A Program for Prior Awareness in Action Course Participants

Registration Is Now Closed

You asked, and we heard you!

By popular demand, IJS is pleased to offer you an exclusive opportunity to continue and deepen your practice of mindfulness and middot, limited to those who have previously participated in our program Awareness in Action: Cultivating Character Through Mindfulness and Middot.

Beginning Sunday, October 23, Rabbi Marc Margolius will offer Awareness in Action II: Weekly Torah-Based Middah Practice, a nine-week program engaging participants in mindfulness and middot practice, focusing on a single middah drawn from that week’s Torah portion.

While Awareness in Action II  will revisit some of the middot covered in Awareness in Action, it will primarily offer you an opportunity to apply the now-familiar three step mindfulness process to cultivate a new set of middot, and to develop a more powerful and meaningful relationship between your everyday life and the weekly Torah cycle.

As a participant in Awareness in Action II, you’ll be able to join nine live weekly practice sessions from 4:30-6:00 PM ET, led by Rabbi Margolius on Monday October 24 and 31, November 7, 14, 21, 28, Wednesday December 7, and Monday December 12 and 19. For those who cannot attend a particular session, these will be recorded and available for viewing later.

Each live weekly practice session will feature:

• • A short teaching on a middah (spiritual/ethical quality) drawn from each week’s Torah portion
  • A meditation or other contemplative practice for noticing the presence of this middah within us
  • An opportunity for processing the middah within the safety of a small group
  • A Q&A session

On the Sunday prior to each practice session, you will receive an email with the following material, all of which will also be posted on the online course dashboard:

• • A recap of the teaching on how the middah is derived from the weekly Torah portion
  • Reflection questions for use in journaling and/or discussing with a chevruta or practice partner
  • A set of focus phrases and suggested kabbalot (practices) for engaging with the middah over the course of the week
  • Opportunities to engage in Jewish prayer and rituals to cultivate the middah
  • Contemporary poetry which reflects the weekly middah
  • A Spotify playlist with Jewish and secular music for reinforcing awareness of the middah

NOTE for those who participated in Awareness in Action II in the Fall of 2021: The written materials and Torah portions for this round of Awareness in Action II will be identical to those covered last year, but the materials will be augmented by teachings and materials presented during the live sessions, and  by an optional email-based discussion group moderated by Rabbi Margolius.

Rabbi Marc Margolius

Rabbi Marc Margolius directs programming for lay leaders and alumni of the IJS clergy leadership training program, as well as the Tikkun Middot Project, which integrates Jewish mindfulness with middot (character trait) practice. He hosts IJS’s daily mindfulness meditation sessions and teaches an online program, Awareness in Action: Cultivating Character through Mindfulness and Middot. Previously, Marc served as rabbi at West End Synagogue in Manhattan.

About the Institute for Jewish Spirituality

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.