Protected: Osher: Exploring Wealth, Wisdom, and Joy
Password Protected
To view this protected post, enter the password below:
Donor Covenant
The Institute for Jewish Spirituality
Donor Covenant
“My God, help me to become a “giver.” Help me give… and go on giving. You’ve called on us to be charitable; show me how. Show me how to give with a pure heart, with an open heart, with a heart filled with joy.” Rebbe Nachman of Breslov
In Jewish tradition, charitable giving (tzedakah) is both a responsibility, a privilege and a mitzvah–an offering that connects us more deeply with the Source of Holiness in our lives. At IJS, we view tzedakah as a spiritual practice and as a sacred partnership. We are committed to honoring the trust our donors place in us. We seek to build a supportive culture for and with our donors as part of our IJS community.
What You Can Expect from Us
- Respect & Human Dignity
-
- We value every donor equally, regardless of the size of the gift.
- You will never be pressured, shamed, or coerced into giving.
- Your relationship with our community matters more than any donation.
- Faithful Stewardship
-
- We use contributions responsibly and in alignment with our mission and values.
- We apply gifts to the purpose for which they are given.
- We are committed to prudent and mindful stewardship of financial resources.
- Transparency & Accountability
-
- We clearly communicate our mission, leadership, and programs.
- We make our financial information publicly available on our website.
- Our fundraising practices align with our spiritual practices of honesty, integrity, and accountability.
- Privacy & Confidentiality
-
- We keep personal and financial information confidential at all times.
- We never sell, rent, or trade donor information.
- Gratitude & Communication
-
- You will receive timely acknowledgment and appropriate tax documentation.
- We will share the impact your generosity has on our community.
- You may opt out of communications at any time.
- Access & Responsiveness
-
- You may ask questions about our work or your gift and expect a prompt, respectful response.
- You have the right to speak with staff or leadership.
What We Ask of Our Donors
- Partnership in Sacred Work
-
- We invite donors to engage as partners in sustaining and strengthening IJS.
- We ask that you consider sharing your IJS experiences with others to expand our network and help us grow.
- Clear Intentions
-
- We ask you to communicate wishes related to your gift, which allows us to honor them faithfully.
- Trust in Communal Leadership
-
- We depend on your trust in our lay and professional leadership to steward resources wisely for the benefit of our community as a whole.
Mindful Fall Holidays
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell and Guest Teachers
3 consecutive Wednesday evenings, September 9 – 23, 2026
Rosh Hashanah, Wed Sept 9, 7:30-8:30pm ET
Yom Kippur , Wed Sept 16, 7:30-8:30pm ET
Sukkot, Wed Sept 23, 7:30-8:30pm ET
Course at a Glance
Enhance your holiday experience through a Jewish mindfulness lens. In this new, rolling series of workshops on the Jewish holidays, we will learn about the traditional and contemporary rituals and practices associated with Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. Accessible to all backgrounds with no Hebrew required, this course will help you transform traditional practices into accessible tools for spiritual growth, self-reflection, and presence.
Course Overview
“There is a season for everything…” (Eccl. 3:1)
Jewish tradition affirms that our system of holidays is an opportunity for spiritual growth and cultivation. In this new, rolling series of workshops on the Jewish holidays, we will learn about the traditional and contemporary rituals and practices associated with each holiday, and ways to invest each ritual with mindfulness and meaning.
-
-
- Rosh Hashanah: How do we wake up to our lives? What controls us? How do we change direction and recalibrate how we are living?
- Yom Kippur: A time for deep truth, love, and courage as we face our mortality and seek forgiveness.
- Sukkot: In a world of change and imperfection, let us inhabit our lives as they are and rejoice.
-
Curriculum
Rosh Hashanah is the “head” of the Jewish year. It is a time of shining a bright light on who we are and how we have lived and acted this past year. Jewish wisdom encourages this inner examination as part of a process of teshuvah, returning and recalibrating our lives to be more in sync with our highest sense for who we can be. In our session, we will touch upon the major themes and practices of the holiday from a mindfulness perspective, breathing new life into ancient forms.
Yom Kippur is understood to be the peak of holiness in our year calendar. It is a time of forgiveness – of self and others – and a time for refocusing on the core truths of our lives in the context of our mortality. In this session, we will unpack some of the primary themes and practices of the day, opening them up in a way so that Yom Kippur becomes a way of growing as a human being and not merely a time of religious observance.
Sukkot is, in many ways, the culmination of the High Holy Day season. It is also the most easily embodied of holidays, in which we build and then dwell in huts (sukkot) that are both protective and open. We also gather four species of plants and wave them, connecting with the natural world and the Divine as we seek to receive blessings for the new year. Sukkot is called “the time of our rejoicing”, a time of feeling the joy of life’s blessings, even as we dwell in leaky huts.
Here’s what participants have said about our programs and faculty:
The retreat was well-organized and directed (Jordan did a great job) and the theme beautifully woven into all the instructions, talks, prayers and songs. For such a large retreat, the announcements were kept succint and not overdone–I’ve experienced the opposite on a retreat or two in the past and this was most welcome!
This retreat was transformative. The instructors’ genuine concern for each of us, their ability to treat us with unconditional positive regard, a long with their knowledge and spirituality enabled me to grow within the safety and nurturing refuge in the ark.
Also, the teachers, the rabbis, the leaders – everyone was so brilliant, had such meaningful teachings, observations – even when I thought I couldn’t take in any more, there was more that I gratefully took in. And a special thanks to Jordan, who had to negotiate all the notes on the board and address them in his humorous yet sincere fashion from the bima! The slamming doors! Thanks to you all.
Register Now
IJS is pleased to offer this course at three tuition levels.
Participants can register for our full year of mindful holidays at a discounted rate!
We encourage you to pay at the highest level you can, which will enable more students to participate.
Abundance Level
$149
Basic Level
$79
Mindful Holidays Bundle
$184
Sign up for a full year of mindful holidays at a discounted price! This bundle includes: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Hanukkah, Tu B’shvat, Purim, Pesach, and Shavuot.
Meet Your Instructors:
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell is Senior Core Faculty at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS), where he teaches Jewish mindfulness and text and directs cohort and retreat programs. Jordan began working for IJS as rabbinical student intern in 2005, and was on staff from 2011-2017, as a teacher of Jewish Mindfulness, leading retreats, and as Director of the Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training. Jordan also taught meditation to rabbis and cantors through IJS’ Clergy Leadership Program.
Currently at IJS, Jordan focuses on teaching Jewish mindfulness and text, planning and directing retreats, and leading the development of a new training program for advanced teachers of Jewish mindfulness.Jordan will also continue to share his expertise through online courses and on retreats, fostering mindful engagement with Jewish wisdom and tradition.
Protected: Wise Aging: Walking a Mindful Path (for Sustainers)
Password Protected
To view this protected post, enter the password below:
Community Network Welcome
Welcome to the IJS Community Network
The Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS) teaches Jewish spiritual practices grounded in mindfulness. Your clergy have been part of our Clergy Leadership Programs and are excited to share this wonderful library of resources, mindfulness programs, and spiritual practices. From online yoga to daily meditations, you now have access to these powerful tools for mindfulness, resilience, and deep connection.
What is the Institute for Jewish Spirituality?
IJS is a sacred haven for nurturing the mind, body, soul, and spirit. Since 1999, we have helped countless people navigate our turbulent world by learning to slow down, reconnect with themselves, and find a greater sense of purpose — all grounded in mindfulness and the deep wisdom of Jewish tradition. From guided meditation and contemplative text study to leadership training and retreats, IJS creates opportunities to become more mindful, compassionate, and resilient—and build a more just and peaceful world together.
By joining the IJS Community Network, your clergy is nurturing and expanding the sacred work they are already doing to bring these practices to your community. Now they can share what they love about our embodied practices, Torah studies, and meditation sits directly with you.
No experience necessary. Beginners are welcome!
Free Programs Through the IJS Community Network
👉 Weekday Mindfulness
The IJS Daily Sit: Jewish Mindfulness Meditation
Weekdays on Zoom, 12:30-1 PM ET (9:30-10 AM PT), plus 15 mins of Q and A
An expert Jewish mindfulness teacher offers a short teaching and a brief mindfulness meditation to help us breathe, settle, and respond more wisely to today’s challenges. Includes prayers for healing and an opportunity to recite Mourner’s Kaddish. No experience required. Try us out! Click here to register for the Zoom link and reminders.
👉 Mindful Yoga
The IJS Jewish Yoga Studio
Weekly on Zoom, Mondays 11:00–11:45 AM ET (8-8:45 AM PT)
Led by expert yoga teacher Cantor Lizzie Shammash, this all-levels, drop-in session is informed by Jewish spiritual teachings and designed to relieve stress, increase awareness of breath, and ground in our bodies. No experience required. Click here to register for the Zoom link and reminders.
👉 Mindfulness for Younger Adults
Shevet: Weekly Jewish Mindfulness Community for Young Adults
Weekly on Zoom, Mondays 8:00 PM – 8:30 PM ET (5:00 – 5:30 PM PT) plus 15 minutes of Q and A
Join a community of young adults in their 20s and 30s for a short Jewish mindfulness practice, hosted by IJS Core Faculty Rebecca Schisler and guided each week by an expert teacher of Jewish spirituality and mindfulness. No experience required. Click here to register for the Zoom link and reminders.
👉 FREE Meditation “Starter” Course
The Gift of Awareness
IJS Community Network members receive complimentary access to this IJS flagship course, an eight-week introduction to Jewish meditation. This course is a perfect starter session for a group program for your Sisterhood/Brotherhood, Chavurot, or singles and empty-nesters. Click here for more information. To take advantage of this opportunity, please contact your synagogue director.
Inclusive Spaces for Marginalized Communities
Segula: LGBTQ+ Jewish Meditation
Monthly on Thursdays, 12:00 – 12:45 PM ET (9:00 – 9:45 AM PT)
Join Jes Golden, Ph.D. and guest leaders for a monthly Jewish mindfulness meditation session by and exclusively for those who identify as LGBTQ+. No experience required. Click here to register for the Zoom link and reminders.
Shalem: Jewish Meditation for People with Disabilities
Monthly on Wednesdays, 1:30 – 2:00 PM ET (10:30 – 11:00 AM PT) + 15 mins Q and A
Join IJS Senior Core Faculty Rabbi Sam Feinsmith and outstanding guest instructors for this monthly affinity space for Jewish mindfulness practice for anyone living with disabilities and/or chronic illness and pain. No experience required. Click here to register for the Zoom link and reminders.
Sharing Our Torah: Jews of Color Mindfulness Affinity Sit
Monthly on Wednesdays, 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET (9:00 – 10 AM PT)
Join other Jews of Color and Sephardim/Mizrahim (JoCSM) for a monthly opportunity to connect and slow down for a mindful pause and for connection with each other. Co-led by Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife and Rabbi Sass Brown, and other guest JoCSM leaders. No experience required. Click here to register for the Zoom link and reminders.
All IJS Community Network Members also get 10% Discount on all IJS Online Courses
- Ask your synagogue director for a discount code
- Check our Course Catalog for our current offerings.
Special Discounts for Group Classes
To create a “group class” so you can take a course together in community, we can also arrange a 50% discount (applied to the lowest price point of the course) for five or more of your members wishing to register for a paid IJS offering. IJS will curate a list of courses eligible for this group discount.
Mindful Fall Holidays
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell and Rebecca Schisler
3 consecutive Wednesday evenings, September 9 – 23, 2026
Rosh Hashanah, Wed Sept 9, 7:30-8:30pm ET (Jordan)
Yom Kippur , Wed Sept 16, 7:30-8:30pm ET (Jordan)
Sukkot, Wed Sept 23, 7:30-8:30pm ET (Rebecca)
Course at a Glance
Enhance your holiday experience through a Jewish mindfulness lens. In this new, rolling series of workshops on the Jewish holidays, we will learn about the traditional and contemporary rituals and practices associated with Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. Accessible to all backgrounds with no Hebrew required, this course will help you transform traditional practices into accessible tools for spiritual growth, self-reflection, and presence.
Course Overview
“There is a season for everything…” (Eccl. 3:1)
Jewish tradition affirms that our system of holidays is an opportunity for spiritual growth and cultivation. In this new, rolling series of workshops on the Jewish holidays, we will learn about the traditional and contemporary rituals and practices associated with each holiday, and ways to invest each ritual with mindfulness and meaning.
-
-
- Rosh Hashanah: How do we wake up to our lives? What controls us? How do we change direction and recalibrate how we are living?
- Yom Kippur: A time for deep truth, love, and courage as we face our mortality and seek forgiveness.
- Sukkot: In a world of change and imperfection, let us inhabit our lives as they are and rejoice.
-
Learn More About this Course from Jordan:
Curriculum
Rosh Hashanah is the “head” of the Jewish year. It is a time of shining a bright light on who we are and how we have lived and acted this past year. Jewish wisdom encourages this inner examination as part of a process of teshuvah, returning and recalibrating our lives to be more in sync with our highest sense for who we can be. In our session, we will touch upon the major themes and practices of the holiday from a mindfulness perspective, breathing new life into ancient forms.
Yom Kippur is understood to be the peak of holiness in our year calendar. It is a time of forgiveness – of self and others – and a time for refocusing on the core truths of our lives in the context of our mortality. In this session, we will unpack some of the primary themes and practices of the day, opening them up in a way so that Yom Kippur becomes a way of growing as a human being and not merely a time of religious observance.
Sukkot is, in many ways, the culmination of the High Holy Day season. It is also the most easily embodied of holidays, in which we build and then dwell in huts (sukkot) that are both protective and open. We also gather four species of plants and wave them, connecting with the natural world and the Divine as we seek to receive blessings for the new year. Sukkot is called “the time of our rejoicing”, a time of feeling the joy of life’s blessings, even as we dwell in leaky huts.
Here’s what participants have said about our programs and faculty:
The retreat was well-organized and directed (Jordan did a great job) and the theme beautifully woven into all the instructions, talks, prayers and songs. For such a large retreat, the announcements were kept succint and not overdone–I’ve experienced the opposite on a retreat or two in the past and this was most welcome!
This retreat was transformative. The instructors’ genuine concern for each of us, their ability to treat us with unconditional positive regard, a long with their knowledge and spirituality enabled me to grow within the safety and nurturing refuge in the ark.
Also, the teachers, the rabbis, the leaders – everyone was so brilliant, had such meaningful teachings, observations – even when I thought I couldn’t take in any more, there was more that I gratefully took in. And a special thanks to Jordan, who had to negotiate all the notes on the board and address them in his humorous yet sincere fashion from the bima! The slamming doors! Thanks to you all.
Register Now
IJS is pleased to offer this course at three tuition levels.
Participants can register for our full year of mindful holidays at a discounted rate!
We encourage you to pay at the highest level you can, which will enable more students to participate.
Abundance Level
$149
Basic Level
$79
Mindful Holidays Bundle
$184
Sign up for a full year of mindful holidays at a discounted price! This bundle includes: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Hanukkah, Tu B’shvat, Purim, Pesach, and Shavuot.
Meet Your Instructors:
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell is Senior Core Faculty at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS), where he teaches Jewish mindfulness and text and directs cohort and retreat programs. Jordan began working for IJS as rabbinical student intern in 2005, and was on staff from 2011-2017, as a teacher of Jewish Mindfulness, leading retreats, and as Director of the Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training. Jordan also taught meditation to rabbis and cantors through IJS’ Clergy Leadership Program.
Currently at IJS, Jordan focuses on teaching Jewish mindfulness and text, planning and directing retreats, and leading the development of a new training program for advanced teachers of Jewish mindfulness.Jordan will also continue to share his expertise through online courses and on retreats, fostering mindful engagement with Jewish wisdom and tradition.
Rebecca Schisler
Rebecca is a meditation teacher, artist, and Jewish educator. A devoted contemplative practitioner, she has led groups and taught classes and retreats with Or HaLev, Wilderness Torah, Pardes, Stanford School of Medicine, Urban Adamah, Hamakom, and the Awakened Heart Project. She was previously the Director of Student Health & Well-being at Stanford University’s Hillel, and co-authored the Mahloket Matters Schools Curriculum with the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators. A student rabbi at ALEPH, Rebecca is passionate about integrating ancestral wisdom traditions with innovative approaches to personal and collective healing and liberation. She teaches Jewish spirituality as an embodied, holistic, and accessible path, with relevant and timely wisdom for all. Rebecca currently lives in the California Bay Area, where she maintains a lively studio art practice as the artist-in-residence at the JCC East Bay, loves to host Jewish gatherings of all kinds, and tries to lose herself among her neighboring redwood trees as much as possible.
Text Study 5787
Text Study 5787
Deepen Your Experience with TorahFull Year Programs Begin October 4, 2026
Studying and interpreting Torah is one of Judaism’s oldest and richest forms of spiritual practice. At IJS, we approach text study holistically – both as an intellectual experience and as an opportunity for experiential, heart-centered, practice-based spiritual growth and development. This year, we bring you two new text study streams with extraordinary Torah teachers, both of whom provide rich material for contemplative study.
For All Learners
The Poetry of Torah
Searching for the Sacred in the Weekly Portion
with Rabbi Rachel Barenblat
This course offers a contemplative approach to Jewish spirituality, grounded in the weekly Parshah, ancient and modern poetry, and daily life. Explore the poetry of Torah through Midrash and mystical texts, integrating learning through creative journaling, personal practices, and traditional chevruta discussion.
Monthly Live Sessions will be held on Thursdays from 11:00 AM-12:15 PM ET. You can find the live session dates below.
For Seasoned Learners
The Illuminated Path
Living Torah with the Me’or Einayim
with Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein
Journey through the annual Torah cycle with the radical, practical Hasidic teachings of the Me’or Einayim (The Light of the Eyes). Blending Jewish mysticism with mindfulness, this text study course transforms deep spiritual wisdom into daily practices that cultivate self-awareness, compassion, resilience, and a profound connection to the Infinite Mystery.
Monthly Live Sessions will be held on Tuesdays from 11:00 AM-12:15 PM ET. You can find the live session dates below.
These programs will support you in finding personal meaning, expanding your spiritual awareness, and deepening your inner life and mindfulness practice. We encourage you to sign-up for a chevruta/study partner or take the course with a friend in order to deepen your learning and practice.
