Full Year Program
Learning 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. We encourage participants to sign-up for a chevrutah/study partner, in order to deepen your learning and practice.
This year, we bring back two popular text study streams, both of which provide rich material for spiritual study and can help you find meaning, expand your awareness, and deepen your spiritual life and practice.
Whether you are new to the study of the Jewish textual tradition or you’ve been studying and practicing for many years, we invite you to join this community of learners in order to bring the light of Torah into your life and the world.
TRACK 1: For Seasoned Learners
with Rabbi Miriam Margles
Delving into Torah, Seeding a Heart of Practice:
Practicing with the Netivot Shalom on the Weekly Torah Portion
Weekly Live Sessions: Wednesdays, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
This year, immerse in a Torah-based community of practice guided by Rabbi Miriam Margles grounded in the teachings of the Netivot Shalom – the Hasidic Torah commentary of Rabbi Shalom Noah Berezovsky of Slonim (1911-2000), translated and explicated by Rabbi Jonathan Slater.
This year-long program will feature weekly written lessons with original translations and explications of the Netivot Shalom by Rabbi Slater, enriched and deepened by additional resources and materials and live weekly practice sessions led by Rabbi Margles. (The written materials by Rabbi Slater were originally offered by IJS in 2010-11.) This course is best suited to individuals who are familiar with the weekly Torah portion and have some experience with Hasidic thought. In this text stream, every week you will receive:
- An annotated English translation of the week’s text and a mindfulness-based commentary on the text
- Further inspiration – additional resources (e.g. poetry, excerpts of other teachings, etc.) from diverse voices, brought in conversation with the Netivot Shalom teachings
- Avodah – suggested spiritual practice for the week
- Reflection questions
- Access to an archive of all texts and materials from previous weeks’ teachings
- Please note: We are unable to provide the Hebrew text due to copyright protections, but we will provide information on where you can purchase the full year’s text should you wish to
NEW This Year: Weekly Live Sessions
This course also includes the opportunity to participate in Weekly Live Sessions – Wednesdays, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET on Zoom, starting on October 11 (recorded for those unable to attend live). We will gather as a community of practice to discuss the weekly teaching, address questions, and engage in practice together.
$399
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.
.For a reduced tuition of $349, click here.
For a reduced tuition of $249, click here.
TRACK 2: For All Learners
with Rabbi Marc Margolius
Living Torah Each Day
Through Mindfulness and Middot
Weekly Live Sessions: Tuesdays, 5:00 – 6:00 PM ET
Immerse this year in tikkun middot practice, combining mindfulness with application of a middah (soul/character trait) drawn from the weekly Torah portion, with Rabbi Marc Margolius and the IJS community.
Each week, participants will receive a packet of materials with Rabbi Margolius’s teaching on the Torah portion, a recorded audio guided meditation, specific suggestions for applying the middah in daily life, and additional resources for exploring the week’s middah through poetry, Jewish prayer, and a playlist of popular music reflecting the theme of the week. (Note that the written materials by Rabbi Margolius were originally offered by IJS in 2019-20, as well as in our Awareness in Action 2.0 program.)
In this text stream, every week you will receive:
- Text of the week
- Reflection questions for journaling or chevruta study
- Related spiritual practices, such as suggestions for focus phrases (“mantras” for the week), kabbalot (simple daily opportunities to practice the middah), prayer practices, and poetry
- A Spotify musical playlist on the theme of the middah
- Access to an archive of all the texts and materials from previous weeks’ teachings
NEW This Year: Weekly Live Sessions
This course also includes the opportunity to participate in Weekly Live Sessions – Tuesdays, 5:00 – 6:00 PM ET on Zoom, starting on October 10 (recorded for those unable to attend live). We will gather as a community of practice to discuss the weekly teaching, address questions, and engage in practice together.
Course Tuition
$399
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.
For a reduced tuition of $299, click here.
For a reduced tuition of $149, click here.
Rabbi Miriam Margles, Senior Core Faculty
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. Her career has included service as a founding faculty member at the Romemu Yeshiva, serving as a fellow with the Rising Song Institute, co-founding the award-winning educational program engaging with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Encounter, and recording her original Jewish music with the Hadar Rising Song ensemble. Miriam’s album, Zeh HaYom – this is the day, is available at: https://miriammargles.bandcamp.com/
Miriam teaches and leads by creating an atmosphere of attentive, brave, playful and open-hearted exploration of Jewish text, prayer and practices, our inner landscapes, resilient connection with others, and relationship with the wider world, all working toward healing, wisdom and liberation. Her work integrates exploration through movement, voice and song and creative writing. 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. She earned an MTS from Harvard Divinity School and a BFA from York University.
