Tisha B’Av is a day when we turn courageously to face the truth of the fragility, unpredictability, and groundlessness of our lives. You might wonder, then, what is required of us on this day? We invite you to dedicate a couple of moments to practice as we face the truth of impermanence, and discover an inner refuge that can help us to remain loving, calm, open hearted, and compassionate even in the midst of change and difficulty.
As we enter the month of Av this week, our spiritual task in this period is to grow in awareness of the brokenness in ourselves, our people, and our world – to allow the walls of our own hearts to crack open, allowing ourselves to become vulnerable to pain.
The Hasidic master Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlov contended that rather than avoiding or shutting out that which is painful, we must truly face and enter into it (Likutei Moharan I, 65). “Sometimes, when people don’t want to suffer a little,” Rabbi Nachman taught, “they end up suffering a lot.” (Siach Sarfey Kodesh I, 6).
Rabbi Nachman notes that when experiencing pain, our natural human reflex is to close our eyes, which enables us to avoid external distractions and witness more clearly the underlying interconnectedness of life, thereby transcending one’s finite selfhood. The poet Robert Frost expressed this succinctly: “The best way out is through” (a line from his poem “A Servant to Servants,” in North of Boston, 1914).
In “The Guest House,” the Sufi poet Rumi similarly advises us to set an intention to accept everything that arises as ultimately serving a role in a larger purpose, if we allow it to pass fully through our “system” and “do its work:”
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
In mindfulness practice, we observe aversion to unpleasant thoughts, feelings, and sensations – and welcome them all as honored “guests.” As we wake up, we see more clearly the option of holding our broken heart with tenderness, rather than fleeing from unpleasant or painful thoughts and feelings. In that moment, we are better able to choose to bear that which seemed unbearable, freeing the energy in our brokenness to flow towards healing and wholeness.
A simple meditation practice for entering the month of Av:
הָרֹפֵא לִשְׁבוּרֵי לֵב וּמְחַבֵּשׁ לְעַצְּבוֹת
HaRofeh Lish’vurei Lev, um’chbesh l’atzvotam
God heals the broken-hearted, and binds up their wounds
We mourn the loss of our dear friend and teacher, Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man, who died earlier this month.
We honor Jonathan as a key founder and founding faculty member of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. However, before reflecting on his role with the Institute, please know this:
“For 26 years Jonathan lived in Israel, where he worked as a farmer, until he contracted polio, and subsequently embarked on a career in publishing. He served as deputy chief editor of the Israel Program for Scientific Translations, revising editor at the Encyclopedia Judaica, chief editor of Israel Universities Press, and editor of the Shefa Quarterly. In 1981 he moved to Los Angeles, where he founded Metivta: a center for contemplative Judaism, an academy dedicated to the renewal of the Jewish wisdom tradition and to the deepening of personal religious quest.
He has lectured at universities, colleges, seminaries and monasteries throughout the United States. His publications include numerous essays, some short fiction and verse. In 1990 he visited the Dalai Lama in India, a journey that was described in Rodger Kamenetz’ The Jew in the Lotus.”
Jonathan was a true contemplative and a bold pioneer. When he came to Los Angeles, after years of exploring Jewish mystical texts and practices himself, he made outreach to disaffected young Jews on college campuses, many of whom were exploring Eastern traditions, and showed them authentic Jewish paths to meditation and the inner life. But in addition to outreach, he also was dedicated to in-reach. Judaism, he felt, needed to grow. When he founded Metivta, he told me in his wonderfully wry way, he hoped his efforts would “help make Judaism safe for contemplatives.” I remember one story he told about a meeting he had with Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, explaining to him in a dejected manner that he felt he was failing as a Jewish renewal person; try as he might, he just couldn’t get into all the singing and extroverted emotion. Reb Zalman took his hand, looked him in the eye and said, “Oh Jonathan! You have it all wrong. You’re not a failed ecstatic; you’re a brilliantly successful contemplative.” Relating that story made Jonathan’s bright eyes twinkle yet more brightly.