Bring the transformative light of Torah and Hasidic wisdom into your daily life.
For All Learners
The Poetry of Torah
Searching for the Sacred in the Weekly Portion
with Rabbi Rachel Barenblat
Monthly Live Sessions will be held on Thursdays from 11:00 AM-12:15 PM ET on the following dates:
2026: November 12, December 10
2027: January 14, February 18, March 18, April 15, May 20, June 17, July 15, August 12, September 16, October 14
Course Description
Our sages tell us that Torah is written in black fire on white fire. The black fire is the ink, the white fire is the page; the black fire is the words, the white fire the surrounding space of endless possibility. While Torah is often treated as prose and understood in prosaic ways, a tradition teaches that all of Torah is to be understood as poetry. Combining mindfulness practices with poetry both ancient and new, we’ll explore the metaphoric, symbolic approach of Torah as poetry, turning and turning Torah to see her (and ourselves) in a new light, cultivating our ability to hear the kol demamah dakah, the “thin murmuring Voice” at its heart. Each week will include an optional creative prompt or question to spark poetry or journaling. Suitable for beginners as well as those who have an established creative practice.
Curriculum
The curriculum for this course draws from three streams: the weekly Torah portion, the wellspring of poetry (both ancient and new), and the “Torah” of our lived daily experience.
Every week you will receive:
- A new teaching exploring (part of) the Torah portion through the lenses of midrash (interpretive story), mystical texts, and other sources from Jewish tradition;
- A poem, located in conversation with Torah. Some of these poems will be explicitly “Torah poems,” written as a way in to our sacred story. Others will be “secular” or emerging from other places. What will Torah reveal to us through the lens of the poem? What will the poem say to us when juxtaposed with Torah?
- A creative prompt suitable for journaling practice or for responding to Torah with your own words of poetry;
- Instructions for personal practice and chevruta discussion that can deepen integration of learning and experience; and
- Access to an archive of all texts and materials from previous weeks’ teachings.
Testimonials
“Rabbi Rachel is a generous and creative teacher with a gentle and invitational presentation style. She illuminates scripture through the writings and wisdom of scholars and sages both past and present offering her own deep knowledge, personal experience, and poetry. Through her caring and genuine leadership participants feel welcomed to join Rachel on a journey to expand our understanding, explore new perspectives, and engage our imaginations.” – Cathy Warner, Greater Northwest 5 Day Academy for Spiritual Formation
“It is wholly worthwhile journey to deep dive into your inner world of experience and transform yourself spiritually through middot practices and learning. SO VALUABLE THANK YOU!”
“Seeing how the text can connect to mediation and embodied practices. I felt opened up to a different way of experiencing the teachings.”
All Learners FAQ
Can I take this course if I’m not Jewish clergy?
Absolutely! Anyone is welcome, no experience with Jewish text study necessary.
How much Hebrew do I need to know to fully participate?
The weekly texts will be given in English, so one can comfortably participate without knowing Hebrew.
For Seasoned Learners
The Illuminated Path
Living Torah with the Me’or Einayim
with Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein
Monthly Live Sessions will be held on Tuesdays from 11:00 AM-12:15 PM ET on the following dates:
2026: November 3, December 1
2027: January 5, February 2, March 2, April 6, May 4, June 1, July 6, August 3, September 7, October 5
Course Description
Rabbi Menachem Nachum Twersky (1730-1797) is also known as the Me’or Einayim, ‘The Light of the Eyes,’ after the name of his book. Of all the early Chasidic masters, his teachings are among the most clear, the most radical, and the most practically applicable. In this course, we will have the privilege and joy of journeying through an entire Torah cycle with Reb Menachem as our enlightening guide, helping us to appreciate the deepest and sweetest ideas of Jewish mysticism, and learning how to integrate them into our embodied experience through practice.
Anyone is welcome who has had experience with learning Jewish spiritual texts and practicing Jewish meditative practices. This course assumes prior knowledge of and experience with the Torah narrative, Jewish spiritual terminology, and mindfulness practice.
Curriculum
For each week’s Torah portion, we will delve into a teaching from the Me’or Einayim that illuminates our understanding of Torah and ourselves, and offers us a practice to work with.
Reb Menachem, as the name of his book suggests, was primarily concerned with the spiritual light he found within the Torah, and helping us access it in such a way that it helps us progress in every sphere of our lives – our inner, spiritual work, our relationships, and all the ways that we seek to contribute to and interact with the world.
Themes that we will explore, both intellectually and experientially, include: our relationship with ourselves, Torah, our spiritual community, and the Infinite Mystery; Teshuvah; the relationship between intellectual and emotional, embodied or intuitive ways of knowing; our unique path and role in healing and perfecting the world; the importance of our friendships; becoming and refining our vessel for the Divine; proper speech; mindful and spiritually elevating eating; and the cultivation of qualities such as self-awareness, humility, compassion and self-compassion, self-acceptance, self-empowerment, non-judgement, not-knowing and resilience.
After completing this course you may notice:
Having immersed ourselves in Reb Menachem’s luminous teachings and practice instructions for a year, we will be more attuned to, and more fluent with, the subtle spiritual currents that our mystics sensed running through the Torah itself, and all of the mitzvot – the means of connection, as Reb Menachem understands the word.
We will have a greater understanding of Jewish mysticism in general, and particularly the Chasidic project that Reb Menachem is such a helpful exemplar of in its earliest form, while it was still so raw and spiritually radical.
More than that, we will have experienced week upon week of not only learning, but practicing with and embodying Reb Menachem’s insights and guidance that came to him through the weekly Torah portion. Our very bodies and every aspect of our lives will be imbued with the light of his wisdom and the radiant Divine love that he sought to share.
Testimonials
“With Rabbi Daniel as my teacher, I’ve found personal meaning in our Jewish texts, practices that both comfort and challenge me, an inviting space to share questions and reactions and a caring community of fellow seekers. I am so grateful.” – Susan Kaplow
“Learning with Rav Daniel is a wonderful experience. In his classes he brings an extraordinary range of texts from our tradition and makes them meaningful for our lives today. His deep personal integrity, wisdom and spirituality constantly inspire me to walk the Jewish spiritual path and help me with my own awakening and development.” – Rabbi Danny Newman, Founding Partner, HaMakom
“When learning with Rav Daniel, I feel the inner peace and joy that comes with learning from a teacher who is scholarly, spiritual, and down-to-earth. I have also gleaned extremely useful tools in learning how to approach Jewish texts and tradition and how to bring meditative spiritual practice into my life, all in a loving and open-minded way.” – Shira Sacks
Seasoned Learners FAQ
Can I take this course if I’m not Jewish clergy?
Absolutely! Anyone is welcome who has had experience with learning Jewish spiritual texts and practicing Jewish meditative practices. This course assumes prior knowledge of and experience with the Torah narrative, Jewish spiritual terminology, and mindfulness practice.
How much Hebrew do I need to know to fully participate?
The texts will be given in both Hebrew and English, so one can comfortably participate through the translations. However, a lot of the meanings we will discuss are conveyed more clearly in the original than in translation.
I’m agnostic or atheist, or I’m allergic to theistic language in general. Is this for me?
One of the blessings that the early Chasidic masters give us is permission to restore our innocence, wonder and humility, particularly when it comes to the Divine Mystery. Everything that Reb Menachem teaches works regardless of whether we use the words “Hashem”, “The Universe”, “Life” etc.
Course Tuition
IJS is pleased to offer these courses at three tuition levels.
We encourage you to pay at the highest level you can, which will enable more students to participate.
For All Learners:
The Poetry of Torah
For Seasoned Learners:
The Illuminated Path
Meet Your Instructors
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat is a poet, a writer, a mother, a spiritual director, and a rabbi. Co-founder of Bayit: Building Jewish, a Jewish innovation incubator, she was named one of America’s Most Inspiring Rabbis in 2016. She has served as spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Israel of the Berkshires since 2011 and has blogged as the Velveteen Rabbi since 2003. Her collections of poetry include 70 faces: Torah poems and Crossing the Sea (Phoenicia) and Open My Lips and Texts to the Holy (Ben Yehuda.) She teaches at the intersection of spiritual and creative life, including for the Methodist-based Academy for Spiritual Formation. A participant in IJS’ Clergy Leadership Program, she lives and writes in western Massachusetts with her son.
Daniel is a spiritual seeker, rabbi, educator, accredited Jewish meditation teacher (JMMTT) and MC/poet whose journey of healing, creativity, studying and teaching has brought him to Buddhist retreat centers, Chi Kung courses and six years of study in Orthodox yeshivot (rabbinical seminaries). Daniel lives in Israel with his family, where he directs Applied Jewish Spirituality, an online portal which makes the transformative spiritual wisdom of our tradition accessible to all who seek it (www.appliedjewishspirituality.org/).
Earth, Moon, Mindfulness: A Sacred Year of Embodied Practice
Earth, Moon, Mindfulness
A Sacred Year of Embodied PracticeAugust 11, 2026 – August 31, 2027
with Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife, IJS Core Faculty
Monthly, Tuesdays, 3:30-5:00 PM ET
2026: August 11, September 8, October 6, November 10, December 8
2027: January 12, February 9, March 9, April 6, May 4, June 1, July 6, July 27, August 31
Who This Is For?
This journey is for anyone seeking a soulful, earth-based connection to Judaism. By intentionally aligning with the lunar cycles of 5787, you will learn to anchor yourself in the present moment. In this series, Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife helps us treat time not as a straight line to race through, but as a spiral to experience. Take this course if you want to find genuine ease within the rhythms of nature and discover the sacredness already unfolding all around you.
Learn About this Course from Keshira!
Course Overview
In the Jewish annual cycle, each month is intrinsically connected to the elements—and so are we. Join Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife for a journey through the Jewish year. In each monthly session, we’ll explore the “spiralinear” nature of time as a way to enliven our experience of Judaism and make meaning of the changing nature of life.
Rooted in the energies of the Jewish months and the phases of the moon, this series will draw connections between Jewish time and our experience of the world in the present moment, inviting us into deeper connection with ourselves, our bodies, and nature. By cultivating an earth-based mindfulness practice, we can remain centered as we move through the seasons, whatever they may bring.
After completing this course, you may notice…
- You’ve begun finding more meaning in the Jewish calendar
- You’re better able to move with the ebbs and flows of time
- You’re more in tune with the way that the months bring different energies into your life and relationships
- You’re more able to cultivate connection with earth, moon, time, and self
Cultivate a connection to nature and the Jewish cycle of time as a way to connect with the sacredness all around us in 5787.
We are so small in comparison to the cosmos and yet we are in direct connection as our inner landscape reflects the ongoing, ever unfolding of time and space. Through mindfulness practice and intentional alignment with Jewish cycles of time, we can find ease with the rhythms of nature and ebb and flow with life with greater grace and ease.
Curriculum
This course will meet monthly on Tuesdays from 3:30-5:00 pm ET (sessions will be recorded for those who can’t attend live). During each live online session, we’ll journey month by Jewish month, learning about the themes of the season and exploring how they are manifesting both within and around us. With support from journaling prompts, mindfulness practice, chevruta (study partner) conversation, and shared reflection, we’ll connect with the earth, move with the moon, and gently make our way through the year:
August 11, 2026
Elul
introduction
September 8, 2026
Tishrei
beginning again
October 6, 2026
Cheshvan
integration
Nov. 10, 2026
Kislev
dreaming
December 8, 2026
Tevet
seeking the good
January 12, 2027
Shvat
subtle attunement
February 9, 2027
Adar
joy and gladness
March 9, 2027
Adar II
rebalancing
April 6, 2027
Nisan
liberation
May 4, 2027
Iyyar
healing
June 1, 2027
Sivan
receptivity
July 6, 2027
Tamuz
anger
July 27, 2027
Av
grief
August 31, 2027
Elul
awakening
Testimonials
It connected my Judaism into a larger web of spiritual traditions that have been a deep part of me for many years (including feminist Wicca, Taoism, and other earth-based religions). It strengthened the overall weave.
I feel like I had a reinforcement to my own practices. I loved the multimodality presentations, source sheets and of course, the music playlists.
For years I’ve loved the monthly Rosh Chodesh ritual and it was extra meaningful to experience it through Keshira & her interpretation of the seasons, nature and how we interact with all of it & the cycle of it all. It was very relatable & also eye opening.
Register Now
IJS is pleased to offer this course at two tuition levels.
We encourage you to pay at the highest level you can, which will enable more students to participate.
Abundance Level
$349
Basic Level
$249
Meet Your Instructor:
Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife
Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife (she/they) sprinkles sparkles, disrupts expectations, and offers blessings wherever she goes. She serves as Founding Kohenet of Kesher Pittsburgh and is a Core Faculty Member with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality; she also enjoys working with Jewish Studio Project and Kirva among other national Jewish organisations. Additionally, she delights in serving as a facilitator, teacher, life spiral ceremony/ritual creatrix, shlichat tzibbur, liturgist and songstress. Her work in these realms is informed by her lived experience as a queer, bi-racial, child-free Jewish person living with chronic illness, her belief that Book, Body and Earth are equal sources of wisdom, the quandaries she has encountered as a scholar of the Orphan Wisdom School, and her deep commitment to a thriving, liberatory Jewish future. Keshira received Kohenet smicha in 2017 and earned her BS (2000) and MS (2001) at Carnegie Mellon University. Though both the lands of the Osage & Haudenosaunee people (aka Pittsburgh, PA) and the Gadigal people (Sydney, AUS) feel like home, Keshira and her beloved have been in an extended period of travel since January 2023.
The Shofar Project 5786
The Shofar Project 5786
Waking Up for a New Year
August 12 – September 2, 2026
A FREE Four-Week Online Program from IJS for the Hebrew month of Elul
Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife, Rabbi Sam Feinsmith, Rabbi Miriam Margles, Rabbi Marc Margolius
Wednesdays, 8:00-9:00 PM ET, live on Zoom
August 12, 19, 26, and September 2
Course at a Glance
Let IJS help you prepare your inner life for the High Holidays with our free, four-week Jewish mindfulness journey. Guided by IJS faculty, this program invites you to use the call of the shofar to awaken your spiritual awareness through live weekly practices, contemplative text study, and meditations tailored to the core themes of Rosh Hashanah. This course is open to everyone from beginners to advanced learners.
It’s time for a spiritual reset – join the IJS community to “wake up” together in preparation for the Jewish New Year!
The shofar, which is traditionally sounded throughout Elul, the final month of the Jewish year, serves as an “alarm clock” awakening us from emotional, moral, and spiritual sleep and spurring us to reflect and reset our intentions. Join IJS faculty members throughout Elul for a FREE four-week program to immerse in key themes of the upcoming High Holidays, preparing your inner life for the New Year.
Course Description for this Free Program
Over four weeks, The Shofar Project this year will feature BRAND NEW materials, each week featuring a live practice session (Wednesdays) and written materials – including texts, meditations, and suggested practices – grounded in a key theme of Rosh Hashanah:
Week One, HaYom Harat Olam, Today, the World is Born, with Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife:
A week for connecting with the ever-present sacred power of renewal and change, engaging our imagination to dream and embrace new possibilities for ourselves and our world.
Week Two, Malkuyot, Cultivating Awe and Wonder, with Rabbi Marc Margolius:
A week for cultivating awe and wonder, and exploring that which we have been serving – and turning to serving that which might be more ennobling for ourselves and the world?
Week Three, Zichronot, Remembering and Releasing, with Rabbi Sam Feinsmith:
A week for remembering that we are always being renewed which can help us release old self-concepts that no longer serve us.
Week Four, Shofarot, Called to Mindful Action, with Rabbi Miriam Margles
A week for waking up to hope and attuning ourselves to what we are being called to, as we seek to make our vision of a new self and a new world manifest.
Testimonials
The powerful role of the IJS faculty, resources, and community in helping me confront (with love and compassion) the most profound issues of life and death as I prepare for the High Holy Days. I never would have been able to prepare as well without this incredible support system.
Truly, all the courses are working together to enrich and deepen my life. Right now I am looking at staying present with the essence of my inner Divinity given me at birth.
Meet Your Instructors:
Rabbi Sam Feinsmith
As Senior Core Faculty at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality Sam directs the IJS Clergy Leadership Program and serves on the faculty of Gates of Awareness, a training program for aspiring teachers of Jewish mindfulness meditation. He is one of two lead teachers for our online course on the fundamentals of Jewish mindfulness meditation, The Gift of Awareness, and has written the IJS year-long Hasidic text study offering for a number of years running. After close to fifteen years teaching contemplative practices grounded in mindfulness to teens and educators, Sam originally came on board at IJS to develop and direct the Educating for a Jewish Spiritual Life Program, which brought these practices to hundreds of Jewish day- and religious-school educators and their students.
Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife
Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife (she/they) sprinkles sparkles, disrupts expectations, and offers blessings wherever she goes. She serves as Founding Kohenet of Kesher Pittsburgh and Core Faculty Member with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, and also enjoys working with beloved, The Jewish Studio Project, Kirva, the Avodah Institute for Social Change, and the Jewish Learning Collaborative, among other national Jewish organisations. Additionally, she delights in serving as a shlichat tzibbur, life spiral ceremony/ritual creatrix, consultant, facilitator, teacher, liturgist and songstress. Her work in these realms is informed by her lived experience as a queer, bi-racial, child-free Jewish person, her belief that Book, Body and Earth are equal sources of wisdom, the quandaries she has encountered as a scholar of the Orphan Wisdom School, and her deep commitment to a thriving, liberatory Jewish future. Keshira received Kohenet smicha in 2017 and earned her BS (2000) and MS (2001) at Carnegie Mellon University. Though both the lands of the Osage & Haudenosaunee people (aka Pittsburgh, PA) and the Gadigal people (Sydney, AUS) feel like home, Keshira and her beloved have been in an extended period of travel since January 2023.
Rabbi Miriam Margles
Miriam has a long and rich association with IJS, having taught on various retreats and programs over the years. She joins the Institute as a Senior Core Faculty after over a decade as the rabbi of the Danforth Jewish Circle in Toronto. She is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship and the Jerusalem Fellows at the Mandel Leadership Institute. Miriam as a founding faculty member at the Romemu Yeshiva, serving as a fellow with the Rising Song Institute, co-founding Encounter – the award-winning educational program working toward informed, courageous and resilient Jewish leadership on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and recording her original Jewish music with the Hadar Rising Song ensemble.