Rabbi Marc Margolius, Vice President of Faculty and Program
Rabbi Marc Margolius directs the faculty and overall programming for IJS, and oversees programming for lay leaders and alumni of the Hevraya, the alumni of our Clergy Leadership Program. He 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.
TRACK 1: For Seasoned Learners
with Rabbi Miriam Margles
Delving into Torah, Seeding a Heart of Practice:
Practicing with the Netivot Shalom on the Weekly Torah Portion
Weekly Live Sessions: Wednesdays, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
This year, immerse in a Torah-based community of practice guided by Rabbi Miriam Margles grounded in the teachings of the Netivot Shalom – the Hasidic Torah commentary of Rabbi Shalom Noah Berezovsky of Slonim (1911-2000), translated and explicated by Rabbi Jonathan Slater.
This year-long program will feature weekly written lessons with original translations and explications of the Netivot Shalom by Rabbi Slater, enriched and deepened by additional resources and materials and live weekly practice sessions led by Rabbi Margles. (The written materials by Rabbi Slater were originally offered by IJS in 2010-11.) This course is best suited to individuals who are familiar with the weekly Torah portion and have some experience with Hasidic thought.
In this text stream, every week you will receive:
- An annotated English translation of the week’s text and a mindfulness-based commentary on the text
- Further inspiration – additional resources (e.g. poetry, excerpts of other teachings, etc.) from diverse voices, brought in conversation with the Netivot Shalom teachings
- Avodah – suggested spiritual practice for the week
- Reflection questions
- Access to an archive of all texts and materials from previous weeks’ teachings
- Please note: We are unable to provide the Hebrew text due to copyright protections, but we will provide information on where you can purchase the full year’s text should you wish to
NEW This Year: Weekly Live Sessions
This course also includes the opportunity to participate in Weekly Live Sessions – Wednesdays, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET on Zoom, starting on October 11 (recorded for those unable to attend live). We will gather as a community of practice to discuss the weekly teaching, address questions, and engage in practice together.
$399
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.
.For a reduced tuition of $349, click here.
For a reduced tuition of $249, click here.
Rabbi Miriam Margles, Senior Core Faculty
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. Her career has included service as a founding faculty member at the Romemu Yeshiva, serving as a fellow with the Rising Song Institute, co-founding the award-winning educational program engaging with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Encounter, and recording her original Jewish music with the Hadar Rising Song ensemble. Miriam’s album, Zeh HaYom – this is the day, is available at: https://miriammargles.bandcamp.com/
Miriam teaches and leads by creating an atmosphere of attentive, brave, playful and open-hearted exploration of Jewish text, prayer and practices, our inner landscapes, resilient connection with others, and relationship with the wider world, all working toward healing, wisdom and liberation. Her work integrates exploration through movement, voice and song and creative writing. 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. She earned an MTS from Harvard Divinity School and a BFA from York University.
TRACK 2: For All Learners
with Rabbi Marc Margolius
Living Torah Each Day
Through Mindfulness and Middot
Weekly Live Sessions: Tuesdays, 5:00 – 6:00 PM ET
Immerse this year in tikkun middot practice, combining mindfulness with application of a middah (soul/character trait) drawn from the weekly Torah portion, with Rabbi Marc Margolius and the IJS community.
Each week, participants will receive a packet of materials with Rabbi Margolius’s teaching on the Torah portion, a recorded audio guided meditation, specific suggestions for applying the middah in daily life, and additional resources for exploring the week’s middah through poetry, Jewish prayer, and a playlist of popular music reflecting the theme of the week. (Note that the written materials by Rabbi Margolius were originally offered by IJS in 2019-20, as well as in our Awareness in Action 2.0 program.)
In this text stream, every week you will receive:
- Text of the week
- Reflection questions for journaling or chevruta study
- Related spiritual practices, such as suggestions for focus phrases (“mantras” for the week), kabbalot (simple daily opportunities to practice the middah), prayer practices, and poetry
- A Spotify musical playlist on the theme of the middah
- Access to an archive of all the texts and materials from previous weeks’ teachings
NEW This Year: Weekly Live Sessions
This course also includes the opportunity to participate in Weekly Live Sessions – Tuesdays, 5:00 – 6:00 PM ET on Zoom, starting on October 10 (recorded for those unable to attend live). We will gather as a community of practice to discuss the weekly teaching, address questions, and engage in practice together.
Course Tuition
$399
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.
For a reduced tuition of $299, click here.
For a reduced tuition of $149, click here.
Rabbi Marc Margolius, Vice President of Faculty and Program
Rabbi Marc Margolius directs the faculty and overall programming for IJS, and oversees programming for lay leaders and alumni of the Hevraya, the alumni of our Clergy Leadership Program. He 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.