Rabbi Myriam Klotz
February 11 – March 8, 2024
When the biblical figure, Job, declared “from my flesh, I see God,” he was describing a dynamic and intimate connection with Divine Presence, experienced directly through his body. Movement, embodied sensation and physicality are all essential elements of Jewish prayer practice – doorways into sacred encounter, awareness, and authentic expression.
In this four-week course, we will ask and explore together:
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- How does the body in both stillness and movement express authentic prayer?
- What happens as the prayer emerging from the heart expresses itself not only through the lips, but also through the arms and legs, through bowing or uplifted spine?
- How can we deepen our prayer through physical gesture, presence, and posture?
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While we will engage with embodying prayer more generally, our exploration will be rooted in the words and imagery of the Amidah, or Standing Prayer, which forms the backbone of daily Jewish liturgical worship. As we will discover, the physicality of this prayer is essential to its expression.
Rabbi Myriam Klotz will guide you in a yoga-based approach to embodied prayer practice, delving more deeply into this central Amidah prayer, its worded intentions and our own heartful, mindful, bodyful discoveries and insights.
The course includes a live weekly practice group with Rabbi Myriam Klotz. Sessions will take place on Thursday evenings from 7:30-8:30 PM ET on Zoom on the following dates: February 15, 22, 29, March 7. These sessions are a wonderful opportunity to practice together in real time, reflect on the week’s experiences, and to ask questions.
You are also encouraged to meet with a chevruta (learning and practice partner) weekly to further support your exploration. You may find that your sense of accountability to practice, your feeling of being part of a community of practice, and your satisfaction in the course will be enhanced by learning with a practice partner (or chevruta). This is completely optional.
Each Sunday, you will receive an email reminder to enter the IJS course platform, accessing that week’s materials. These materials include a written lesson, a half-hour audio teaching, recorded by Rabbi Myriam Klotz, and still photos of the yoga postures described in the recording. Additional resources of Jewish texts, secular writings, and poems are included to supplement your learning. You can choose the best time in your schedule to read the written lesson, listen to the half-hour audio teaching, and engage in the practice. Throughout the week, you will receive daily emails with inspirational quotes and encouragement to keep up with your 20-30 minutes of daily practice.
Participants are asked to post questions and reflections each week in the discussion forum, so that Myriam can address your questions, further support you in your practice, and so that we might all learn from each other’s experiences.
This course is suited for participants of all levels of yoga experience.
No prior background in Hebrew or Jewish prayer is required. Those with experience in Jewish prayer will be able to deepen your practice.
Course Tuition
$249
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.
Please use the corresponding coupon code when registering.
To pay the full course tuition of $249, use no coupon code.
For a reduced tuition of $199, use code: IJS_199
For a reduced tuition of $149, use code: IJS_149
Meet Your Instructor
Myriam is on the IJS Senior Core Faculty team, serving as Program Director for the Kol Dodi Spiritual Director Training program and advocate for DEI initiatives at IJS. Myriam has been on the IJS faculty since 2003, teaching yoga and embodied practices in the clergy, educator, Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Trainings as well as hevraya/alumni retreats and programs. Myriam created a Middot Yoga Teacher Training for Westchester county, NY, a Yoga and Jewish Spirituality Teacher Training at Isabella Freedman, and was the director of the Spirituality Initiative/Spiritual Direction program at HUC-JIR from 2010-2020. Myriam directed Bekhol Levavkha Jewish Spiritual Director training at HUC-JIR and is a spiritual director and supervisor in private practice. A graduate of Brown University, New York University/International Center of Photography and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Myriam is a certified yoga instructor, yoga therapist and body worker. She has contributed to several publications on the topics of embodiment, spiritual practice and spiritual direction, and has produced IJS’s Yoga for Jewish Spirituality CD series. Myriam and her spouse Margot Stein (R3) live in Philadelphia. Together they are the parents of Raffi, Samm and Aryeh z”l.