Rabbi Marc Margolius
Rabbi Marc Margolius hosts IJS’s online daily mindfulness meditation sessions and teaches Awareness in Action: Cultivating Character through Mindfulness and Middot, our online program in tikkun middot practice, integrating Jewish mindfulness with attention to core middot, character traits.
Previously, Marc served as rabbi at West End Synagogue in Manhattan and Congregation Beth Am Israel in Penn Valley, PA, where he pioneered a Shabbat-centered model of congregational engagement. He developed and led the Legacy Heritage Innovation Project at the Legacy Heritage Fund from 2005-2010, an initiative to promote systemic educational change in congregations around the globe.
Long active in social justice activism, Marc is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and of Yale Law School and lives in New York City.
Call of the Shofar 5786: A Study and Practice Group for Younger Adults
Call of the Shofar 5786
A Study and Practice Group for Younger Adults
August 17-September 8, 2026
A FREE 4-week program led by Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife and Rebecca Schisler
Monday, August 17
Tuesdays, August 25, September 1, 8
8:00-9:15 PM ET, live on Zoom
Course at a Glance
Awaken from spiritual autopilot this Elul with our four-week mindfulness journey for younger adults (20s-30s). Grounded in the core themes of Rosh Hashanah—renewal, awe, release, and mindful action—this free program will help you prepare your inner life for the Jewish New Year. We’ll have live practice, guided meditations, and contemplative text study to help you meet the holidays with conscious intention.
We invite you to enter into a powerful journey of returning to our most authentic selves.
The shofar blasts through all of Elul, the final month of the Jewish year, like a cosmic alarm clock awakening us from spiritual autopilot and nudging us toward reflection and honest soul-accounting. Once again, the IJS Shofar Project will help us prepare our inner lives for the upcoming Jewish New Year. This year, the IJS faculty will offer NEW materials over four weeks, each week grounded in a key theme of the High Holidays. Each week, the program will include guided text study, suggested mindfulness practices to do on your own, an option to connect in chevruta, and live practice sessions with Rebecca Schisler and Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife.
Course Description for this Free Program
Over four weeks, The Shofar Project this year will feature BRAND NEW materials, each week featuring a live practice session (Wednesdays) and written materials – including texts, meditations, and suggested practices – grounded in a key theme of Rosh Hashanah:
Week One, HaYom Harat Olam, Today, the World is Born, with Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife:
A week for connecting with the ever-present sacred power of renewal and change, letting ourselves dream and imagine new possibilities for ourselves and our world.
Week Three, Zichronot, Remembering/Releasing, with Rabbi Sam Feinsmith:
Loosening the grip of old patterns – personal and collective – that we’ve outgrown and are ready to move beyond.
Week Two, Malkuyot, Cultivating Awe and Wonder, with Rabbi Marc Margolius:
Getting curious about what we’ve really been orienting our lives around – and whether there’s something more meaningful to turn towards, for ourselves and the world.
Week Four, Shofarot, Called to Mindful Action, with Rabbi Miriam Margles
A week for waking up to what we are truly being called to, nurturing our hope, and finding the courage to make our visions real.
Together we breathe, together we change, together we grow.
Testimonials
“Thank you Keshira and Rebecca for guiding us through this journey so lovingly. Thanks everyone for being present and brave throughout this process 🙏🏾”
“For me it’s a lot about the people! Just soaking up wisdom from anyone & everyone. So much honesty that people shared with one another.”
“For me, it’s a paradigm shift to understand mindfulness meditation as teshuva.”
“I loved the meditations and the breakout rooms, connecting with other young adults in small groups and sharing.”
“I meditate pretty much every day at lunch for ~ 10 minutes. Today I did the Teshuvah practice and it felt so grounding to be honoring both this time of Elul specifically and my Jewishness more generally in my daily practice. So grateful to you all!”
Meet Your Instructors:
Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife
Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife (she/they) sprinkles sparkles, disrupts expectations, and offers blessings wherever she goes. She serves as Founding Kohenet of Kesher Pittsburgh and Core Faculty Member with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, and also enjoys working with beloved, The Jewish Studio Project, Kirva, the Avodah Institute for Social Change, and the Jewish Learning Collaborative, among other national Jewish organisations. Additionally, she delights in serving as a shlichat tzibbur, life spiral ceremony/ritual creatrix, consultant, facilitator, teacher, liturgist and songstress. Her work in these realms is informed by her lived experience as a queer, bi-racial, child-free Jewish person, her belief that Book, Body and Earth are equal sources of wisdom, the quandaries she has encountered as a scholar of the Orphan Wisdom School, and her deep commitment to a thriving, liberatory Jewish future. Keshira received Kohenet smicha in 2017 and earned her BS (2000) and MS (2001) at Carnegie Mellon University. Though both the lands of the Osage & Haudenosaunee people (aka Pittsburgh, PA) and the Gadigal people (Sydney, AUS) feel like home, Keshira and her beloved have been in an extended period of travel since January 2023.
Rebecca Schisler
Rebecca is a meditation teacher, artist, and Jewish educator. A devoted contemplative practitioner, she has led groups and taught classes and retreats with Or HaLev, Wilderness Torah, Pardes, Stanford School of Medicine, Urban Adamah, Hamakom, and the Awakened Heart Project. She was previously the Director of Student Health & Well-being at Stanford University’s Hillel, and co-authored the Mahloket Matters Schools Curriculum with the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators. A student rabbi at ALEPH, Rebecca is passionate about integrating ancestral wisdom traditions with innovative approaches to personal and collective healing and liberation. She teaches Jewish spirituality as an embodied, holistic, and accessible path, with relevant and timely wisdom for all. Rebecca currently lives in the California Bay Area, where she maintains a lively studio art practice as the artist-in-residence at the JCC East Bay, loves to host Jewish gatherings of all kinds, and tries to lose herself among her neighboring redwood trees as much as possible.
Rest, Return, Honor: A Shevet Day-long Virtual Mindfulness Retreat
Retreat at a Glance
Ground your inner life after the High Holidays with our day-long virtual mindfulness retreat for adults in their 20s and 30s. Led by Alison Cohen, this gentle, accessible space weaves together sitting and walking meditation, Jewish wisdom, journaling, and embodied practice. This online retreat is a warm, inviting entry point for beginners and a welcome home for seasoned seekers. No prior experience is needed, just an openness to cultivate stillness, rest, and connection in community.
Retreat Description
After the High Holiday season has come to a close and as the month of Cheshvan continues its unfolding, we invite our younger adult community members to join the Shevet Jewish Mindfulness Community for this virtual day-long retreat. Come together with fellow practitioners in their 20s and 30s to turn inward, supported by kehilah (community)—honoring what this sacred season has stirred in us.
Our day together will include sitting and walking meditation, wisdom teachings, and embodied practice, with optional time for sharing. Throughout the quiet of the day, with some periods of practice more silent than others, we will integrate body, mind, and heart, sow seeds of intention and compassionate awareness, and give ourselves space for stillness, reflection, and renewal.
After our day of retreat together, you may notice:
- You feel more connected—to yourself, to others, to your practice
- You’re more aligned with what really matters to you
- You’re inspired to bring what you’ve experienced during our day of retreat into your life
Curriculum
Our day will move gently between stillness and movement, teaching and silence, individual reflection and communal connection. We’ll open with our Arrival and Intention-Setting in community, grounding ourselves in the season of Cheshvan, and set kavannot (intentions) for the day.
Then the day will alternate between:
- Guided meditations (including accessible-to-all movement practices) paired with wisdom teachings. We’ll draw from Jewish and contemplative sources, exploring themes of integration, rest, and return.
- Space for questions and reflections in community
- Optional journaling with prompts
We’ll close the day with Closing & Integration, naming what we’re carrying forward, honoring the day, and re-entering our lives with renewed intention.
No prior meditation or Hebrew knowledge is needed—just an openness to slowing down and being present with yourself and others.
FAQ
Do I need to keep my camera on during the retreat?
Cameras are welcome but optional—come as you are, and participate in the way that feels most supportive to you.
Is this retreat only for people already connected to Shevet, or can newcomers join?
All are welcome, whether you’re a longtime Shevet community member or joining us for the first time.
What should I have on hand to participate fully?
A quiet, comfortable space, a cushion or chair for sitting, and a journal if you’d like to write—beyond that, just yourself.
Testimonials for our teacher, Alison Cohen:
Each Institute for Jewish Spirituality daily sit that you’ve led has touched and uplifted me in my practice. You inspired me when inspiration felt unlikely, connected with me (and, I’m sure, many others) and infused my day with both peace and joy. I thank you.
Feeling so touched by this retreat experience. I so resonated with you, your way of being, your offerings.
Your guided meditations were very helpful, especially for someone who has a hard time sitting.
Register Now
IJS is pleased to offer this course at three tuition levels.
We encourage you to pay at the highest level you can, which will enable more students to participate.
Abundance Level
$99
Basic Level
$55
Reduced Level
$36
Meet Your Instructor:
Alison (Ali) Cohen
Alison Cohen (she/her), also known as Ali, loves supporting people in strengthening their capacity to connect: with themselves, with others, and with ancient and contemporary wisdom traditions—especially Judaism and Buddhism. Her journey to practice began when she was desperate for guidance on how to compassionately navigate her tumultuous internal landscape, not to mention the world. On a young adult meditation retreat, she found what she was looking for and has practiced extensively in Buddhist (Insight Meditation) and Jewish meditation spaces ever since.
A former public high school teacher and mindfulness program director, Ali has trained with the Jewish Mindfulness Center of Brooklyn, Or HaLev, the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS), Mindful Schools, and the UMass Center for Mindfulness, as well as under the guidance of several beloved teachers. She is currently participating in IJS’s Marbeh Fellowship.
Ali guides the organization Two Wings Mindfulness, teaches for IJS, and is part of the teaching team for Tara Brach’s 2026 Choosing Love program.
Amukah: Talmud Torah as Mindful Jewish Practice
Rabbi Sam Feinsmith and Rabbi Marc Margolius
Wednesdays, 3:00-4:15pm ET | October 2026 – April 2027 on Zoom
2026: October 14, 21, 28, November 4, 11, (off 11/18, 11/25), December 2, 9, 16, 23 (off 12/30)
2027: January 6, 13, 20, 27, February 3, 10, 17, 24, March 3, 10, (off 3/17), 24, 31, April 7, 14
Course at a Glance
Elevate your Torah study into a vibrant, embodied spiritual practice. Led by Rabbis Sam Feinsmith and Marc Margolius, this six-month cohort grounds the traditional mystical framework of PaRDeS (the four layers of text interpretation) with a mindfulness lens to “read our lives as Torah.” This course is for anyone who wants to deepen inner awareness, explore the mythic power of sacred texts, and cultivate mindful habits, all within our intimate community of ongoing practice.
More About This Program
Amukah (Hebrew for “Deep”) is a cohort program for our Sustainers intended to create a supportive, intimate community of ongoing practice. This year’s offering for Amukah will be “Talmud Torah as Mindful Jewish Practice,” a six-month online program inviting participants into a deeper, contemplative exploration of Torah and our daily lives.
Rabbis Sam Feinsmith and Marc Margolius will lead us in this work through the fourfold framework known as PaRDeS – a traditional mystical Jewish system for studying and interpreting sacred text that can help us mindfully study and interpret our human experience. An acronym of the first letters of four Hebrew words, PaRDeS translates as “orchard” or “paradise.” It references four distinct layers of meaning, from the literal sense to the deeply mystical, and transforms Torah study from an intellectual endeavor into a vibrant, embodied experience of stepping into a lush garden for cultivating mindful habits of heart and mind.
Torah study can be understood as a Jewish spiritual practice for cultivating spiritual awareness of different yet interconnected gradations of consciousness. We will explore how reading Torah through the multiple, interrelated mindfulness lenses of PaRDeS can deepen our capacity to similarly “read our lives” as Torah, deepening our appreciation of the Torah’s connection to our inner lives and its role in shaping our words and actions. We will also grow in our appreciation of the mythic power of core Torah texts as a powerful tool for framing and deepening our experience.
Curriculum
The primary framework for our study and practice will be the PaRDeS rubric for reading and interpreting Torah, which describes four “lenses” by which we might cultivate four gradations of consciousness:
Peshat (“plain”): the simple or literal level in which we ask “what is this,” applying beginner’s mind and deep curiosity, attending to details in text and self.
Remez (“hint”): the level of allegory, text pointing to philosophical insight/eternal truths, attending to what lies beneath the surface and to shades of meaning.
Drash (“seeking”): the level of making connections, discerning patterns, noticing links between different parts of text and self; connective mind.
Sod (“secret”): the level of mystery, discerning and experiencing all aspects of text and self as manifestations of a spiritual source.
We will explore how we might understand each lens of the PaRDeS framework as a “disposition” or aspect of mindfulness practice, based upon the approach of Michael Fishbane in his Sacred Attunement: A Jewish Theology. Once we have been introduced to these four lenses, we will apply them over two units to two central, archetypal Torah narratives: the Divine call to Abram in parashat Lekh-Lekha, and Sulam Ya’akov, Jacob’s dream of a ladder connecting heaven and earth. At the same time, we will use the PaRDeS framework as a lens on our daily experience and spiritual journey. Our process will culminate in a closing unit in which we will compose and share our personal spiritual autobiography, the “Torah of our lives.”
After completing this course you may notice…
- You have language, a framework, and an ongoing practice for witnessing the multiple dimensions of your daily life, from the mundane to the profound.
- You will have a deeper personal relationship with the text of Torah.
- You will be able to continue to engage in talmud Torah as something more than an intellectual pursuit.
Register Now
IJS is pleased to offer this course at two tuition levels.
We encourage you to pay at the highest level you can, which will enable more students to participate.
Abundance Level
$1,999
Basic Level
$1,499
Meet Your Instructors:
Rabbi Sam Feinsmith
As Senior Core Faculty at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality Sam directs the IJS Clergy Leadership Program and serves on the faculty of Gates of Awareness, a training program for aspiring teachers of Jewish mindfulness meditation. He is one of two lead teachers for our online course on the fundamentals of Jewish mindfulness meditation, The Gift of Awareness, and has written the IJS year-long Hasidic text study offering for a number of years running. After close to fifteen years teaching contemplative practices grounded in mindfulness to teens and educators, Sam originally came on board at IJS to develop and direct the Educating for a Jewish Spiritual Life Program, which brought these practices to hundreds of Jewish day- and religious-school educators and their students.
Rabbi Marc Margolius
Rabbi Marc Margolius serves as advisor for overall programming for IJS, and directs programming for lay leaders as well as Hevraya, the alumni of our Clergy Leadership Program. He hosts the “Daily Sit,” IJS’s online daily mindfulness meditation sessions, and teaches courses for IJS, including Awareness in Action: Cultivating Character through Mindfulness and Middot, our online program in tikkun middot practice, integrating Jewish mindfulness with attention to core middot, character traits.
Previously, Marc served as rabbi at West End Synagogue in Manhattan and Congregation Beth Am Israel in Penn Valley, PA, where he pioneered a Shabbat-centered model of congregational engagement. He developed and led the Legacy Heritage Innovation Project at the Legacy Heritage Fund from 2005-2010, an initiative to promote systemic educational change in congregations around the globe.
Long active in social justice activism, Marc is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and of Yale Law School and lives in New York City.
Mindful Civic Engagement
Mindful Civic Engagement
Spiritual Qualities for Wise ResponseOctober 15 – November 19, 2026
Rabbi Marc Margolius and Guest Teachers:
Rabbis Sharon Brous, David Ingber, Sharon Kleinbaum, Rachel Timoner, Isaiah Rothstein, and journalist/author Yossi Klein Halevi.
6 Live Sessions, Thursdays, 2:00-3:15 PM ET
October 15, 22, 29, November 5, 12, 19
Course at a Glance
Dive into this six-week program that uses Jewish mindfulness and the study of middot (sacred spiritual character traits) to transform stress into wise, effective civic engagement aligned with Jewish tradition. Our lineup includes some of the most notable and well-respected teachers, making this course accessible for all, from beginners to seasoned learners.
Course Description
In turbulent, chaotic times such as these, strong emotions can push us to retreat and shut down – or to react unwisely or ineffectively. But Jewish mindfulness practice and tradition can help us stay present and respond wisely, as our better selves, even under stress. Join us to explore how Jewish spiritual practice and wisdom can help us engage the “better angels of our nature” to show up and respond more effectively to the pressing issues of our time, and more often act and speak in alignment with the highest aspects of Jewish spiritual tradition.
Curriculum and Featured Guests
Each week will focus on a specific middah – a fundamental Jewish spiritual trait which can spur and shape our words and actions to help us stay engaged and meet this moment wisely. The program will feature weekly live sessions, each session featuring a major, distinguished Jewish spiritual teacher as a “guest expert” in that week’s middah. Rabbi Margolius will offer written materials for each weekly middah, including guided meditations, and suggestions for mindfulness practice of the middah.
Emunah (Steadfastness): Faithfully Showing Up as Civic Engagement
Gevurah (Strength): Setting Boundaries in Civic Engagement
Guest: Rabbi Sharon Brous, Founder and Senior Rabbi of IKAR, Los Angeles, and author of national best-seller The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend Our Broken Hearts and World.
Guest: Rabbi David Ingber, Founder and Senior Rabbi of Romemu, and Senior Director for Jewish Life and Senior Director of the Bronfman Center at the 92d Street Y (NYC).
Simchah (Joy): The Centrality of Joy in Civic Engagement
Ahavah (Love): Rooting Civic Engagement in Love
Guest: Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, Rabbi Emerita of Cong. Beit Simchat Torah (NYC) and Director, The Beacon: Shine the Light (Union Theological Seminary).
Guest: Rabbi Rachel Timoner, Senior Rabbi, Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, Brooklyn and author of Breath of Life: God as Spirit in Judaism.
Emet (Truth): Staying Grounded in Truth
Hatmadah (Resilience): Staying the Course in Civic Engagement
Guest: Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein, Rabbinic Scholar and Public Affairs Advisor at Jewish Federations of North America and the Senior Rabbi at the Greenpoint Shul, Brooklyn, NY.
