Being With What Is

This retreat is open to beginner and advanced students alike. If you have never meditated before, you are welcome! Our practice guidance will be both accessible and deep.

We strive to make this retreat inclusive for all bodies through ensuring the availability of gender neutral bathrooms and chairs without arms. If there are additional ways that we can support your sense of belonging, please reach out to us.

Meditation is contra-indicated to some mental health conditions. If you are not sure whether retreat is for you at this time, please contact us at [email protected]

Shortly after our opening programs on the first day, we will enter into what we call “social silence.” This means that we are inviting you to not speak socially with other participants, check your phone/email, or otherwise “exit” the silence for the duration of each day. This enables you to slow down, sink deeply into the practices, and allows you to truly “re-source” yourself in the spaciousness of the silence. You will have the chance to ask questions of the faculty after instructional periods, in small groups, and during designated Q&A periods throughout the day. We will also be chanting and singing together each morning.

Coming together in a Jewish space to practice can be a deep source of care for ourselves and each other in a time shaped by the 10/7 attack and its aftermath. Each of us has a different experience and different relationships and proximity to the war and its violence and its victims. Acknowledging the diversity of our community, our practice is to notice the closing and othering that can naturally arise in our hearts in response to this moment, and to cultivate openness and understanding.

We believe that our spiritual practice can be profoundly supportive for us to navigate the ever-changing circumstances of our world, and nurture our capacity for resiliency, clear perception, healing, and wise response. Coming on retreat is not a bypass of the suffering in our world; on the contrary, we explicitly do this work in service of building the world we wish to live in, beginning in our own hearts and minds.

Please click the link below to read our framing for practicing on retreat in a time of war:

While our retreat is deeply rooted in Jewish tradition, you are welcome to participate regardless of your Jewish background. All Hebrew terms will be translated and explained. Our Jewish practice will be egalitarian, contemplative, heart-centered, songful, prayerful, embodied, expansive, and deep.

We will be engaging in prayer and Shabbat ritual as a full group, and there will be time built into the schedule for folks with a personal prayer practice to pray. We will be using instruments on Shabbat. There will be an opportunity to say the Mourner’s Kaddish every day.

We will be immersed in the practice of mindfulness, paying attention to the present moment with non-judgmental, loving awareness. While mindfulness is inherent and central to Jewish tradition, our methods for deepening mindfulness on retreat have been learned from the Buddhist tradition. Here at IJS, we integrate mindfulness with Jewish wisdom and contemplative Jewish practice.

Each day will include periods of seated and walking meditation sessions with instructions, as well as a session for Q&A, and opportunities for small group meetings and check-ins with teachers. Additionally, there will be prayerful chanting each morning, teachings, movement practice sessions, 3 meals a day, and a beautiful celebration of shabbat to culminate our retreat. Retreat days start early, at 6:30 AM ET, and will wrap up by 9:30 PM ET.