Many of us know where to sit in our synagogues for prayer, and allow the space to lead us into prayer. But, what do we do when we are on our own, even if joining in Zoom-prayers? Cantor Shayna DeLowe shares her personal experience of creating a sacred space for prayer, so that we might pray with her, as well.
Weaving traditional liturgical melodies and the poetry of Amichai and Cohen, Rabbi Neil Blumofe walks us deep into the heart of love, through the morning/Shacharit service.
"All of Scripture is holy, but the Song of Songs is holy of holies" said Rabbi Akiva -- and also Rabbi Shefa Gold. She mines this book as a source of inspiration and personal teaching, through chant and silence. "Here comes my beloved!"
In the early part of the morning service, we meet a passage that carries us through a profound contemplation of our lives. Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell leads us through the prayer, and into it, to find our way to love.
In case you missed it, watch Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie in conversation with Rabbi Josh Feigelson, IJS Executive Director. This live public event sponsored by IJS, took place on Thursday evening, February 12, 2021 with an audience of more than 600 people. Rabbi Amichai shares a unique perspective on Purim and offers new ways to celebrate virtually this year.
Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie is the Founding Spiritual Leader of Lab/Shul NYC and the creator of Storahtelling, Inc. An Israeli-born Jewish educator, writer, and performance artist, he received his rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 2016. Rabbi Amichai has been hailed as “an iconoclastic mystic” by Time Out New York, a “rock star” by the New York Times, and “one of the most interesting thinkers in the Jewish world” by the Jewish Week.
Who doesn't like to kiss? But, how many extend that to kissing the mezuzah? Aviva Chernickk has -- as a practice when she comes home and leaves the house, and as a prompt to cultivate the love invoked in the Shema.
Cantor Audrey Abrams brings her background as a music therapist (and her self-awareness as a "shower davener") to help us use chant to open the heart, face our truth, and emerge more whole.
Grounding his practice in the teachings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hacohen Kook and Rav Dov Singer, Rabbi Yosef Goldman leads us into a deep engagement with our own lived experience, grounding us in a heart of gratitude.
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!
Rabbi Susan Leider invites us to join her as she wakes up, connecting the daily Birkhot Hashachar to each step along the way.
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.
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, too.
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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.
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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 the sake of your own heart, and the good of all others.
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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.
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The 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!
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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.
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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 by chant and song.
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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.
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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 practice.
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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.
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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.
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Many 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".
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The 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.
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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.
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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.
To begin our series, Rabbi Jonathan Slater gives an overview of various forms of prayer, setting the context for the varieties of prayer practice we'll meet in this program. He then shares his practice, which includes a chant, for cultivating truth in the heart, so that inside and outside match, to cultivate integrity and wholeness.
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In June 2020, IJS launched a pilot program in a professional development partnership with Jewish Community Centers of North America (JCCA) to bring our programming to hundreds of JCC professionals nationwide and ultimately to thousands of end-users. We're helping these individuals practice Jewish mindfulness through our Awareness in Action course.
Read all about this partnership in eJewishPhilanthropy!
On Tuesday evening November 10, 2020, Rabbi Josh Feigelson, PhD, IJS Executive Director, interviewed Rabbi Dr. Art Green at a live public event sponsored by IJS, to an audience of more than 500 people. This is a full recording of their conversation.
Art Green is one of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality's founding teachers. He is also the founding dean and current director of the Rabbinical School and Irving Brudnick Professor of Jewish Philosophy and Religion at Hebrew College, as well as Professor Emeritus at Brandeis University. He is both a historian of Jewish religion and a theologian; his work seeks to form a bridge between these two distinct fields of endeavor.
Educated at Brandeis University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America where he received rabbinic ordination, Art studied with such important teachers as Alexander Altmann, Nahum Glatzer, and Abraham Joshua Heschel, of blessed memory. He has taught Jewish mysticism, Hasidism, and theology to generations of students at the University of Pennsylvania, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (where he served as both Dean and President), Brandeis, and now at Hebrew College. He was the founder of Havurat Shalom in Somerville, Massachusetts in 1968 and remains a leading independent figure in the Jewish Renewal movement.
Art is author, editor, and translator of more than twenty books. Among his scholarly works are Tormented Master: A Life of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav and Keter: The Crown of God in Early Jewish Mysticism. Art is also well known for his translations and interpretations of Hasidic teachings, including: Speaking Torah: Spiritual Teachings from Around the Maggid’s Table (2013). Among his most recent works are the two-volume A New Hasidim (JPS, 2019), co-edited with Ariel Evan Mayse and a complete translation of the Hasidic classic The Light of the Eyes (Stanford, 2020).
Art’s most recent book is Judaism for the World: Reflections on God, Life, and Love (Yale, 2020).
Welcome to Open My Heart: Living Jewish Prayer. Prayer in the Jewish Community is varied in its nature, but common in its expression -- it is largely a communal endeavor. However, our tradition is rich in sources prompting us to pray regularly, often on our own, in our own words. Perhaps this is the moment, when we are so much on our own, that invites us all to investigate our own prayer practice. Each Monday and Friday, you will be introduced to different forms of spiritual practice. We hope these will inspire and help you create your own unique practice.