Guest: Yossi Klein Halevi, journalist, best-selling author, and Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
Here’s What Participants Have Told Us About How IJS Courses Transformed Their Lives
A great relief in the discovery of a more sustainable process of letting go of the burden of uncertainty and impermanence. Thank you, Rabbi Marc and the other Rabbis of the Shofar project.
I am so grateful to IJS! I have loved all the IJS programs I am involved with and am looking forward to a year of Torah study. The daily sits are wonderful, and I very much appreciate Rabbi Marc and also Rabbi Josh, and all the amazing teachers like Rabbi Sam who just offered an exceptional week of wisdom. I am also grateful to all the IJS staff including the tech support.
This was my second experience with Awareness in Action. Although I missed a few sessions due to conflicting obligations, I loved each session I attended. Rabbi Margolius is an inspired teacher. He made the learning so applicable to our lives.
Register Now
IJS is pleased to offer this course at three tuition levels.
We encourage you to pay at the highest level you can, which will enable more students to participate.
Abundance Level
$349
Basic Level
$249
Reduced Level
$149
Meet Your Instructors:
Rabbi Marc Margolius
Rabbi Marc Margolius serves as advisor for overall programming for IJS, and directs programming for lay leaders as well as Hevraya, the alumni of our Clergy Leadership Program. He hosts the “Daily Sit,” IJS’s online daily mindfulness meditation sessions, and teaches courses for IJS, including Awareness in Action: Cultivating Character through Mindfulness and Middot, our online program in tikkun middot practice, integrating Jewish mindfulness with attention to core character traits.
Previously, Marc served as rabbi at West End Synagogue in Manhattan and Congregation Beth Am Israel in Penn Valley, PA, where he pioneered a Shabbat-centered model of congregational engagement. He developed and led the Legacy Heritage Innovation Project at the Legacy Heritage Fund from 2005-2010, an initiative to promote systemic educational change in congregations around the globe.
Long active in social justice activism, Marc is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and of Yale Law School and lives in New York City.
Rabbi Sharon Brous
Sharon Brous is the senior and founding rabbi of IKAR, a leading edge Jewish community based in Los Angeles, and author of The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend Our Broken Hearts and World, a national bestseller.
Brous offered the invocation at the Democratic National Convention in 2024, led the Hanukkah candle lighting with the Vice President and Second Gentleman in 2023, and the White House Passover Seder in 2021. She blessed President Biden and Vice President Harris at the Inaugural National Prayer Service in 2021, and in 2013, she blessed President Obama and Vice President Biden. She was named #1 on the Newsweek/The Daily Beast list of most influential Rabbis in America, and has been recognized by The Forward and Jerusalem Post as among the most influential Jews alive today. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post, and her 2016 TED talk, “Reclaiming Religion,” has been viewed by more than 1.5 million people.
Brous is in the inaugural cohort of Auburn Seminary‘s Senior Fellows program, which unites top faith leaders working on the frontlines for justice, she sits on the faculty of REBOOT, and serves on the International Council of the New Israel Fund and national steering committee for the Poor People’s Campaign.
A graduate of Columbia University (both undergraduate and M.A. in Human Rights), she was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary and lives in Los Angeles with her husband and children.
Rabbi David Ingber
Rabbi David A. Ingber serves as the founding rabbi of Romemu, the largest Renewal synagogue in the United States and as the Senior Director of Jewish Life and the Bronfman Center at 92NY. Rabbi Ingber founded Romemu in NYC in 2006, following his ordination by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Founder of the Jewish Renewal movement. Over the past decade plus, Romemu has grown into a weekly home for thousands of people, a growing membership of over 1,000 in its two physical locations (Manhattan and Brooklyn) and a growing online global membership. Rabbi Ingber also founded Romemu Yeshiva, the first fully egalitarian Yeshiva (immersive learning center), dedicated to mystical and meditative Jewish learning and practice.
Raised Modern Orthodox in New York, Rabbi Ingber studied at Ramaz, Yeshiva University, Beit Midrash L’Torah, Yeshivat Chaim Berlin, and Yeshivat Chovovei Torah Rabbinical School. He also studied philosophy, psychology and religion at New York University.
Rabbi Ingber’s distinct approach to Torah, rabbinical teaching, and ritualistic practice is informed by his own personal seeking and learning from a wide cross-section of sacred traditions and faiths. He is enlightened by Jewish mysticism and Hasidut, fusing these beliefs with those of other ancient philosophies and world views. Particular influences include 18th Century Kabbalist and Founder of Hasidut, Rabbi Yisrael Ba’al Shem Tov; the great 19th Century Ishbitzer Rebbe, R. Mordechai Leiner; and leading 20th Century thinkers from Kabbalist, Rav Abraham Isaac Kook to psychologist, Carl Jung.
Rabbi Ingber was named by Newsweek as one of the top 50 most influential rabbis in the United States as well as by The Forward as one of the 50 most newsworthy and notable Jews in America. A major 21st Century Jewish thinker and educator, his rich perspective, open heart and mind, and full-bodied approach to Jewish learning has brought him to speak worldwide. He serves on the faculty for the Wexner Heritage Program, and the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America and Israel, and was an AJWS Global Justice Fellow. Rabbi Ingber has lectured extensively on the topics of spirituality, theology, Jewish mysticism, prayer, and meditation.
Yossi Klein Halevi
Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Together with Imam Abdullah Antepli of Duke University, he co-directs the Institute’s Muslim Leadership Initiative (MLI), which teaches emerging young Muslim American leaders about Judaism, Jewish identity and Israel.
Halevi’s 2013 book, Like Dreamers, won the Jewish Book Council’s Everett Book of the Year Award. His latest book, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, is a New York Times bestseller. He writes for leading op-ed pages in the US, including the Times and the Wall Street Journal, and is a former contributing editor to the New Republic.
His 2001 book, At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A Jew’s Search for God with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land, will be reissued in 2019 by HarperCollins.
His first book, Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist, tells the story of his teenage years as a follower of the militant rightwing rabbi Meir Kahane, and his subsequent disillusionment with Jewish radicalism. The New York Times called it “a book of burning importance.”
In 2013 he was a visiting professor of Israel Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and served as a writer in residence at the University of Illinois. He was a senior fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem from 2004 until 2010. Born in Brooklyn, he moved to Israel in 1982, and lives in Jerusalem with wife, Sarah, who helps run a center for Jewish meditation.
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum served for 32 years as Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York City, the largest LGBTQ+ synagogue in the world — for people of all sexual identities and genders — where she is now Senior Rabbi Emerita. Rabbi Kleinbaum was installed as CBST’s first rabbi in 1992, arriving at the height of the AIDS crisis when the synagogue was in desperate need of pastoral care and spiritual leadership.
Rabbi Kleinbaum guided the CBST congregation through loss and change while addressing social issues and building a strong and deeply spiritual community. Under her leadership, CBST became a powerful voice in the movement for equality and justice for people of all sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and a significant force challenging the radical right’s dominance over religious and political life in the United States and around the world.
For many years, Rabbi Kleinbaum has been ranked by Newsweek among the 50 most influential rabbis in America. The BBC also named her one of its 100 Women of 2024. She has long been involved in the fight for human rights for all people. Rabbi Kleinbaum was appointed by President Biden as a Commissioner to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. She is a Commissioner on New York City’s Commission on Human Rights, and served on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Faith Based Advisory Council. Rabbi Kleinbaum is also a member of the Executive Committee of Governor Hochul’s Office of Faith and Non-Profit Development Services.
Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein
Isaiah Joseph Rothstein is the Senior Rabbi of the Greenpoint Shul and also serves as Rabbinic Scholar and Public Affairs Advisor at the Jewish Federations of North America, where he is the founder of the Jewish Federations’ Center for Jewish Belonging. Rabbi Rothstein studied at Kushner Yeshiva High School, Lev HaTorah, Machon Lev, and Binghampton University. He received rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Elchanan Isaac Theological Seminary (REITS) and a Masters of Social Work from Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work.
Raised in a multi-racial Chabad family from Monsey, NY, Rav Isaiah sees himself as a human bridge, connecting disparate parts of the Jewish community and America. He is a member of Rabbis Without Borders, and Schusterman Foundations’ ROI + Senior Fellowships, and has been listed in the Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36.” His writing and commentary has been featured in the New York Times, Huffington Post, and Jewish publications across the world. When he is not serving in his rabbinic roles, Rabbi Rothstein is writing a musical about Queen Esther.
Rabbi Rachel Timoner
Rabbi Rachel Timoner is grateful and proud to serve as Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, Brooklyn. She is honored to stand with families at the moments of greatest joy and deepest sorrow in their lives, and she is delighted to be part of a flowering of creativity, community, learning, spirituality, and action at CBE.
Her initiatives in recent years include a weekly class designed to get to the heart and meaning of the prayer experience, a rabbinic conversation on antisemitism, a study series on systemic racism in America, a weekly class about peoplehood and nationalism, a sukkah about the refugee experience, a dialogue and study series on Israel, a revival of CBE’s youth group, a partnership with Antioch Baptist Church to address racism and antisemitism in Brooklyn, and a Dismantling Racism Team which was part of the successful campaigns to Raise the Age of criminal responsibility and to win bail reform in the State of New York. She helped to launch RAC-NY and Reform California, two statewide efforts to bring Reform Jewish values to bear on core issues of our times, such as immigration, affordable housing, and racial profiling. In November 2016, Rabbi Timoner, in cooperation with City Councilmember Brad Lander, co-founded #GetOrganizedBK in CBE’s sanctuary, so that over the next two years, ten thousand Brooklyn neighbors came together to resist autocracy and protect human rights. In May 2022, she gathered 55 women rabbis of all denominations to meet with the mayor to change the face of Jewish leadership in New York. On any given Shabbat, you’ll find Rabbi Timoner speaking about our purpose as Jews and human beings, the moral challenges of our times, the ways we need each other, and awakening to the spiritual aspect of our lives.
From 2009 to 2015, Rabbi Timoner served as Associate Rabbi of Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles, where she was a teacher of Torah and helped to develop the Shabbat Morning Minyan, Community of Elders, Spirituality Workshop, and Community Organizing Leadership Team that took on public transportation and economic justice.
Previously, Rabbi Timoner raised funds to rebuild the San Francisco Women’s Building; worked to mitigate the harm of welfare reform in California; and founded two leadership programs and a peer hotline for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth.
She is a graduate of Yale University, received s’micha from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and was a Rockefeller Next Generation Leadership Fellow and a Wexner Graduate Fellow. Rabbi Timoner serves on the board of the New York Jewish Agenda, the Brooklyn Community Foundation, the New York Board of Rabbis, the UJA-Federation of New York, Plaza Community Chapel, and the International Council of the New Israel Fund. She is a T’ruah chavera and is a graduate of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s Clergy Leadership Program and the Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training. She is the author of Breath of Life: God as Spirit in Judaism.
Awakening Shabbat: Fundamentals of Mindful Jewish Living
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell
4 Live Sessions:
Wednesdays, 2:00-3:15pm ET
October 14, 21, 28, November 4
Course at a Glance
This four-session course explores the spiritual foundations of Shabbat, including candle lighting, blessings, and Havdalah. Transform your routine Shabbat rituals into a grounded, life-giving mindfulness practice that focuses on oneg (joy) and menuchah (rest). Accessible to all observance levels, this series offers practical tools to cultivate deep presence, calm, and a weekly sanctuary for human thriving.
Check out this Video Preview
Course Description
Shabbat is more than a day off—it is a sanctuary in time in which we connect with a feeling of at-homeness and wholeness. Join us to discover (or rediscover!) this ancient tradition through a Jewish mindfulness perspective, transforming abstract or routine rituals into a grounded, life-giving experience. Whether you are a lifelong practitioner or new to Jewish tradition, this course offers the tools to breathe new life into your week. Together, we will explore how the wisdom of Shabbat can foster the deep presence and calm necessary for our human thriving. Sessions will focus on candle lighting, Kiddush and blessings at home, Havdalah, and the inner Shabbat experiences of joy and rest. This course is less about traditional “rules” and more about using Shabbat as a way to cultivate a deeper experience of life, no matter your level of observance.
After completing this course, you may notice…
- You’ve begun a meaningful practice of Shabbat.
- You’ve enhanced the spiritual and personal meaning of your existing Shabbat practice
- Shabbat has come alive for you, becoming a truly meaningful and important element of your life.
- You are more connected to a reality of wholeness and “at homeness.”
Curriculum
In this course, we will learn about traditional components of Shabbat practice from the perspective of a mindfulness practice. We will unpack the forms and prayers of Shabbat in a way that will shine a light on our human experience and open a doorway into an accessible and life affirming practice. This approach can work well whether you are already Shabbat observant in any way, or if it is all new to you.
Our four sessions will focus on:
The overall spiritual experience of shabbat from a mindfulness perspective, with a focus on oneg (joy) and menuchah (rest).
Candle lighting, blessing loved ones, kiddush, motzi, bensching.
Shabbat prayer and home practices.
Havdalah; bringing Shabbat into the week.
Here’s What Participants Have Told Us About How IJS Courses Transformed Their Lives
There is an abundance of light to tap into in our Jewish heritage. Spiritually, religiously and interpersonally each time we connect with another person, in each teaching we are given and in the quiet moments in between there may be something precious. This course reminded me to stay open to whatever comes, and to take notice of what arises and stay in the moment.
I have access to levels of awareness in myself that I didn’t really know about and therefore hope for a life informed by awareness and connection to the divine.
Register Now
IJS is pleased to offer this course at two tuition levels.
We encourage you to pay at the highest level you can, which will enable more students to participate.
Abundance Level
$199
Basic Level
$99
Meet Your Instructor:
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell is Senior Core Faculty at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS), where he teaches Jewish mindfulness and text and directs cohort and retreat programs. Jordan began working for IJS as rabbinical student intern in 2005, and was on staff from 2011-2017, as a teacher of Jewish Mindfulness, leading retreats, and as Director of the Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training. Jordan also taught meditation to rabbis and cantors through IJS’ Clergy Leadership Program.
Currently at IJS, Jordan focuses on teaching Jewish mindfulness and text, planning and directing retreats, and leading the development of a new training program for advanced teachers of Jewish mindfulness.Jordan will also continue to share his expertise through online courses and on retreats, fostering mindful engagement with Jewish wisdom and tradition.
Protected: Course Page Template FY27
Password Protected
To view this protected post, enter the password below:
Community Network
Community Network
Helping synagogues flourish as a vibrant home for mindfulness and deep Jewish connectionBecome an Inaugural Member!
Facilitated by Rabbi Marc Margolius
Deepen your offerings, engage your members in ongoing spiritual practice, and expand the perks of membership with our easy-to-access, free, turnkey programs.
Why Join the IJS Community Network?
As a clergy member already connected to IJS, you know the transformative power of Jewish mindfulness and spiritual practice. Our faculty bring that IJS “special sauce” that inspires, engages and enlightens. Now we’re offering an opportunity for clergy leaders to share what you love about our embodied practices, Torah studies, and meditation sits, directly with your congregants. By joining the IJS Community Network, you are nurturing and expanding the sacred work you are already doing to bring these practices to your congregants. This partnership serves as a supportive companion to your rabbinate, allowing you to:
- Deepen Spiritual Engagement with Ease: Rather than building every program from scratch, you can offer your members immediate, free access to our daily meditation sits—including space for healing prayers and Mourners’ Kaddish—as well as our weekly online yoga studio and specialized affinity sits for younger adults, LGBTQ+, Jews of Color and other affinity groups.
- Enrich the Benefits of Belonging: Provide meaningful, high-value spiritual resources to your members, such as complimentary access to The Gift of Awareness (IJS’s flagship mindfulness course) and special discounts or group rates for programs designed for parents, empty-nesters, and retirees.
- Widen Your Circle of Connection: IJS helps you reach new members by featuring your synagogue on our website and in our monthly newsletter to over 30,000 subscribers, helping you meet prospective families and members in a way that feels organic and welcoming.
- Infuse Practice Throughout the Lifecycle: From our “Peaceful Parent Program” to support your preschool families, to online yoga and other classes that can engage your Sisterhood, the IJS Community Network provides gentle entry points to make Jewish wisdom accessible at every stage of life.
Find Strength in Community: We invite you and your staff to join our circle of other Community Network members to share best practices and resources, ensuring your path in leading this spiritual work is shared and supported.
All IJS Community Network Members will receive:
Access to free programs for your members
- Daily online meditation sit (including healing prayers and Mourners’ Kaddish)
- Weekly online Yoga Studio
- Weekly online young adult mindfulness meditation for 20s and 30s
- Monthly online affinity mindfulness sessions (LGBTQ+ Jews, Jews with Disabilities, Jews of Color)
- Complimentary access to The Gift of Awareness: Cultivating Mindfulness Through Jewish Meditation, IJS’s flagship, self-paced online course in Jewish meditation.
Discounts and group rates for additional programs
- Unique 10% off discount code for your members to take IJS paid online courses.
- Special group rates for paid courses ideal for younger adults, new parents, empty-nesters, and retirees.
IJS will help expand your community’s reach by
- Featuring you as a member on IJS’s Community Network web page
- Boosting your community in our monthly newsletter (over 30,000 subscribers) and through IJS social media channels
- Promoting your community’s programs through targeted emails to IJS subscribers in your area
- Connecting you with like-minded leaders and communities for sharing best practices and resources
We will also provide sample text and graphics to include in your newsletters, calendars and social posts. Your staff will also be invited to share your content with us.
Join the Network using the button below or contact Rabbi Marc Margolius marc@jewishspirituality.org
Meet Rabbi Marc Margolius
Director of the IJS Community Network
Rabbi Marc Margolius serves as advisor for overall programming for IJS, and directs programming for lay leaders as well as Hevraya, the alumni of our Clergy Leadership Program. He hosts the “Daily Sit,” IJS’s online daily mindfulness meditation sessions, and teaches courses for IJS, including Awareness in Action: Cultivating Character through Mindfulness and Middot, our online program in tikkun middot practice, integrating Jewish mindfulness with attention to core middot, character traits.
Previously, Marc served as rabbi at West End Synagogue in Manhattan and Congregation Beth Am Israel in Penn Valley, PA, where he pioneered a Shabbat-centered model of congregational engagement. He developed and led the Legacy Heritage Innovation Project at the Legacy Heritage Fund from 2005-2010, an initiative to promote systemic educational change in congregations around the globe.