I met Jonathan in the mid ‘90s through Rabbi Rachel Cowan, who was supporting Jonathan’s work through the Nathan Cummings Foundation (of which Rachel was the Jewish Life Program Officer). Jonathan had a dream to take the mission of Metivta to a national stage. The three of us began talking. And then Rachel invited us, along with Arthur Green, Sheila Weinberg, Larry Kushner, and Charlie Halpern to meet at the Nathan Cummings Foundation office on November 5, 1996 for a day-long brainstorming session. That was the beginning of what eventually became a new national project, incubated at Metivta, called, “The Spirituality Institute at Metivta.” We ran our first rabbinic cohort retreat program under Metivta’s auspices, where Jonathan was one of the three founding teachers (along with Arthur Green and Sylvia Boorstein). We grew the project at Metivta for several years, before becoming incorporated as our own 501(c)(3): The Institute for Jewish Spirituality.
Jonathan was very proud of what became The Institute for Jewish Spirituality, and happy with the role he played in setting it all in motion. He blessed us all with his brilliant vision, humor, honesty and humility. May his soul be bound up in the bonds of eternal life.
For those who would like a taste of Jonathan’s unique wit and sensibility, here is one of his wonderful poems:
fabian rappaport´s other dinner party
his problem with praying he began to explain
but they silenced him
with guffaws and insolent scoffing
no they said
tell us first why you don´t eat
pork or prawns or lobsters or shrimps
or german blood sausage and do you really think
god hates people who eat oysters and frogs´ legs
and creamy beef stroganoff
no they said
tell us first about the origin of evil
about who made hitler and pol pot
and were there quarks in the garden
of eden
my problem with praying he tried once again
but still they scoffed
my problem with praying
he finally shouted
is that there is too much noise
everywhere
Jonathan Omer-Man ©
We are grateful to Best-Selling Author, Rabbi Michael Strassfeld, for speaking with IJS President & CEO, Rabbi Josh Feigelson! Please enjoy the conversation recording below.
Rabbi Michael Strassfeld is one of the editors of the Jewish Catalog (1973), a guide to do-it-yourself Judaism that sold over 300,000 copies. He edited the Second and Third Jewish Catalogs (1975,1979), authored The Jewish Holidays (1985), co-authored A Night of Questions: A Passover Haggadah (1999) with his wife Rabbi Joy Levitt, and authored A Book of Life: Embracing Judaism as a Spiritual Practice (2002). His new book Judaism Disrupted: A Spiritual Manifesto for the 21st Century is published by Ben Yehuda Press. He edits a free weekly newsletter about Judaism (subscribe at michaelstrassfeld.com).
We are grateful to Award-Winning Journalist & Best-Selling Author, Yossi Klein-Halevi, for speaking with IJS President & CEO, Rabbi Josh Feigelson! Please enjoy the conversation recording below.
In his decades of writing from and about Israel, New York Times bestselling author Yossi Klein-Halevi has earned a reputation as a leading interpreter of contemporary Israel and Jewish life for American audiences. In addition to his work as a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, where he co-directs the Institute’s Muslim Leadership Initiative, Yossi has also been deeply involved in the intersection of Jewish and Eastern religious practices in Israel for many years. In this conversation, IJS President & CEO Rabbi Josh Feigelson talks with Yossi about his own journey, and the history and current trends in Jewish spiritual life.
Rabbi Josh Feigelson’s book launch and conversation with Abigail Pogrebin took place on Wednesday, October 26, 2022. The recording of the event is now available below. Feel free to share with friends and family who may be interested. We hope you find this to be a meaningful discussion.
Josh’s book, Eternal Questions, is now available for purchase.
Rabbi Josh Feigelson is the President and CEO of IJS. He received ordination from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School in 2005, and served for six years as the Hillel Rabbi at Northwestern University, where he also earned a PhD in Religious Studies. In 2011, Josh helped found and served as Executive Director of Ask Big Questions, an initiative of Hillel International, which won the inaugural Lippman-Kanfer Prize for Applied Jewish Wisdom. Most recently he served as Dean of Students at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Eternal Questions is his first book.
Abigail Pogrebin is the author of three books, including My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays; One Wondering Jew, which was a finalist for the 2018 National Jewish Book Award. She was an Emmy-nominated producer for Mike Wallace at 60 Minutes, and before that produced for Bill Moyers at PBS. She has moderated conversations at The Streicker Center, The JCC in Manhattan, UJA Federation, and the Shalom Hartman Institute. She served as President of Central Synagogue from 2015-18, and was Director of Jewish Outreach for Michael Bloomberg’s 2020 presidential campaign. She served as President of Central Synagogue from 2015-18, and is a member of IJS’s Advisory Council. To learn more about Abigail Pogrebin, please visit her website.