Torah from the Mountain, Torah from the Well: Attuning to the Kol Demamah Dakah (The Subtle, Silent Murmur)
In this video teaching, we begin by contrasting the earth-shaking revelation at Sinai in Exodus 19 and 20 with the subtle, silent murmur of I Kings 19. This distinction serves as a map for our meditation, guiding us past the noise of the ego toward a sanctuary of inner quietude. Here, we connect with the source of divine wisdom to receive a fresh transmission of inner Torah—revealing that the voice of the Divine is still speaking to us, here and now. This video originally appeared as part of a week-long IJS Daily Sit series in 2021, titled: Standing (or Sitting!) at Sinai, Here and Now: A Week-Long Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Intensive. Click here to access the entire series. A Note on...
A Fateful Talk With a Doctor: Practicing Sh’mirat haDibbur, Mindful Speech
We are heading into the seventh and final week of the Omer period, associated with the sephirah (Divine emanation) of Malkut (Sovereignty), which in Jewish mystical tradition is connected with holy speech. The focus of our practice this week is sh'mirat hadibbur, mindful speech. How might we channel all the middot, the sacred traits we have cultivated over the Omer period, so they inform how we interface with the world through speech and action? How can we transform our communications into divrei kodesh, holy words? As an example of how we might use Jewish mindfulness tools to nurture our innate capacity to communicate wisely and from the sacred traits within us, consider the following...
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...
The Spiritual Journey of Divine Compassion
Join Rabbi Marc Margolius for a podcast on the period of S’firat HaOmer - counting the Omer – a period marking our spiritual journey from Egypt to Sinai – moving from breaking the bonds of slavery on Pessach to developing our capacity to open ourselves to the divine on Shavuot. Marc’s offering includes a teaching and meditation the holiday of Shavuot and divine compassion (chesed), directed to...
Mindfulness: Training the Attention
Listen to Rabbi Sheila Weinberg as she gives an overview introduction to mindfulness practice on an IJS retreat this January; looking at understanding the nature of the mind and developing a quality of alert, stable attention again and again.You can also listen to Sheila teaching at a Jewish Mindfulness retreat at Spirit Rock Meditation Center (6/25/09) [http://dharmaseed.org/retreats/836].
In the Divine Image
Join Rabbi Sheila Weinberg for a meditation on, and exploration of, what it means to experience life as b’tzelem Elohim – created in the divine image. We return to the beginning, to where it all starts, Chapter 1 of Genesis; recognizing that there can be no liberation from bondage without the affirmation of the inherent dignity of the human being. This understanding is articulated in this...
Sh’ma Koleynu – Hear our voice
Join Rabbi Sheila Weinberg in contemplating Sh’ma Koleynu – Hear our voices. This is the reverse of Sh’ma Yisrael, when our plea to hear is directed to ourselves; here, Sh’ma is directed towards the source of mercy and compassion - Adonai Eloheinu. It is a communal project to ask God to hear our voices – the inchoate layers of feeling, need, hope – that join together and become our communal...