Long active in social justice activism, Marc is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and of Yale Law School and lives in New York City.
Awareness in Action for the Omer
Awareness in Action for the Omer
Cultivating Character Through Mindfulness and MiddotRegistration is Now Closed
The Institute for Jewish Spirituality invites you to join our entire faculty for a revamped version of Awareness in Action: Cultivating Character through Mindfulness and Middot, our self-paced online program. Join a live community of practice to help you more consistently align your inner values with how you show up in the world. Rabbi Marc Margolius will host each weekly live session, recorded for those unable to join live.
This special edition tikkun middot practice will feature teachings, texts, and practices by each of our core faculty: Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell, Rabbi Josh Feigelson, Rabbi Sam Feinsmith, Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife, Rabbi Miriam Margles, Rabbi Marc Margolius, and Rebecca Schisler.
Watch the orientation session for FREE
In challenging times like these, we can be reactive and defensive rather than showing up as our best selves. Too often flooded by turbulent emotions, we may regret our words and actions, wishing we might have paused and responded more wisely and effectively. When we are dispirited by the world, we need spiritual connection more than ever.
Judaism has a spiritual practice specifically for times like these: tikkun middot, an ancient Jewish practice for developing desirable character traits and aligning our actions with our most deeply held values.
Tikkun middot practice integrates basic principles of Jewish mindfulness with close attention to essential character or “soul” traits like loving connection, wise boundaries, humility, and gratitude. Every one of us naturally possesses these traits. For many reasons, though, our innate spiritual and ethical qualities can become blocked, causing us to behave in ways that miss the mark.
Tikkun middot practice teaches us ways to uncover our best selves — our true selves — and to be the person we wish to be in both the small and large actions of daily life… in difficult conversations, in traffic and meetings, in interactions with family and friends – whenever life is particularly challenging.
Bringing mindfulness practice more deeply into your life
Our faculty will expertly guide you each step of the way through establishing a tikkun middot practice that can support you in:
- Growing in self-awareness and gaining better insight into your deeper motivations and habitual patterns
- Becoming less reactive and more responsive—better able to access the innate wisdom in your body, mind and soul
- Developing the freedom to choose how you want to act
- Experiencing Jewish spiritual practice as a path to personal transformation.
Here’s What Participants Have Told Us About How This Course Transformed Their Lives
I’ve heard the phrase, “living an examined life”, many times. But not until I began to participate in tikkun middot practice with IJS did I truly recognize the wisdom of this worldview, and gain the tools to put it into action. Now I am constantly surprised by how often I notice situations arising in which I apply middot to my experiences and responses. And this knowledge has a cumulative effect: the more middot I internalize, the more it enriches my life — personally, professionally, and communally.
Dan Kaplan, Evanston, IL
Tikkun middot practice weaves Jewish wisdom through my day to day life, helping me meet situations that I used to find baffling and confusing. It may sound like hyperbole, but now that I’ve been practicing regularly, I experience miracles everywhere. Consistently, no matter what presents as a challenge in my life — from the simplest irritants to the most triggering situations — this practice helps me regulate my internal chaos and remember that my awareness is within me, a light that never goes out.
Cantor Meredith Greenberg, Montclair, NJ
A Session-by-Session Course Overview
Here’s a closer look at everything you’ll cover:
Module One
Loving Connection: Chesed
Open yourself up to loving connection, especially in challenging situations.
Module Two
Setting wise boundaries: Gevurah
Being loving and generous—but not to the extent you are doing a disservice to family, friends, colleagues, or yourself.
Module Three
Centering in a balanced self: Anavah
Taking up the right amount of space in the world—neither too much nor too little.
Module Four
Channeling an energetic response: Zerizut
Accessing the energy you need to either get going—or keep going.
Module Five
Experiencing gratitude: Hodayah
Accepting life on its own terms and rejoicing about what is true at this moment, just as it is.
Module Six
Letting Righteousness Flow: Tzedek
Developing your capacity to do what is right and just—with compassion opening new channels through which righteousness can flow.
Module Seven
Mindful speech: Sh’mirat Hadibbur
Applying mindfulness to all of your communications so that they reflect your best self.
Module Eight
Generating Trustworthiness: Emunah
Consistently showing-up for yourself and others.
Once you have finished 8 modules you may notice…
- Some of the eight traits (middot) have been easier for you to incorporate into your life than others. There is plenty of time to go back and focus on the ones you found more challenging. In fact, we encourage going back through all eight.
- You are learning which support tools are most helpful for you… is it humming a chant throughout your day; posting a “focus phrase” on your refrigerator or laptop screen; and/or checking-in with a practice partner three times per week.
- You’re becoming more skilled at noticing when you are about to go down a habitual path that is out of alignment with how you want to be in the world—and sometimes doing something different. (It takes practice!)
- You’re increasingly able to meet others (and yourself) with a deeper quality of love, compassion and acceptance.
Registration is Now Closed
Please submit your name and email address and we will inform you once new course dates are released.
Meet Your Instructors:
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell is Senior Core Faculty at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS), where he teaches Jewish mindfulness and text and directs cohort and retreat programs. Jordan began working for IJS as rabbinical student intern in 2005, and was on staff from 2011-2017, as a teacher of Jewish Mindfulness, leading retreats, and as Director of the Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training. Jordan also taught meditation to rabbis and cantors through IJS’ Clergy Leadership Program.
Currently at IJS, Jordan focuses on teaching Jewish mindfulness and text, planning and directing retreats, and leading the development of a new training program for advanced teachers of Jewish mindfulness.Jordan will also continue to share his expertise through online courses and on retreats, fostering mindful engagement with Jewish wisdom and tradition.
Rabbi Josh Feigelson
Josh was appointed Executive Director of IJS in January 2020 and became President & CEO in April 2022. 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. Prior to joining IJS he served as Dean of Students at the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is the author of Eternal Questions: Reflections, Conversations, and Jewish Mindfulness Practices for the Weekly Torah Portion (Ben Yehuda Press, 2022). Josh lives with his wife Natalie and their three sons in Skokie, IL.
Rabbi Sam Feinsmith
As Senior Core Faculty at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality Sam directs the IJS Clergy Leadership Program and serves on the faculty of Gates of Awareness, a training program for aspiring teachers of Jewish mindfulness meditation. He is one of two lead teachers for our online course on the fundamentals of Jewish mindfulness meditation, The Gift of Awareness, and has written the IJS year-long Hasidic text study offering for a number of years running. After close to fifteen years teaching contemplative practices grounded in mindfulness to teens and educators, Sam originally came on board at IJS to develop and direct the Educating for a Jewish Spiritual Life Program, which brought these practices to hundreds of Jewish day- and religious-school educators and their students.
Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife
Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife (she/they) sprinkles sparkles, disrupts expectations, and offers blessings wherever she goes. She serves as Founding Kohenet of Kesher Pittsburgh and is a Core Faculty Member with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality; she also enjoys working with Jewish Studio Project and Kirva among other national Jewish organisations. Additionally, she delights in serving as a facilitator, teacher, life spiral ceremony/ritual creatrix, shlichat tzibbur, liturgist and songstress. Her work in these realms is informed by her lived experience as a queer, bi-racial, child-free Jewish person living with chronic illness, her belief that Book, Body and Earth are equal sources of wisdom, the quandaries she has encountered as a scholar of the Orphan Wisdom School, and her deep commitment to a thriving, liberatory Jewish future. Keshira received Kohenet smicha in 2017 and earned her BS (2000) and MS (2001) at Carnegie Mellon University. Though both the lands of the Osage & Haudenosaunee people (aka Pittsburgh, PA) and the Gadigal people (Sydney, AUS) feel like home, Keshira and her beloved have been in an extended period of travel since January 2023.
Rabbi Miriam Margles
Miriam has a long and rich association with IJS, having taught on various retreats and programs over the years. She joins the Institute as a Senior Core Faculty after over a decade as the rabbi of the Danforth Jewish Circle in Toronto. She is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship and the Jerusalem Fellows at the Mandel Leadership Institute. Miriam as a founding faculty member at the Romemu Yeshiva, serving as a fellow with the Rising Song Institute, co-founding Encounter – the award-winning educational program working toward informed, courageous and resilient Jewish leadership on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and recording her original Jewish music with the Hadar Rising Song ensemble.
Rabbi Marc Margolius
Marc developed and teaches in our newest online course, Awareness in Action: Cultivating Character through Mindfulness and Middot. He also spearheads the daily online meditations that IJS developed as part of our response to the coronavirus pandemic. He directs our immersive programming for lay leaders and works closely with our clergy alumni as director of the Hevraya program. Marc authored several years of IJS’s weekly Text Study, exploring the weekly portion through mindfulness and middot.
Rebecca Schisler
Rebecca is a core faculty member at IJS, where she directs young adult programming and created and steers the Shevet Jewish Mindfulness Community, a space for folks in or near their twenties and thirties to dive deep into Jewish spirituality and mindfulness practice in online and virtual spaces. Additionally, she creates and curates content for IJS social media and frequently teaches on retreats and multi-week online programs.
Rebecca is honored to serve on this faculty after years of leading groups and teaching classes and retreats with Or HaLev, Pardes, Wilderness Torah, Stanford School of Medicine, Hillel at Stanford, Urban Adamah, Hamakom, and the Awakened Heart Project. A student rabbi at ALEPH, Rebecca is passionate about integrating ancestral wisdom traditions with innovative approaches to personal and collective healing and liberation. She teaches Jewish spirituality as an embodied, holistic, and accessible path, with relevant and timely wisdom for all.
Sacred Response-Ability
Sacred Response-Ability
Mindfulness and Middot for the Omer (for 20s and 30s)Registration is Now Closed
Between career shifts, complex relationships, and a 24/7 news cycle, it’s easy to feel reactive instead of intentional. But what if you had a toolkit to help you navigate life’s “choice points” with more grace, wisdom and intention?
We’re combining the deep, character-building wisdom of Tikkun Middot with the warm and welcoming vibes of our young adult Shevet community.
This special edition of this tikkun middot practice encompasses the Omer – the seven week period in the Jewish calendar beginning on Passover, traditionally a time for working on our character qualities. Each one of these qualities is associated with the Sefirot – divine emanations sourced from Jewish mysticism that we are encouraged to engage on a spiritual level during this revelatory and healing time between Passover and Shavuot.
Is This For Me?
Beginners are welcome! You don’t need to be a meditation pro or a Hebrew scholar. This program is for you if:
- You are under 40.
- You want to be less reactive and more responsive.
- You’re seeking a Jewish framework to guide a regular practice of self-reflection and character cultivation.
- You want to practice in community with other young adults who are asking the same big questions.
- You’re ready to “get out of your own way” and show up as your best self.
The instructors will support participants in cultivating their ability to respond to the world in a more grounded, skillful, and compassionate way, growing more conscious of habitual reactivity and learning to respond instead with wise words and actions. The program consists of seven modules with live sessions, guided meditations, chants/songs, poetry, music, and practical, accessible guidance for daily practice—all drawing from the traits of Lovingkindness, Gratitude, Wise Judgment, and more.
In Sacred Response-Ability, you’ll learn how to access and practice seven core character or “soul” traits (middot), each of which builds upon and integrates those which precede it:
-
-
- Loving connection (Chesed)
- Setting wise boundaries for yourself and others (Gevurah)
- A balanced self – taking up appropriate space and time (Anavah)
- Energetic response – so you can get started and keep going (Zerizut)
- Gratitude (Hodayah)
- Righteousness – developing your capacity to do what is appropriate and just (Tzedek)
- Trustworthiness (Emunah)
-
Registration is Now Closed
Please submit your name and email address and we will inform you once new course dates are released.
Meet Your Instructors:
Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife
Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife (she/they) sprinkles sparkles, disrupts expectations, and offers blessings wherever she goes. She serves as Founding Kohenet of Kesher Pittsburgh and is a Core Faculty Member with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality; she also enjoys working with Jewish Studio Project and Kirva among other national Jewish organisations. Additionally, she delights in serving as a facilitator, teacher, life spiral ceremony/ritual creatrix, shlichat tzibbur, liturgist and songstress. Her work in these realms is informed by her lived experience as a queer, bi-racial, child-free Jewish person living with chronic illness, her belief that Book, Body and Earth are equal sources of wisdom, the quandaries she has encountered as a scholar of the Orphan Wisdom School, and her deep commitment to a thriving, liberatory Jewish future. Keshira received Kohenet smicha in 2017 and earned her BS (2000) and MS (2001) at Carnegie Mellon University. Though both the lands of the Osage & Haudenosaunee people (aka Pittsburgh, PA) and the Gadigal people (Sydney, AUS) feel like home, Keshira and her beloved have been in an extended period of travel since January 2023.
Rebecca Schisler
Rebecca is a core faculty member at IJS, where she directs young adult programming and created and steers the Shevet Jewish Mindfulness Community, a space for folks in or near their twenties and thirties to dive deep into Jewish spirituality and mindfulness practice in online and virtual spaces. Additionally, she creates and curates content for IJS social media and frequently teaches on retreats and multi-week online programs.
Rebecca is honored to serve on this faculty after years of leading groups and teaching classes and retreats with Or HaLev, Pardes, Wilderness Torah, Stanford School of Medicine, Hillel at Stanford, Urban Adamah, Hamakom, and the Awakened Heart Project. A student rabbi at ALEPH, Rebecca is passionate about integrating ancestral wisdom traditions with innovative approaches to personal and collective healing and liberation. She teaches Jewish spirituality as an embodied, holistic, and accessible path, with relevant and timely wisdom for all.
Cultivating the Soul
Cultivating the Soul
Advanced Hasidic Text Study of Pirkei AvotRegistration is Now Closed
This is a special opportunity to study with one of the leading scholars and teachers of Hasidic commentary, Rabbi Dr. Erin Leib Smokler, Director of Spiritual Development at Yeshivat Maharat. This six-week text study is designed for clergy, educators, and seasoned learners. All text will be presented in Hebrew with English translation.
Tradition invites us to count the days in the seven week period between Passover and Shavuot, called the Omer.
Passover marks our physical liberation from Egypt, but Shavuot marks our spiritual elevation at Mount Sinai. The seven weeks in between are not just a countdown; they are a “workout” for the soul. We study Pirkei Avot (Ethics of Our Ancestors) during the Omer because receiving the Torah requires more than just showing up. This beautiful tradition turns a simple countdown into a journey of character development, preparation, growth.
Join us as we count the Omer using this ancient tradition of study. We will draw on the wisdom of this text—with Hasidic commentaries––to guide us in exploring how we might make our days count.
As Shavuot approaches, it is customary to study one chapter of Pirkei Avot each week. This course will do just that, getting to know this core text more deeply and discovering new angles each week. Each session will highlight one or more mishnas from that week’s chapter, with attention to how Hasidic thinkers interpreted these teachings as resources for spiritual growth.
We will learn from the Kedushat Levi, Maor Eynayim, Sefat Emet, Netivot Shalom, and others, and reflect on how we can internalize this beautiful wisdom and take account of our inner lives.
Here’s What Participants Have Told Us About Learning with Rabbi Dr. Erin Leib Smokler
I can’t praise Rabbi Dr. Erin Leib Smokler enough as a teacher of Hasidut. I have studied with her for several years. Her approach to these texts is incredibly insightful, accessible, and deeply relevant on a psychological and spiritual level. Despite her great erudition, she is humble and open to the contributions of her students.
Rabbi Suzanne Singer
Emerita, Temple Beth El
Riverside, CA
Erin Smokler combines a love for Hasidut, the expertise to explain difficult texts, and the ability to teach beginners and advanced students simultaneously. In addition, she shows great humility in always welcoming questions, comments, and insights from her students.
Irving Mandelbaum
I love studying with Rabbi Erin! Rabbi Erin’s unique gift is her use of language; she is an amazing master of the descriptive word. She can take Hasidic ideas and find the right words to make them feel contemporary; she always connects intellectual ideas to the heart-level. I feel personally enlightened and spiritually moved every time I study with her. Literally the words she uses to describe or examine a thought opens new horizons of understanding for me; it is truly her gift as a teacher.
Rabbi Lisa Hochberg-Miller
Temple Beth Torah
Ventura,CA
Registration is Now Closed
Please submit your name and email address and we will inform you once new course dates are released.
Meet Your Instructor:
Rabbi Dr. Erin Leib Smokler
Rabbi Dr. Erin Leib Smokler is the Director of Spiritual Development at Yeshivat Maharat, where she teaches Hasidism and Pastoral Torah.
Erin earned both her PhD and MA from the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought, and her BA from Harvard University. She was ordained by Yeshivat Maharat.
Erin previously served as Assistant Literary Editor of The New Republic magazine, and her writing has appeared there, as well as in The New York Times Book Review, The Jewish Week, and other publications. Her collection, Torah in a Time of Plague: Historical and Contemporary Jewish Reflections (Ben Yehuda Press) received the 2021 National Jewish Book Award in Modern Jewish Thought and Experience.
Rabbi Caryn Aviv Book Talk
Title
SubtitleCourse Title
Live Session Dates & Times
Blurb / course description
Register Now
IJS is pleased to offer this course at three tuition levels.
We encourage you to pay at the highest level you can, which will enable more students to participate.
Abundance Level
$
Basic Level
$
Reduced Level
$
Meet Your Instructors:
Name
Bio
Name
Bio
Mindful Speech as a Spiritual Practice
Mindful Speech as a Spiritual Practice
Words create worlds. Learn to use yours wisely.Registration is Now Closed
Find your voice in a noisy world through the timeless Jewish wisdom of sacred speech.
We’ve all said things in the heat of the moment and wished we could have been more thoughtful about our words. What does it mean to be a shomer lashon—a guardian of speech—in times of great polarization, when so much meaning gets lost in translation? This five-week course journeys into the heart of Jewish spiritual practice and wisdom on the power of our words.
Grounded in mindfulness and deep listening, we will explore how to bring consciousness to four dimensions of speech:
-
- Our inner dialogue
- Our conversations with others
- Our prayers to the Divine, and
- The mystery of becoming available for the Divine to speak through us.
Find true expression through the sacred practice of speaking with clarity and care
Join us on a journey that helps us learn to speak with intention and compassion in an age when words have never mattered more.
