Homes of our Heroes (Shemot 5786)
In the last few months, my wife Natalie has launched a new business called The Story Archivist. (This is not meant as a promotional email, I promise--you get plenty of those from me for IJS courses already!) Natalie is a journalist by training, a published author by experience (five young adult novels), and an educator by career. Her work today brings that all together by helping families preserve and tell their family stories: interviewing elders, doing archival research, and writing it up in a way that will allow future generations to know who they are and where they come from. Natalie has wanted to do this for a long time. All of her grandparents were survivors of the Shoah and/or...
Lighting the Way Forward
Earlier this week we held a beautiful celebration of IJS's first 25 years. Below is a recording of Rabbi Josh Feigelson's speech from the event.
Feed a Pigeon. Breed a Rat.
Earlier in the summer, I went to Roosevelt Island. There is a red tram that takes you from the east side of Manhattan, up, over the Queensboro Bridge and the East River and then down to the island. It’s great fun. I was early to meet my friend and so I waited at the tram depot on the Manhattan side for a while. The little plaza by the station was one of those strange places that for some reason...
Walking in the Fields
Summer is winding down. Elul begins on Saturday night. The beginning of Elul reminds me of a story I heard from Rabbi Sholom Rivkin (of blessed memory), a kind and learned man who was the Chief Rabbi of St. Louis for many years. Rabbi Rivkin told that in the old days, if you wanted to go talk to the king, you had to think about who could help you get invited to the palace. You had to...
The Subway Shuffle Redux
Last week was a big week for me. I left my sublet and moved into my very own New York apartment! Even though my new home is not that far from the apartment I was renting, I have to find a new grocery store, a new dry cleaner, a new pharmacy. I also have to figure out how to get to work. I used to live on an express stop on the subway, whereas now I am on the local train. Do I walk down to the...
Silence and Shabbat
The July retreat season flew quickly by. For me, the hidden jewel of the season was the silent contemplative Shabbat. It combined two things that I treasure as part of my spiritual life: Shabbat and silence. Shabbat and silence can be surprisingly similar. To the uninitiated, Shabbat can seem like a bunch of rules, mostly involving things you can't do. But those who regularly observe...
The July Retreat Season Begins with Cultivating Gratitude
Our July retreat season is underway and what a pleasure it is to gather together in person with our far-flung community at the Trinity Conference Center in beautiful West Cornwall, Connecticut! Our first retreat, which was an open retreat, focused on cultivating gratitude, and our second retreat, which is happening now, is for our seventh cohort of rabbis. Here are a few highlights of...
Remembering
It was cool and drizzly when I left my apartment one morning last week, wearing my spring raincoat, but by mid-afternoon, it was sunny and warm. At the end of the day, I walked out of the office, leaving my coat on the rack outside my office door. I rode the crowded subway to my stop, dropped in at the grocery story to pick up a couple of things, and as I started to cross the street to my...
“Good.” “Bad.”
photo credit: Beyond My Ken One of my favorite places to bring friends and family who come to visit me in New York is The High Line. The High Line is a former elevated railroad track that ran between the meat packing district and 34th Street. Thanks to the efforts of a handful of visionary citizens, the track is now an elevated park with beautiful gardens, intriguing art pieces, inviting...
Solid as a Rock
I just returned from vacation, where I went hiking from village to village in the Atlas Mountains. The Atlas Mountains are very steep and rugged, but people have lived there for as long as anyone can remember. The villages cling to the sides of narrow valleys in neat, terraced rows of mud and stone houses, walnut and cherry orchards and small plots of barley and peas. The trails between the...
Shopping Meditation
I hate shopping. I get overwhelmed very easily by the competing demands of all the products, prices, and salespeople. When I can’t find what I’m looking for right away, I tend to get discouraged and walk away, often intending to make do without. So when I went to the neighborhood camera store to buy a replacement battery and they didn’t stock the kind I needed, I took a deep breath and girded...
Receiving Torah
Shavuot, the holiday that celebrates the gift of Torah, begins on Saturday night. The Torah itself describes this occasion as being accompanied by dramatic and terrifying noise and spectacle: thunder, long shofar blasts, earthquake, fire and smoke. As I type this, I am listening to the honks and sirens on Seventh Avenue far below, and I wonder: if Mt. Sinai were in New York City, would...
Setting an Intention
Contrary to many assumptions, spiritual practice is not in fact easy. There are so many reasons – truly compelling reasons - to get up from the cushion, to close the prayerbook, to break the pose, to cancel the meeting with my hevruta (study partner). And yet, the really hard part of spiritual work begins when we transition from the centering stillness of our practice to the busy, confusing,...
Sheila Weinberg Teaching on Retreat
Join Sheila for a teaching on grasping mind she gave in November of 2011 - featuring her wonderful grandkids.
Sheila Reads from Surprisingly Happy
Join Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg as she reads from her new book, Surprisingly Happy: An Atypical Religious Memoir. Included in this podcast is Chapter 18, “Discovering Meditation, Barre, July 1990″ and “Ashrei Yoshvei Veytecha.”
A Gift – Connecting with the Present
Join Rabbi Marc Margolius for a guided meditation, practicing connecting with the present moment, with awareness of what is going on in ourselves and our world.
Gratitude right here right now
Join Rabbi Rachel Cowan for a podcast on how the ongoing process of developing a spiritual practice can help us find joy even with the vagaries and grind of modern day life.
Joy in the Moment That Is
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell, adjunct faculty with IJS, recorded this podcast November 3rd at his Mindfulness Mussar group at his shul - Aitz Hayim Center for Jewish Living. In it, he talks about the common sense that if we just reach a certain goal, achieve a certain thing in our lives, we’ll be happy, but find when we get there that it’s not the magical panacea we’d hoped for, and that this...
Waters of Repose (Psalm 23): Restorative Yoga for Stressful Times
Join Rabbi Myriam Klotz for a relaxing period of embodied spiritual practice. Experience restorative yoga - a kind of yoga that involves gentle, passive stretching, allowing the nervous system to quiet down and experience deep rest. Explore how, in stressful times, we can find our ways to the waters of quiet and repose, restoring the soul to a place of ease and well being. Find renewal in...
Walking as Practice
This meditation is from Preparing the Heart: Meditations for Jewish Spiritual Practice. Rabbi Sheila Weinberg describes walking practice as a way of paying attention to the sensations in the body, gathering our attention and focus in the body. Walking practice is based in bringing awareness to each step as it manifests in sensation through the entire body. Walking is its own practice when it...