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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.”
For Seasoned Learners
The Illuminated Path
Living Torah with the Me’or Einayim
with Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein
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.
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
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
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/).