Whether you are seeking to heal a fractured relationship, find more meaning in your prayers, quiet the harsh inner critic, or simply speak with greater care and presence, this course meets you where you are. You don’t need to be a scholar or a seasoned practitioner, you only need to be open and willing to reflect and practice.
Participants will leave with new tools and a renewed sense of the sacred potential woven into how they express themselves. Together we will:
-
- Cultivate compassion to ensure that your inner dialogue is affirming and supportive.
- Learn skills to support your discernment about how and when to speak.
- Develop the ability to speak from the heart in ways that are honest and true.
- Deepen your capacity to be fully expressed, for the sake of yourself and our world.
Curriculum Overview
This course will include partner and small group exercises to practice speaking with intentionality, authenticity, compassion, and aliveness.
Week 1: Cultivating compassionate inner dialogue
Week 2: Strengthening relationships through mindful speech
Week 3: Strengthening relationships through mindful speech, continued
Week 4: Expressing our authentic hearts through prayer
Week 5: Becoming a vessel for divine inspiration
Registration is Now Closed
Please submit your name and email address and we will inform you once new course dates are released.
Meet Your Instructors:
Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife
Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife (she/they) sprinkles sparkles, disrupts expectations, and offers blessings wherever she goes. She serves as Founding Kohenet of Kesher Pittsburgh and Core Faculty Member with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, and also enjoys working with beloved, The Jewish Studio Project, Kirva, the Avodah Institute for Social Change, and the Jewish Learning Collaborative, among other national Jewish organisations. Additionally, she delights in serving as a shlichat tzibbur, life spiral ceremony/ritual creatrix, consultant, facilitator, teacher, liturgist and songstress. Her work in these realms is informed by her lived experience as a queer, bi-racial, child-free Jewish person, her belief that Book, Body and Earth are equal sources of wisdom, the quandaries she has encountered as a scholar of the Orphan Wisdom School, and her deep commitment to a thriving, liberatory Jewish future. Keshira received Kohenet smicha in 2017 and earned her BS (2000) and MS (2001) at Carnegie Mellon University. Though both the lands of the Osage & Haudenosaunee people (aka Pittsburgh, PA) and the Gadigal people (Sydney, AUS) feel like home, Keshira and her beloved have been in an extended period of travel since January 2023.
Rebecca Schisler
Rebecca is a core faculty member at IJS, where she directs young adult programming and created and steers the Shevet Jewish Mindfulness Community, a space for folks in or near their twenties and thirties to dive deep into Jewish spirituality and mindfulness practice in online and virtual spaces. Additionally, she creates and curates content for IJS social media and frequently teaches on retreats and multi-week online programs.
Rebecca is honored to serve on this faculty after years of leading groups and teaching classes and retreats with Or HaLev, Pardes, Wilderness Torah, Stanford School of Medicine, Hillel at Stanford, Urban Adamah, Hamakom, and the Awakened Heart Project. A student rabbi at ALEPH, Rebecca is passionate about integrating ancestral wisdom traditions with innovative approaches to personal and collective healing and liberation. She teaches Jewish spirituality as an embodied, holistic, and accessible path, with relevant and timely wisdom for all.
Danny Cohen
Danny graduated from the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania and has pursued the study of Torah and wisdom in a variety of yeshivot and institutions in Israel, the U.S., India, Nepal, and Mexico. He has trained across a variety of modalities of psychotherapy (Hakomi, Organic Intelligence, AEDP, Primary Attachment Therapy, and currently NARM) and transformative change work, and has been practicing meditation since 2009. Danny has been exploring and practicing Nonviolent Communication since 2010, training with some of the leaders in the field- Yoram Mosenzon, Miki Kashtan, and the late Robert Gonzales and Robert Maoz Krzisnik. Danny is a long time student of mystic and trauma healing pioneer, Thomas Hübl, and graduate of his Timeless Wisdom Training.
Kol Dodi Jewish Spiritual Director Training
קול דודי
Kol DodiJewish Spiritual Director Training
20-Month Training
Kol Dodi is grounded in IJS’s contemplative and contemporary core spiritual practices for cultivating awareness of mind, body and heart, and for attuning to the Voice of the Beloved.
The Institute for Jewish Spirituality is thrilled to announce the second cohort of Kol Dodi: Jewish Spiritual Director Training, a program that will prepare participants to serve as spiritual directors.
Kol Dodi translates from the Hebrew as “voice of my beloved.” Participants in this program will learn to accompany others on their spiritual journeys in one-on-one or group settings.
For a deeper dive into what is spiritual direction, and this unique program, please check out our information session below or read our FAQ.
Spiritual direction is a unique practice that offers a distinct set of skills, ethics, and practices which are helpful for clergy and other spiritual care providers.
The program incorporates multidisciplinary approaches to contemplative soul companioning, drawing from both Jewish wisdom and the field of spiritual direction, with the aim of supporting the formation of self as a Jewish spiritual director. Towards this end, Kol Dodi’s formation program and curriculum centers the theory and practice of Jewish spiritual direction.
This unique training includes:
-
- Teaching from core and guest faculty
- Regular support and supervision from mentors
- Chevruta (peer-based learning partners)
- Small group experiential practice
- Mindfulness and embodiment practices
- Creative process and expressive arts
- Trauma-informed orientation to spiritual director formation
- Curriculum that integrates sacred activism into development as a spiritual director
The program is directed and taught by Rabbi Elisa Goldberg and Rabbi Nicole Auerbach. We will have several guest teachers, including Rabbi Myriam Klotz.
Mentors for Kol Dodi include Cantor Ellen Dreskin, Ashley Plotnick, D.Min., LCSW, Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife, and Rabbi Shir Meira Feit. Together, they will offer a curriculum grounded in relational mindfulness, sacred listening, prayer, and embodied wisdom, as well as creativity and liberatory imagination.
We are committed to providing a learning community that welcomes people from many racial, religious, cultural and spiritual traditions, as well as participants who embody sexual and gender diversity, disability and multigenerational perspectives.
Course Structure
Kol Dodi will run for 20 months, beginning with a five-day in-person retreat in April 2027 held at the beautiful Trinity Retreat Center in Cornwall, CT. The program will include one other in-person retreat and several zoom intensives in addition to interim work.
Included in Course Tuition:
-
- Access to IJS course dashboard
- Ongoing Online Learning Sessions
- Regular meetings with mentor
- Chevrutah (peer-based learning partners)
- Small group experiential practice
- Mindfulness and embodiment practices
- Trauma-informed orientation to spiritual director formation
- Program Certificate upon completion of training requirements
- Three Zoom intensives:
- June 21, 2027 from 12 PM – 7 PM
- November 8, 2027 from 12 PM – 7 PM
- June 12, 2028 from 12 PM – 7 PM
- Two in-person retreats:
- The first will run from Sunday, April 11 through Thursday, April 15, 2027
- The second will run from Sunday, through Thursday, in March/April 2028, exact dates TBD.
Program Costs
Costs include all program components, including room and board for the two in-person retreats. The tuition level you select will be due in 4 equal payments over the course of the program. The level you choose will not have any bearing on your application. The higher tuition level enables participants to stay in a single room during the in-person retreats. The lower level enables participants to share a double room with another participant. All rooms have their own bathrooms.
Tuition and Single Room at In-Person Retreats
$11,500
Payable all at once, in 4 equal payments, or in 10 equal payments.
Tuition and Shared Double Room at In-Person Retreats
$9,500
Payable all at once, in 4 equal payments, or in 10 equal payments.
Application
In order to ensure individualized and intensive training, the Kol Dodi cohort size will be up to 30 people.
Participants must apply and acceptance is not guaranteed. Requirements for admission include having at least six months’ experience being in Spiritual Direction before the program begins. Participants must also remain in spiritual direction for the duration of the program. If you need assistance finding someone to work with, here is a list of spiritual directors who completed Kol Dodi. Additional spiritual directors can be found on the website of Spiritual Directors International.
We have extended the application deadline. Applications are due Thursday, November 19 at 3:00 PM ET and require a $120 application fee.
Financial Support is available upon request. Jews of Color, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities will receive priority support. Please fill out the Financial Support Request Form.
If you have any questions please contact Rabbi Elisa Goldberg at elisag@jewishspirituality.org.
Faculty
Rabbi Elisa Goldberg
For over two decades, Rabbi Elisa Goldberg has accompanied others on their spiritual journeys as a spiritual director, professional chaplain, congregational rabbi, and educator. For many years, Elisa served as a spiritual director at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and the Jewish Theological Seminary. She taught at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College on Rabbinic Ethics and Pastoral Counseling, and provided clinical supervision for students. She has served as Director of the Office of Rabbinic Placement for the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and led community chaplaincy services at the Jewish Family and Children’s Services of Philadelphia for fourteen years. Elisa authored a guidebook on spirituality and recovery with Drexel University and consults on the integration of spiritually informed care. She was honored to be the first woman to lead the Philadelphia Board of Rabbis. She maintains a private spiritual direction and pastoral counseling practice and provides consultation and coaching for rabbinic colleagues.
Rabbi Nicole Auerbach
Rabbi Nicole Auerbach (she/her) is a rabbi, spiritual director, teacher of Jewish mindfulness meditation, and Hevraya member (CLP4). She is the URJ’s director of Community Growth & Strategy, focusing on bringing leaders of innovative and emerging communities into the Reform Movement. She has dedicated her rabbinate to creating opportunities for people to create and deepen relationships with one another, with Jewish community and tradition, and with sacred experience.
She is a co-author, with Dr. Ron Wolfson and Rabbi Lydia Medwin, of “The Relational Judaism Handbook: How to Create a Relational Engagement Campaign to Build and Deepen Relationships in Your Community” (Kripke, 2018).
Mentors
Cantor Ellen Dreskin
Ellen Dreskin is an ordained Cantor and Spiritual Director who uses sacred listening and a variety of resources and spiritual practices to help people connect non judgmentally to their own inner/spiritual journey. She has been in the field of faith for almost 40 years. She has extensive experience as a prayer leader, musical artist, storyteller, pastoral counselor, and educator in a number of Jewish settings.
Spiritual Directors International helps us understand spiritual companionship as “conversations about life in the light of faith.” It is an opportunity to connect more deeply and intentionally with one’s core/source/inner life, as well as what is infinite and eternal in both time and space. This exploration/spiritual practice takes place in the company of another who holds a non-judgemental, confidential space in which one’s spiritual story can be acknowledged and encouraged as a source of wisdom, nourishment, and support.
Ellen was introduced to mindfulness and other forms of contemplative spiritual practice through the Institute for Jewish Spirituality many years ago. In 2019, she completed a two-year course of study in order to become a Spiritual Companion, and now spends the majority of her professional time deeply engaged in this practice.
Rabbi Shir Meira Feit
Rabbi Shir Meira Feit is a musician, composer, ritual facilitator, and spiritual director who has facilitated countless circles of communal ceremony and song, helping people of myriad backgrounds connect with depth, wisdom, humor, and joy. Shir worked as a serial spiritual entrepreneur for twenty years in the Jewish Renewal movement, and in the Zen Peacemakers Order, co-facilitating their Bearing Witness Retreats in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Today, Shir offers teachings as an independent educator, performer, and spiritual companion, helping others to grow and flourish at the dynamic edge of spiritual emergence. Shir’s most recent offerings are influenced by the spiritual practice of parenting, interpersonal neurobiology, somatic psychology, neuroqueer theory, DJing, contact improvisation, and psychedelics. Shir lives with their family in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife
Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife (she/they) sprinkles sparkles, disrupts expectations, and offers blessings wherever she goes. She serves as Founding Kohenet of Kesher Pittsburgh and is a Core Faculty Member with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality; she also enjoys working with Jewish Studio Project and Kirva among other national Jewish organisations. Additionally, she delights in serving as a facilitator, teacher, life spiral ceremony/ritual creatrix, shlichat tzibbur, liturgist and songstress. Her work in these realms is informed by her lived experience as a queer, bi-racial, child-free Jewish person living with chronic illness, her belief that Book, Body and Earth are equal sources of wisdom, the quandaries she has encountered as a scholar of the Orphan Wisdom School, and her deep commitment to a thriving, liberatory Jewish future. Keshira received Kohenet smicha in 2017 and earned her BS (2000) and MS (2001) at Carnegie Mellon University. Though both the lands of the Osage & Haudenosaunee people (aka Pittsburgh, PA) and the Gadigal people (Sydney, AUS) feel like home, Keshira and her beloved have been in an extended period of travel since January 2023.
Rabbi Daniel Liben
Rabbi Daniel Liben was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary and served as the Senior Rabbi of Temple Israel of Natick Massachusetts for 30 years. Dan began to integrate his Jewish prayer practice with meditation through Eylat Hayyim’s Jewish Meditation Leadership Training programs. He completed the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s 4th Rabbinic Cohort and Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Programs, and subsequently served on IJS’s Board. Inspired by his experience in Spiritual Direction, he completed Bkhol Levavcha, HUC’s two-year training program for Spiritual Directors.
After retiring from the pulpit in 2021, he joined the Spiritual Direction staff at Hebrew College in Boston, JTS, and Hebrew Union College, and offers Spiritual Direction to Rabbinical students at those campuses. He also advises students in JTS’s pre-Rabbinical School Mekhinah program, and mentors several new Rabbis in the early stage of their careers. Dan and his wife Fran currently live in Teaneck NJ.
Ashley Plotnick, LCSW, MAJS, MEd, PhD
Ashley (she/her) completed training in spiritual direction through the Morei Derekh program in 2014. Along with her work at IJS, she is a co-trainer for the interfaith IFS-based spiritual direction training program at The Center for Engaged Compassion, where she also received supervision training. Ashley spent many years in congregational Jewish educational leadership, and in addition to her spiritual direction work, she now focuses professionally on her private psychotherapy practice and on working with clergy through the CCAR as a spiritually oriented counselor.
Ashley recently completed a Doctor of Ministry degree through Claremont School of Theology, where her research focused on the Shekhinah in the practice of spiritual direction. She holds Masters’ degrees in Social Work, Human Sexuality Education, and Jewish Studies. Ashley lives in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband and three children, her greatest loves and most essential spiritual practice.
Senior Retreat Faculty
Rabbi Myriam Klotz
Rabbi Myriam Klotz is former senior core faculty at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS) and retired after 23 years there in November 2024. She was the Founding Director of IJS Kol Dodi Jewish Spiritual Director Training and of Bekhol Levevkha JSD training at HUC-JIR; the former Director of the Spirituality Initiative at HUC-JIR; led inclusivity work at IJS including creating the LGBTQ+ Beit Midrash and the monthly LGBTQ+ sit (co-sponsored by Keshet!); co-created and co-directed Yoga and Jewish Spirituality Yoga Teacher Training at Isabella Freedman; and served on the Spiritual Directors International board of directors. She lives in Philadelphia with her wife Margot, son Raffi, and dog. Another son, Samm, lives in CA with his wife and cat.
Rabbi Angela Buchdahl Book Talk
Title
SubtitleCourse Title
Live Session Dates & Times
Blurb / course description
Register Now
IJS is pleased to offer this course at three tuition levels.
We encourage you to pay at the highest level you can, which will enable more students to participate.
Abundance Level
$
Basic Level
$
Reduced Level
$
Meet Your Instructors:
Name
Bio
Name
Bio
Returning Anew
Returning Anew
Shevet’s 3rd Annual Silent Jewish Meditation Retreatfor Younger Adults (20s & 30s)
August 19 – 23, 2026
Trinity Retreat Center, West Cornwall, CT
Meet the Teachers
Pause. Breathe. Begin again.
Nestled in beautiful West Cornwall, Connecticut, we will hold our third annual multi-day retreat specifically designed for younger adults and working professionals in their 20s and 30s. Our teachers will help us create a sacred container for this profoundly soulful experience that invites you to slow down, return to yourself, and drop into what matters most within a sacred community of practice. Amidst the challenges of daily life and the tumultuous world around us, this is an opportunity for deep renewal, healing and transformation.
Return, return anew
To the breath that is moving through
To the repair you are called to do
To the healing that’s ripe for you
– Rena Branson, Return Anew
The Theme: Returning Anew
Opening at the start of the Jewish month of Elul, a season of awakening and Teshuva, return, this retreat is a sacred space to set things down, reflect on where we’ve been, and move into the new Jewish year with clarity, intention, and an open heart. Even as the world keeps changing, Elul holds the possibility of hidchadshut: genuine renewal, beginning again.
Who Can Attend?
This retreat is open to students, young professionals and seekers under 40 who are seeking an opportunity for immersive spiritual practice. No experience with mindfulness and/or Judaism is necessary. This retreat will be held mostly in silence, except for opening and closing meals, Q&A, communal prayer, and check-in sessions with instructors.
Whether you’re an experienced practitioner or have never sat in silence for five minutes, there is a seat for you here.
What to Expect
Utilizing the gifts of silence, mindfulness, embodiment, creativity, song, prayer, and a variety of Jewish spiritual teachings, you will:
- Learn tools and practices to reconnect with your innate wisdom and authenticity.
- Nurture your capacity for resilience, compassion, and well-being.
- Cultivate insight and wise action in response to the challenges of our world.
The fine print: We’ll break the silence for opening and closing meals and activities, Q&A sessions, daily song and prayer, and small-group check-ins with our instructors.
I’m so grateful to the Institute for Jewish Spirituality for curating this magical, profound, invigorating experience for young adults.
This was really a gift. And really helped me understand how mediation is connected to the rest of what’s going on in my life. So it was a great capstone and transition moment in otherwise just a starting point.
Teachers
Guiding you on this journey will be a team of instructors who truly “get” the specific pressures of being a younger adult in these uncertain times. Once again we welcome IJS Core Faculty Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife and Rebecca Schisler, and Adjunct Faculty Jes Golden and Yael Shy. These soulful, grounded mentors will hold our sacred space with a mix of warmth, humor, and ancient wisdom, ensuring you feel seen and supported as you navigate your own process of returning.
Schedule
Participants should plan to arrive at Trinity Retreat Center in West Cornwall, CT between 2:30 – 4:30 PM ET on Wednesday, August 19 to register and get settled. The retreat will begin with an orientation at 5:00 PM ET and dinner at 6:00 PM ET. The retreat will end at noon on Sunday, August 23. Participants are welcome to stay through lunch.
The schedule is structured to help you stay immersed and grounded. It’s a mix of:
- Seated & Walking Meditation: Alternating stillness with mindful movement, adapted for all abilities.
- Morning Chanting and Prayer: Using song to wake up the spirit.
- Teachings: Guided sessions to integrate practice with Jewish wisdom.
- Small Groups: Periodic check-ins with teachers to process your experience.
- Nourishment: Three intentional, kosher meals a day and plenty of rest.
- Mindful Movement: Daily yoga sessions to enliven and nourish the body.
See our Frequently Asked Questions section for a sample schedule.
Accessible to All
We know that financial stress shouldn’t be a barrier to mental and spiritual well-being. Because we believe this work is essential right now, this four-day retreat is offered on a sliding scale. We want you there exactly as you are.
“In the midst of chaos, find the place that is settled. From that stillness, we can move with intention.”
Ready to come home to yourself?
Space is limited to keep the container intimate and supportive. Don’t wait to give yourself the gift of renewal.
West Cornwall, CT | Open to all adults under 40
This in-person retreat is open to folks in their 20s and 30s. No experience with mindfulness and/or Judaism is necessary. This retreat will be held mostly in silence, except for opening and closing meals, Q&A, communal prayer, and check-in sessions with instructors.
Registration is Now Closed
Please submit your name and email address and we will inform you once new course dates are released.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this retreat for me?
Short answer: Yes. Whether you’re a daily meditator or struggle to “be present” for more than a few seconds, you belong here. Our guidance is designed to be both deep and accessible. No “expert” status required and no judgement throughout our time together. If you are curious and ready to show up for a transformational experience rooted in Jewish tradition that touches the depths of your soul, this is for you.
We’re committed to making this space inclusive for everyone, providing gender-neutral bathrooms and accessible seating. If there is anything specific you need to feel like you truly belong, just reach out.
Note: Intensive meditation can sometimes be challenging for certain mental health conditions. If you’re unsure if a silent retreat is the right move for you right now, drop us a line at support@jewishspirituality.org
What does "Social Silence" really mean?
Think of it as a deep digital and social detox. After our opening session, we’ll step into collective silence. That means we are inviting you not to speak socially with other participants, no “quick” texts or emails, and no scrolling or otherwise “exiting” the silence for the duration of each day.
By pausing social interaction, you allow your nervous system to put down the armor, decompress, and give yourself the gift of turning within. And you won’t be isolated–you’ll have specific times to ask questions, check in with teachers in small groups, and join in communal chanting and song each morning.
We find that the gift of silence, when done in community, enables you to slow down, sink deeply into the practices, and truly “re-source” yourself in the spaciousness of the quiet.
How are we holding the gravity of the world right now?
We come together in a tumultuous and challenging time in the US and the world. Each of us has a different experience and different relationships and proximity to current domestic and foreign political developments, and the resulting violence, ongoing devastation, and tremendous loss of life. 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 isn’t about “bypassing” the news or ignoring suffering. Instead, we sit in silence to build the internal resilience and clarity in service of building the world we wish to live in, beginning in our own hearts and minds.
Click here to read our full guidance for practicing in a time of war
How "Jewish" is this going to be?
The retreat is rooted in Jewish tradition, but you don’t need to know Hebrew or have a certain level of observance to be here. We translate and explain everything.
Expect a Jewish practice that is inclusive, egalitarian, heart-centered, embodied, and deep. We’ll celebrate a soulful Shabbat together (with instruments!), eat delicious kosher meals, and there will be daily space for the Mourner’s Kaddish and personal prayer.
What kind of meditation are we doing?
We practice Mindfulness: the art of paying attention to the present moment with a non-judgmental, loving and kind 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.
In this 2024 study from the National Institute of Health that linked meditation (specifically mindfulness-based interventions) to improved mental health in young adults, 89.4% of practitioners reported that meditation helps reduce stress and nearly 87% of users report feeling better emotionally.
What does a typical day look like?
The Flow: Days start early (6:30 AM) with a practice in the morning stillness and the day wraps up by 9:30 PM. Our week of retreat will culminate with a beautiful celebration of Shabbat.
Here is a sample schedule:
-
-
-
- Wake up
- Sit
- Shacharit / Morning prayer practice
- Breakfast
- Sitting or walking instruction and practice
- Lunch
- Sit or walking practice
- Small groups
- Mindful Movement
- Dinner
- Evening program
- Closing sit / evening prayers
- Bedtime
-
-
Meet the Teachers
Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife
Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife (she/they) sprinkles sparkles, disrupts expectations, and offers blessings wherever she goes. She serves as Founding Kohenet of Kesher Pittsburgh and is a Core Faculty Member with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality; she also enjoys working with Jewish Studio Project and Kirva among other national Jewish organisations. Additionally, she delights in serving as a facilitator, teacher, life spiral ceremony/ritual creatrix, shlichat tzibbur, liturgist and songstress. Her work in these realms is informed by her lived experience as a queer, bi-racial, child-free Jewish person living with chronic illness, her belief that Book, Body and Earth are equal sources of wisdom, the quandaries she has encountered as a scholar of the Orphan Wisdom School, and her deep commitment to a thriving, liberatory Jewish future.
Keshira received Kohenet smicha in 2017 and earned her BS (2000) and MS (2001) at Carnegie Mellon University. Though both the lands of the Osage & Haudenosaunee people (aka Pittsburgh, PA) and the Gadigal people (Sydney, AUS) feel like home, Keshira and her beloved have been in an extended period of travel since January 2023.
Rebecca Schisler
Rebecca Schisler (she/her) is a core faculty member at IJS, where she directs young adult programming and created and steers the Shevet Jewish Mindfulness Community, a space for folks in or near their twenties and thirties to dive deep into Jewish spirituality and mindfulness practice in online and virtual spaces. Additionally, she creates and curates content for IJS social media and frequently teaches on retreats and multi-week online programs.
Rebecca is honored to serve on this faculty after years of leading groups and teaching classes and retreats with Or HaLev, Pardes, Wilderness Torah, Stanford School of Medicine, Hillel at Stanford, Urban Adamah, Hamakom, and the Awakened Heart Project. A student rabbi at ALEPH, Rebecca is passionate about integrating ancestral wisdom traditions with innovative approaches to personal and collective healing and liberation. She teaches Jewish spirituality as an embodied, holistic, and accessible path, with relevant and timely wisdom for all.
Jes Golden
Jes Golden (they/she—formerly Jes Heppler) is a meditation teacher and researcher who focuses on embodied experience in Jewish and Buddhist meditation. Grounded in their Sephardi and Ashkenazi lineages, Jes’ teaching weaves Jewish and earth-based spirituality with philosophical and neuroscientific insights. Jes teaches regularly for the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS): they host the IJS LGBTQ+ Monthly Sit, guide the IJS Daily Sit, and lead both online and in-person programming for the IJS young adult community, Shevet. Jes has also taught for Or HaLev’s Ground & Center series.
They are a graduate of Or HaLev and IJS’s Meditation Teacher Training Program. Jes holds a PhD in Philosophy from UC Berkeley and is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Possible Minds at Indiana University, where they are researching bodily awareness in Buddhist and Jewish meditation.
Yael Shy
Yael Shy (she/her) has been using the transformative power of mindfulness, rooted in her 20+ years of study in Judaism and Zen Buddhism, to support herself and others through the pressures of life. It is her life’s purpose to support individuals and collectives uncover their inherent worth and capacity for deep joy.
Yael is the Founder and CEO of Sefira Wellness, where she teaches and consults on mindfulness for universities, corporations, and private clients around the world. She is the author of the award-winning book, What Now? Meditation for Your Twenties and Beyond (Parallax, 2017), and the founder of Mindful NYU, the largest campus-based mindfulness initiative in the US.
Yael is a graduate of the IJS Jewish Mindfulness Teacher Training Certification. She teaches for New York University, Columbia School of Law, the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and Or HaLev. She has been featured on Good Morning America, CBS, Fox 5 News, and in Time Magazine and the Harvard Business Review.
Yaakov Ginsberg-Schreck
Yoga Instructor
Yaakov Ginsberg-Schreck (he/him) is the Founder and Executive Director of RUACH, a Boston-based collective of teachers in embodied Jewish practice. He completed his 200-hour Yoga teacher training through One Down Dog Studios in Los Angeles in 2019, under the mentorship of Evelyn (Ducky) Punch. From 2019-2023, he pursued rabbinical studies at Hebrew College, where he began RUACH as a student project. In order to pursue full-time organizational leadership, Yaakov left the Beit Midrash (study hall) when RUACH incorporated as a nonprofit. In addition to stewarding RUACH’s organizational development, he teaches Yoga, breath practice, and Jewish meditation as pathways toward recovering the living mystery and redemptive possibilities within Jewish tradition and human imagination. As a past participant and guest teacher for Shevet, he is deeply grateful for the opportunity to be part of this wonderful retreat.
Refuge in the Ark: A Jewish Mindfulness Retreat
Refuge in the Ark:
A Jewish Mindfulness RetreatSunday, November 15 – Thursday, November 19, 2026
Garrison Institute, Garrison, NY
When the seas of our lives are especially chaotic, it can be healthy to take temporary refuge in a sheltered place — like Noah did in the biblical ark. Once removed from the storm, we can connect deeply with a sense of newness and hope, feeling restored and strengthened. After this kind of retreat, we’re able to return to our lives with greater clarity and wisdom to respond to the realities of the world around us.
The IJS community will create our own ark of calm connection this fall,
and we hope you will join us.
This mostly silent, Jewish mindfulness meditation retreat will be at the serene Garrison Institute in Garrison, NY. Our retreat will be led by IJS faculty and other experienced, beloved instructors. Over five days, we will focus on deepening our practice through silent meditation enhanced with Jewish teachings, meditation instructions, mindful prayer, and yoga/embodied practice. We will use silence as a tool to deepen our sense of calm, safety, and spiritual development, following Rav Shimon Ben Gamliel’s teaching: “I have found nothing better for a person than silence” (Pirkei Avot 1:17).
Mornings on retreat will include two tracks — one for those newer to Jewish mindfulness meditation (including those who are new to retreats) and one for those with more experience. These tracks will offer different length meditation periods and tailored instructions. There will also be opportunities to mindfully explore the beautiful grounds and forested trails of the Garrison Institute.
*Please note: Part of the power of retreat at the Garrison Institute comes from its long history as a monastery and practice center. And, this historical building is limited in accessibility. While our meditation and meals will be on the first floor, there is limited accessible housing on the first floor and no elevator to upper floors. Please be in touch with us if you have any questions about accessibility on this retreat.
Our instructors will include Senior Core Faculty Rabbis Jordan Bendat-Appell, Sam Feinsmith, Miriam Margles and Marc Margolius, Program Faculty Cantor Lizzie Shammash, and Core Faculty Rebecca Schisler.
This retreat is open to all participants 18+, and all experience levels. This retreat will be held mostly in social silence, except for opening and closing meals, Q&A, communal prayer, and one-on-one sessions with instructors. See FAQs below for more information.
Retreat Costs and Financial Support
We want to help ensure that the cost of enrollment is not a barrier to participation. A limited amount of financial assistance is available upon request. Please request financial support using this form.
Single Room
$2,200
Shared Double
$1,800
Single for Health Reasons
$1,800
Commuter
$900
Registration Lottery
This year, we will be admitting registrants to the retreat using a lottery system. Last year’s retreat filled up quickly, catching many potential registrants off-guard. Although ultimately almost everyone who wished to attend was able to, we felt adjustments would be beneficial.
We are changing to a lottery this year to help decrease anxiety around registration and to allow sufficient time to register for those new to IJS or to this retreat. A registration lottery also enables IJS to distribute our limited financial support more equitably to those requiring it in order to attend.
We will inform everyone who signs up if they are able to attend the retreat by Friday, August 21, 2026. More details on the registration process can be found on the registration page.
Sample Daily Schedule
6:45 Sitting Meditation (or personal prayer)
7:15 Shacharit / Morning Prayers / Chanting
8:15 Breakfast
9:15 Tracks 1 and 2: Meditation with Instruction
12:00 Lunch
1:45 Sitting Meditation
2:15 Walking Meditation
3:00 Q&A and Sitting Meditation
3:45 Yoga, Embodied Practice or Outdoor Walk
5:00 Sitting Meditation / Mincha / Afternoon Prayers
5:30 Dinner
7:00 Evening Teaching
8:00 Walking Meditation
8:30 Sitting Meditation and Ma’ariv / Evening Prayers
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this retreat for me?
This retreat is open to beginner and more advanced students alike. We will have two tracks for the morning practice to help support both of these groups. If you have never meditated on a retreat before, you are welcome! Our practice guidance will be both accessible and deep.
We also strive to make this retreat inclusive for all bodies through ensuring the availability of gender neutral bathrooms and chairs without arms. Please note below information about accessible housing. If there are additional ways that we can support your sense of belonging during this retreat, please reach out to us.
Meditation is contra-indicated to some mental health conditions. If you are not sure whether retreat is right for you at this time, please contact us at support@jewishspirituality.org.
How is silence practiced on this retreat?
Shortly after our opening program and dinner on the first day, we will enter into what we call “social silence.” We see this as a warm, loving silence, in the presence of others, that helps us be more fully present. This silence will continue until the closing program of the retreat.
We are inviting you to not speak 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 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/praying together each day.
How will we be observing Jewish tradition?
Our retreat is deeply rooted in Jewish tradition, and you are welcome to participate regardless of your background. All Hebrew terms will be translated and explained. Our Jewish practice will be egalitarian and contemplative, and will include singing, prayer, and embodied practice.
We will be engaging in prayer as a full group, and there will be time built into the schedule for participants to engage in their personal prayer practice as well. There will be an opportunity to say the Mourner’s Kaddish three times every day.
Our retreat will be kosher, according to IJS Kashrut Standards.
Food on Retreat
A sensory highlight of this retreat will be the healthy and delicious gourmet food served by the Garrison Institute. Our menu will be vegetarian — with vegan, dairy, and fish options. We will be kashering the Garrison kitchen and working with their kitchen team to offer kosher food according to IJS Kashrut Standards. When registering, you will have the opportunity to let us know about any dietary restrictions you may have.
Accessibility & Accommodations
- Wheelchair/Scooter Access: First floor rooms are accessible, including dining and meeting spaces. The building entry is via a ramp at the main entrance. The dining hall uses a temporary metal ramp to bypass a few entrance stairs.
- ADA-Compliant Rooms: There are two double ADA-compliant wheelchair accessible rooms and one single ADA-compliant wheelchair accessible room on the first floor with a semi-private shared ADA-compliant bathroom between them.
- Bathroom for Accessible Rooms: The three ADA-compliant wheelchair accessible rooms share one semi-private bathroom (single toilet and shower stall). Private signage prevents other guests from using it.
Retreat Faculty
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell is Senior Core Faculty at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS), where he teaches Jewish mindfulness and text and directs cohort and retreat programs. Jordan began working for IJS as rabbinical student intern in 2005, and was on staff from 2011-2017, as a teacher of Jewish Mindfulness, leading retreats, and as Director of the Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training. Jordan also taught meditation to rabbis and cantors through IJS’ Clergy Leadership Program.
Currently at IJS, Jordan focuses on teaching Jewish mindfulness and text, planning and directing retreats, and leading the development of a new training program for advanced teachers of Jewish mindfulness.Jordan will also continue to share his expertise through online courses and on retreats, fostering mindful engagement with Jewish wisdom and tradition.
Rabbi Sam Feinsmith
As Senior Core Faculty at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality Sam directs the IJS Clergy Leadership Program and serves on the faculty of Gates of Awareness, a training program for aspiring teachers of Jewish mindfulness meditation. He is one of two lead teachers for our online course on the fundamentals of Jewish mindfulness meditation, The Gift of Awareness, and has written the IJS year-long Hasidic text study offering for a number of years running. After close to fifteen years teaching contemplative practices grounded in mindfulness to teens and educators, Sam originally came on board at IJS to develop and direct the Educating for a Jewish Spiritual Life Program, which brought these practices to hundreds of Jewish day- and religious-school educators and their students.
Rabbi Miriam Margles
Miriam has a long and rich association with IJS, having taught on various retreats and programs over the years. She joins the Institute as a Senior Core Faculty after over a decade as the rabbi of the Danforth Jewish Circle in Toronto. She is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship and the Jerusalem Fellows at the Mandel Leadership Institute. Miriam as a founding faculty member at the Romemu Yeshiva, serving as a fellow with the Rising Song Institute, co-founding Encounter – the award-winning educational program working toward informed, courageous and resilient Jewish leadership on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and recording her original Jewish music with the Hadar Rising Song ensemble.
Rabbi Marc Margolius
Rabbi Marc Margolius serves as advisor for overall programming for IJS, and directs programming for lay leaders as well as Hevraya, the alumni of our Clergy Leadership Program. He hosts the “Daily Sit,” IJS’s online daily mindfulness meditation sessions, and teaches courses for IJS, including Awareness in Action: Cultivating Character through Mindfulness and Middot, our online program in tikkun middot practice, integrating Jewish mindfulness with attention to core middot, character traits.
Previously, Marc served as rabbi at West End Synagogue in Manhattan and Congregation Beth Am Israel in Penn Valley, PA, where he pioneered a Shabbat-centered model of congregational engagement. He developed and led the Legacy Heritage Innovation Project at the Legacy Heritage Fund from 2005-2010, an initiative to promote systemic educational change in congregations around the globe.
Long active in social justice activism, Marc is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and of Yale Law School and lives in New York City.
Cantor Lizzie Shammash
Cantor Lizzie Shammash’s first career as an opera singer brought her to Iyengar and Kripalu Yoga studies. She completed teacher training at Om Yoga with Cyndi Lee and continued her studies in pranayama, restorative and prenatal yoga. After graduating from Jewish Theological Seminary, Lizzie’s love of yoga and Judaism found their authentic fusion through studies with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality where she currently serves as a faculty member teaching yoga and mindfulness to rabbis and cantors. She leads yoga and contemplative prayer inspired by the Jewish calendar nationally for synagogue communities. Lizzie is passionate about helping others bring Judaism into the body, voice, and heart—through both methodical and creative embodied practice—and she lives in Philadelphia, where she has served two congregations.
Rebecca Schisler
Rebecca is a core faculty member at IJS, where she directs young adult programming and created and steers the Shevet Jewish Mindfulness Community, a space for folks in or near their twenties and thirties to dive deep into Jewish spirituality and mindfulness practice in online and virtual spaces. Additionally, she creates and curates content for IJS social media and frequently teaches on retreats and multi-week online programs.
Rebecca is honored to serve on this faculty after years of leading groups and teaching classes and retreats with Or HaLev, Pardes, Wilderness Torah, Stanford School of Medicine, Hillel at Stanford, Urban Adamah, Hamakom, and the Awakened Heart Project. A student rabbi at ALEPH, Rebecca is passionate about integrating ancestral wisdom traditions with innovative approaches to personal and collective healing and liberation. She teaches Jewish spirituality as an embodied, holistic, and accessible path, with relevant and timely wisdom for all.
The Marbeh Fellowship
The Marbeh Fellowship
Cultivating Senior Jewish Mindfulness TeachersFebruary 2026 – August 2028
Marbeh is a 30-month fellowship program to cultivate a new generation of Jewish mindfulness and spirituality educators to lead the field with enhanced teaching and practice. The 24-member cohort participates in intensive in-person retreats, ongoing study, writing, chevruta, teaching, publication, and both peer and traditional mentorship.
Marbeh builds upon several of IJS’s previous programs and includes both veteran teachers and earlier career, promising teachers. The goal of this fellowship is to invest in the deepening of each teacher’s practice and teaching in order to help the overall field thrive and for the Torah of Jewish Mindfulness to flourish.
We’re thrilled to welcome our 2026 cohort! These dedicated teachers will deepen their practice and expand their capacity to guide others. To learn more about this exceptional first cohort, please visit our 2026 fellowship directory.
Fellows pictured, in order from left to right, top to bottom: Shira Abramowitz, Rabbi Benjamin Barnett, Rabbi Lauren Berkun, Aviva Chernick, Alison Cohen, Rabbi Josh Feigelson, Rabbi Sam Feinsmith, Sarah Hurwitz, Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife, Jes Golden, PhD, David Gottlieb, PhD, Rabbi Ariel Hendelman, Rabbi Zvika Krieger, Rabbi Miriam Margles, Rabbi Batsheva Meiri, Cantor Julie Newman, Rabbi Dev Noily, Rabbi Shuli Passow, Rabbi Benjamin Ross, Rebecca Schisler, Larry Schwartz, Yael Shy, Rabbi Lauren Tuchman, Carrie Watkins.
We are grateful to the Covenant Foundation for supporting us in launching our Marbeh Fellowship this year, and for recently interviewing our Senior Core Faculty, Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell, about this innovative new program.
In their annual issue of Sight Line, the foundation interviews project directors from their newest cohort of Covenant grantees and asks them generative questions to uncover their inspirations, their passions, and their visions for the field of Jewish education.
Meet The Instructors:
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell is Senior Core Faculty at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS), where he teaches Jewish mindfulness and text and directs cohort and retreat programs. Jordan began working for IJS as rabbinical student intern in 2005, and was on staff from 2011-2017, as a teacher of Jewish Mindfulness, leading retreats, and as Director of the Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training. Jordan also taught meditation to rabbis and cantors through IJS’ Clergy Leadership Program.
Currently at IJS, Jordan focuses on teaching Jewish mindfulness and text, planning and directing retreats, and leading the development of a new training program for advanced teachers of Jewish mindfulness.Jordan will also continue to share his expertise through online courses and on retreats, fostering mindful engagement with Jewish wisdom and tradition.
Rabba Dorothy Richman
Rabba Dorothy Richman serves as Rabbi of MakorOr: Jewish Meditation Center and Rabbi Emerita of Congregation Beth Sholom in San Francisco. She teaches on the faculty of the Institute forJewish Spirituality’s Clergy Leadership Program and for Or HaLev. Dorothy’s commited to the spiritual practices of Torah study, meditation, prayer, and justice. She is a soulful leader of traditional and creative ritual, and released an album of original music called Something of Mine, available on Bandcamp.
The Peaceful Parent Project® with Orot: Center for New Jewish Learning
The Peaceful Parent Project® with Orot:
Center for New Jewish LearningJanuary – February, 2026
6 Live Zoom Sessions
This is your opportunity to take a course with IJS and Orot: Center for New Jewish Learning. These programs (with separate cohorts for parents and grandparents) integrate Jewish text study, discussion, and guided mindfulness practice to nourish families during challenging times and help you bring more compassion and Jewish wisdom into your home. Parents will learn to reshape interactions with children, creating a more spiritually connected and mindful bond. Grandparents will learn practices to deepen connections with adult children and grandchildren and infuse family moments with sacredness and tranquility.
Meet Your Instructor:
Rebecca Minkus Lieberman
Bio
The Peaceful Grandparent Project, with Orot: Center for New Jewish Learning
The Peaceful Grandparent Project:
with Orot, Center for New Jewish LearningRegistration is Now Closed
Practice with Dr. Jane Sherwin Shapiro
January 15 – February 26, 2026
Live Sessions: Thursdays, 2:00-3:15pm ET
January 15, 22, 29, February 5, 19, 26 (no class on February 12)
Program Limited to 25 Participants
Discover a Practice and Community to Help You Connect More Meaningfully with Your Grandchildren
The Peaceful Grandparent Project is offered in partnership with our colleagues at Orot. This transformative cohort offers grandparents the tools to deepen connections with their adult children and grandchildren and infuse family moments with sacredness and tranquility.
This accessible six-week course interweaves Jewish wisdom with mindfulness practices and teachings to help grandparents cultivate greater empathy, understanding, and connection in their families.
As A Grandparent, Do You:
- Wonder about the new role you play within your family?
- Strive to have the strongest relationship possible with your grandchildren?
- Try to impart your Jewish values and Jewish pride to your grandchildren?
- Want to connect more openly and lovingly with your adult children and in-law children?
Joining our Peaceful Grandparent Cohort Will Support Your Journey Towards:
- Shema – Listening with attunement, without judgment
- Re-iyah – Seeing and accepting our grandchildren and adult children as they are
- Shavat va’yinafash – Finding self-care moments of rest and renewal
- Ahava – Opening the rich complexity of grandparent love
- Hitchadshut – Seeing the everyday through the lens of holiness
Testimonials
“Each session gives me the space to explore my grandparenting challenges and beliefs in the context of Jewish sources and other parents’ experiences. Through the close examination of targeted Jewish texts, our small cohort shared, laughed and cried together. And more importantly, we reflected on our relationships with our children and grandchildren.”
“I found Peaceful Grandparent to be thought-provoking, stimulating and very interesting. It was rewarding to be with such a knowledgeable facilitator and deep thinking group of grandparents. Peaceful Grandparent enables grandparents to engage with one another on a deep level while studying Jewish texts and readings from other sources, to learn how to deepen their relationships with their grandchildren and to think about the role grandparents play in their grandchildren’s lives and what they want to leave with their grandchildren. Peaceful Grandparent stimulates you to think differently and opens your ears and eyes and heart to new ways of understanding and practice.”
Registration is Now Closed
Sign up to be notified if additional cohorts open up
Meet Your Instructor
Dr. Jane Sherwin Shapiro
Jane Shapiro is passionate about all aspects of Jewish teaching and learning. She has been a teacher to many over the last thirty five years, in classes ranging from weekly Torah study to Jewish thought, history, and literature and has worked with organizations which include the Florence Melton School, Camp Ramah, Spertus Institute for Learning and Leadership, and Orot. She likes to explore new ways to assist learners in bringing Jewish wisdom into conversation with their lives. Currently she is thinking and teaching about the spiritual practices of being a grandparent. She is a graduate of Princeton University, and received her doctorate from the Jewish Theological Seminary. In 2017, Jane received an Educators Award from the Covenant Foundation. In 2018 she was featured in an Eli talk on “The Torah of Bubbiehood.” She lives in Skokie, Illinois with her husband David and is also mother to four sons, mother-in-law to three daughters, and grandmother to six.
Since 1999, IJS has been a leader in teaching traditional and contemporary Jewish spiritual practices that cultivate mindfulness so that each of us might act with enriched wisdom, clarity, and compassion. These practices, grounded in Jewish values and thought, enable participants to develop important skills while strengthening leadership capacities, deepening their inner lives, and connecting more meaningfully with others, Judaism, and the sacred.
Founded in 2014, Orot was started by a group of passionate Jewish educators committed to redesigning the paradigm of Jewish learning and opening up the well of Jewish wisdom to all. Orot creates programs which foster the wellbeing of individuals, families, and communities. Orot’s programs provide opportunities and offer tools for meaning-making, nourishment, and refuge using personally resonant and accessible Jewish teachings, practices, and experiences.
Seeing into the Life of Things: Imagination and the Sacred Encounter
Seeing into the Life of Things:
Imagination and the Sacred EncounterRegistration is Now Closed
Cultivate a daily gratitude practice by leaving the world of negative emotions and reactivity
Renowned author and poet Rodger Kamenetz (author of the classic bestseller The Jew in the Lotus), will offer a five-week program of imaginative spiritual practice based on his new book: Seeing into the Life of Things: Imagination and the Sacred Encounter.
Do you find yourself grappling with the anxiety and uncertainty of our times? How can we engage our five senses to develop a gratitude practice that purifies an afflictive state of mind? In this 5-week course, you will embark on a journey that entwines our senses, dreams, and imagination with the sacred by:
- Engaging the healing power of “feeling into images” in memory, perception, and dreams.
- Cultivating a mindset of “counting blessings” and integrating this blessing practice into the traditional Jewish morning prayer practice.
- Connecting inner feelings with the outer world, evoking images from our dream life.
- Developing greater empathy and a shift in consciousness toward what Kamenetz terms “the Great Opening.”
This course includes access to a dedicated WhatsApp group for discussion and a restorative curriculum that:
- Introduces the modeh/modah ani as a gratitude practice.
- Enhances your morning prayer practice with counting blessings.
- Cultivates your senses and the hidden role of imagination in everyday perception.
- Introduces dreams as the laboratory of imagination.
- Contemplates images in dream and how dreams can bring us to a cosmic religious experience.
Participants are strongly encouraged to purchase Rodger Kamenetz’s book, Seeing into the Life of Things: Imagination and the Sacred Encounter. Available at booksellers everywhere, including Barnes and Noble, Bookshop.org, and Amazon.
Discover for yourself what Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel called “radical amazement”
Components of the Course
Week 1
A Challenge from the Dalai Lama
A Challenge from the Dalai Lama: How do you purify afflictive states of mind?
The neglected power of imagination. The role of imagination in memory. A simple visualization practice. Introduction to the modeh/modah ani as a gratitude practice.
Week 2
Counting Blessings
Counting Blessings
A visualization practice for cherishing moments of blessing. Adding counting blessings to morning prayer practice.
Week 3
Imaginative Perception
Imaginative Perception: “What we half-create and perceive”
The hidden role of imagination in everyday perception. Exercises in cultivating your senses. Finding infinity in a wildflower. Imaginative perception and Heschel’s “radical amazement.” The sacred encounter in waking life. The cosmic religious experience.
Week 4
Memory and Dream Images
Memory and Dream Images: Deep Memory; Spots of Time
Introduction to dreams as a laboratory of imagination. The power of contemplating formative memories. Distinguishing imagination in dreams from the story-telling of the ego. Distinguishing feeling and reaction to purify afflictive states of mind.
Week 5
Sacred Encounters in Dreams
Sacred Encounters in Dreams
How dreams can bring us to a cosmic religious experience, encounters with the angelic /archetypal in dreams. Contemplating images in dreams.
Testimonials
“With his profound knowledge of poetry, and decades of experience in dreamwork, as well as Hasidic studies, Kamenetz offers not just a deep investigation of the power of images to open up a more connected and engaged life, but a path of practice to help reconnect us with our authentic self and the vivid life of the soul. I don’t know of a book that so richly brings together poetry, dreams, imagination and the spiritual life. It needed to be written, and needs to be read, now more than ever. A real gem.”
“This book is a harvest of living wisdom, a ripening of the garden Rodger Kamenetz has been cultivating for decades. Tenderly and with lucid insight, he walks us through the gates of poetry and dreams, of Jewish mysticism and Zen Buddhism, of science and art. Not only does Kamenetz celebrate the power of the imagination to open our souls, but the abundance of images he scoops up from his own life and offers to us with outstretched hands cannot help but transform our ordinary lives from a set of tasks to be accomplished into an ever-unfolding sacred encounter.”
“Rodger Kamenetz opened a new side to our congregation that many of us didn’t know was there. Rodger helped people explore a spiritual depth that inspired and encouraged many to live more boldly and with greater intention and compassion. Unlike some Scholar in Residence experiences, which are nice but afterwards, we all carry on as before, Rodger left our community with much to explore and build upon. I can’t recommend him more highly as a scholar or artist in residence.”
Registration is Now Closed
Please submit your name and email address and we will inform you once new course dates are released.
Meet Your Instructor:
Rodger Kamenetz
Rodger Kamenetz is an award-winning poet, author and teacher. Of his 13 books, his best known is The Jew in the Lotus, the story of rabbis making a holy pilgrimage through India to meet with the Dalai Lama. His account of their historic dialogue became an international bestseller, prompting a reevaluation of Judaism in the light of Buddhist thought. Now in its 37th printing overall, The Jew in the Lotus is a staple of college religion courses. The New York Times called it a “revered text.” A PBS documentary followed, and a sequel, Stalking Elijah, was awarded the National Jewish Book Award for Jewish Thought. Kamenetz’s Burnt Books, in Schocken/Nextbook’s Jewish Encounters series, once again crosses boundaries, between literature and religion. It begins as a dual biography of Franz Kafka and Rebbe Nachman, who each asked his best friend to burn his books. It ends with Kamenetz on his own pilgrimage to Kafka’s Prague and to the rebbe’s grave in Ukraine.
Born in Baltimore, Rodger Kamenetz has degrees from Yale, Johns Hopkins and Stanford. At Louisiana State University, he held a dual appointment as a Professor of English and Professor of Religious Studies and founded the MFA program in creative writing and the Jewish Studies minor. He retired as LSU Distinguished Professor and Sternberg Honors Chair Professor. He lives in New Orleans where he now devotes himself to his work with clients who seek spiritual direction through dreams.
The Shevet Reset: Jewish Meditation Challenge for Young Adults
The Shevet Reset
Jewish Meditation Challenge for Young AdultsRegistration is Now Closed
Start the year from the inside out with a two-week Jewish meditation challenge designed for folks in their 20s and 30s seeking clarity, motivation, and authentic connection. Each day of the challenge, you’ll receive a piece of inspiration directly into your inbox, including guided meditation practices, sparks of Jewish wisdom, journaling prompts, beautiful music, and a “deep dive” resource. There will also be two live parties (via zoom) to launch and close the journey together.
A simple, supportive, and doable challenge, uniquely grounded in Jewish mindfulness, spiritual resilience, and the power of a collective fresh start.
Set a personal goal, track your progress, and cheer on a community of peers who are beginning again right alongside you. Join us to deepen your connection to Judaism and awaken a new sense of presence, purpose, and possibility for the year ahead.
Come out of the challenge feeling inspired by Jewish wisdom, strengthened in your Jewish meditation practice, and connected to others in our IJS 20’s and 30’s community (Shevet).
Components of the Challenge
Daily Inspiration:
Each morning, you will receive a short, meaningful practice directly in your inbox. This might be a guided meditation, a spark of Jewish wisdom, journaling prompts, or a piece of uplifting music to ground and inspire your day.
Community Accountability + Personal Goal Setting:
You are invited to choose a personal intention or habit for the two-week journey, track your progress, earn milestone awards and cheer each other on through our group challenge platform. Yael Shy, your guide, will also answer questions and drop daily cheers and bits of inspiration into your portal along the way.
Two Live Sessions:
We’ll launch and close the challenge together with two Zoom gatherings that include setting intentions, community connection, live practice, and a celebration of the commitments you’ve made.
Simple, Flexible Structure:
The entire experience is designed to be doable in just 10 minutes a day, while providing enough depth, Jewish grounding, and community support to spark meaningful long-term change.
Daily Content
- Feb 2: Intentions/Kavanot
- Feb 3: Presence
- Feb 4: Transitions
- Feb 5: Movement
- Feb 6: Shabbat/Deep Rest (part one)
- Feb 7: Shabbat/Deep Rest (part two)
- Feb 8: Eating
- Feb 9: Authenticity
- Feb 10: Blessings
- Feb 11: Listening
- Feb 12: Compassion
- Feb 13: Awe (part one)
- Feb 14: Awe (part two)
- Feb 15: Joy
- Feb 16: Return
- Feb 17: Celebration and Next steps
Registration is Now Closed
Please submit your name and email address and we will inform you once new course dates are released.
Meet Your Challenge Host
Yael Shy
Yael Shy has been using the transformative power of mindfulness, rooted in her 20+ years of study in Judaism and Zen Buddhism, to support herself and others through the pressures of life. It is her life’s purpose to support individuals and collectives uncover their inherent worth and capacity for deep joy.
Yael is the Founder and CEO of Sefira Wellness, where she teaches and consults on mindfulness for universities, corporations, and private clients around the world. She is the author of the award-winning book, What Now? Meditation for Your Twenties and Beyond (Parallax, 2017), and the founder of Mindful NYU, the largest campus-based mindfulness initiative in the US.
Yael is a graduate of the IJS Jewish Mindfulness Teacher Training Certification. She teaches for New York University, Columbia School of Law, the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and Or HaLev. She has been featured on Good Morning America, CBS, Fox 5 News, and in Time Magazine and the Harvard Business Review. She lives in Stamford, Connecticut, and you can find her online at www.sefirawellness.com and on instagram @yaelshy1
This Challenge will also feature the wisdom of Institute for Jewish Spirituality and Shevet teachers:
Jordyn Steifman, Ariel Hendleman, Alison Cohen, Rabbi Josh Feigleson, Yoshi Silverstein, Rebecca Schisler, Rabbi Zvika Krieger, Kohenet Kashira HaLev Fife, Kohenet Shamira Chandler, Jack Leopold, Aviva Chernick and Rabbi Miriam Margles