. I have always been an early riser. Put those two facts together and it was easy for me to be a mainstay at morning minyan. I went dutifully every day for my first three years. But in the fall of my senior year, in a moment I can still feel in my kishkes, I...
Listen to Rabbi Josh Feigelson on a New Episode of Drinking and Drashing
Newly released! Listen to IJS Executive Director, Rabbi Josh Feigelson, discuss Jewish Spiritual Practice, Parshat Yitro, and much more in the latest episode of Drinking and Drashing: Torah with a Twist.Available wherever you get your podcasts!
Waking Up to Blessing
Episode 17: Waking Up to Blessing Rabbi Susan Leider invites us to join her as she wakes up, connecting the daily Birkhot Hashachar to each step along the way. Read the episode transcript
Chant to Open the Heart
Episode 16: Chant to Open the Heart Chanting a niggun is not only an outward expression of yearning. It can also penetrate the heart. Rabbi Hannah Dresner, chanting in her car, leads us in practice from a parched place, to open to the flow available at all times. Read the episode transcript
Music to Evoke Prayer
Episode 15: Music to Evoke Prayer Music is so evocative! In just a few notes we can be taken back in time to a far-off place, to a connection with another person. How does that work? What is added through words? Cadence, intonation, emphasis? Join Rabbi Lydia Medwin as she sits with and unpacks her experience of "Change is Gonna Come" with Otis Redding, and find your own prayer through music,...
Personal Morning Davening
Episode 14: Priestly Blessing: Lovingkindness Prayer Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari starts his morning davening (prayers) with the awareness that prayer is an embodied practice. He connects with sensation, with sound, with memory, and with the words of the Tradition for a personal engagement with the morning liturgy. Read the episode transcript
Priestly Blessing: Lovingkindness Prayer
Episode 13: Priestly Blessing: Lovingkindness Prayer How do we prepare our hearts to pray? What conditions our souls to know what is important? Rabbi Amy Eilberg has used the mindfulness meditation practice of metta, or lovingkindness, for this purpose. The phrases she employs to settle and orient her heart are those of the Priestly blessing (Num. 6:2-26). Join her in this prayer practice for...
Prayer as a Hug
Episode 12: Prayer as a Hug The spring and summer of 2020 have been tumultuous, burdened by isolation and confusion during the pandemic, by fear and anger at systemic racism, uncertainty about the future in the run-up to an election. Hazzan Sabrina Sojourner invites us to rest in the hugs of our ancestors, In God's embrace, to find strength and hopefulness. Read the episode...
Etz Hayyim Hi — Praying With A Tree
Episode 11: Etz Hayyim Hi -- Praying With A TreeThe biblical book of Proverbs refers to the Torah as a "Tree of Life" and we sing those words when we return the Torah to the Ark after reading from it. But, what does that really mean? Maor Greene asks just this question, and investigates the experience of prayer with a Tree. Go outside with them to see what it's like!Read the episode...
Embodied Awakening Prayer
Episode 10: Embodied Awakening Prayer The traditional Jewish morning service begins with blessings acknowledging the workings of the body. But, sometimes we need to wake up more fully even before engaging in liturgical prayer. Rabbi Myriam Klotz leads us through her embodied awakening practice, inviting you to join in as well. Read the episode transcript
Embodied Chant to Open the Heart
Episode 9: Embodied Chant to Open the Heart Many people approach prayer as an intellectual endeavor: I read the prayers and they say something, perhaps even what I mean. Others sense that prayer comes from the heart: when in community the sense of belonging and the invitation to connect with spirit opens the heart. Hazzan Joanna Dulkin reminds us that prayer begins in the body, and is energized...
Turn Your Torah into Tefillah
Episode 8: Turn Your Torah into Tefillah Rebbe Nachman sought to use every possible methodology available to him to help people connect with their truest selves and to the Divine. One such practice was turning one's Torah Study into Tefilah (prayer). Rabbi David Jaffe gives us instructions, demonstrates, and leads us in this prayer practice. Read the episode transcript
Praying All Three Paragraphs of the Shema
Episode 7: Praying All Three Paragraphs of the Shema In many liturgically grounded communities, it is often only the first and last paragraphs of the Shema (Deut. 6:4-9; Num.15:37-41) that are recited as a community. But, what about the middle paragraph (Deut. 11:13-21)? Shouldn't it be part of our prayer? Rabbi Dan Liben thinks so, and shows us how he raises it up in a mindfulness-based prayer...
Meditation as Prayer
Episode 6: Meditation as Prayer In the early days of the pandemic (March, 2020), Rabbi Rachel Timoner turned to her own native prayer practice to help her ground herself, and then serve her community. Eventually, she shared her prayer practice with them, and sustained them as well. In this episode, she leads us through that practice in an intimate, personal, contemplative practice. Read the...
Singing Opens Me To Prayer
Episode 5: Singing Opens Me To Prayer Singing is a spiritual practice: it can open the heart, connect us to others, lead us to our deepest selves. But, how does that work? Cantor Ellen Dreskin leads us through her process of singing to become her "all" in life. Read the episode transcript
Praying Outdoors
Episode 4: Praying OutdoorsMany people report that it is easier for them to sense God's presence in the world when outdoors - often meaning in the face of natural wonders or grandeur. Rabbi Chai Levy invites us to consider, instead, just going outdoors, wherever we are, opening up to what is in the moment, and praying "Hello".Read the episode transcript
Sim Shalom
Episode 3: Sim ShalomThe Sages taught, "there is no blessing greater than peace", and for that reason they chose to conclude every prayer service, and many prayers, with peace. Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg leads us through a deep, prayerful reflection on the classic prayer Sim Shalom, Give us Peace.Read the episode transcript
Letting God Love Me
Episode 2: "Letting God Love Me" What could be more delightful, but might be more difficult, than letting God love us? In her practice, Rabbi Nancy Flam invites us to join her in just such a moment: to rest in the divine embrace, without comment, without question. Read the episode transcript
Where do we find what we so deeply need right now?
For Giving Tuesday, we’ve made a one-minute video that speaks to the work that IJS does -- and to our ongoing dedication to you. Your support helps IJS continue to provide meaningful and life-changing programs. Please give as generously as you can.All donations made before December 31 will be matched dollar for dollar thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor.