Priestly Blessing: Lovingkindness Prayer

Jan 15, 2021 | Open My Heart

Episode 13: Priestly Blessing: Lovingkindness Prayer

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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Prayer as a Hug

Jan 11, 2021 | Open My Heart

Episode 12: Prayer as a Hug

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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Embodied Chant to Open the Heart

Dec 28, 2020 | Open My Heart

Episode 9: Embodied Chant to Open the Heart

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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