Refuge in the Ark: A Jewish Mindfulness Retreat

Refuge in the Ark: A Jewish Mindfulness Retreat

Dec 10, 2025

Refuge in the Ark:

A Jewish Mindfulness Retreat

Sunday, November 15 – Thursday, November 19, 2026

Garrison Institute, Garrison, NY

Click Here to Register Now

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. 

Register Today

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.
Save Your Spot

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.

Join Us!

Text Study 5786

Text Study 5786

Jul 28, 2025

Text Study 5786

Deepen Your Experience with Torah

Full Year Program

Begins October 12, 2025

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. 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.

Register Now

For All Learners

A Healing Journey

Through the Torah

Trauma, Resilience, and the Tree of Life
with Rabbi Lisa Goldstein
In this text study, Rabbi Lisa Goldstein will take us on a healing journey through the Torah, which has been called “Etz Chayim—the Tree of Life” for giving strength and hope to Jews for millennia. During troubled times like these, we yearn to heal ourselves and to grow, and the stories of our ancestors grappling with their own hardships can provide a guide.

We will examine each Torah portion through a trauma-informed lens so we can draw upon its wisdom, find the potential for growth within ourselves, and cultivate resilience and open-heartedness to help us navigate the days ahead.

This offering is designed to be accessible to all learners – no prior experience with Torah study or mindfulness is required.

Rabbi Lisa will also offer monthly live Zoom sessions for practice and Q&A.

In this text stream, every week you will receive:

  • Teachings drawn from the well of ancestral wisdom and resilience, including exploration of Torah, midrash, mystical texts, and other sources from Jewish tradition.
  • Cutting-edge insights into the ways that different kinds of trauma (intergenerational, attachment, complex, shock, etc.) impact our lives and how healing takes place.
  • A trauma-informed lens to mindfulness practices that can support resilience, personal growth, and self-harmony, even as challenging events continue to take place. (Growth doesn’t have to be “post-traumatic”!)
  • Instructions for personal practice and chevruta discussion that can deepen integration of learning and experience.
  • Access to an archive of all texts and materials from previous weeks’ teachings.

Monthly Live Sessions will be held on Tuesdays from 3:00-4:00 PM ET on the following dates:

2025: November 4, December 2
2026: January 6, February 3, March 10, April 7, May 5, June 2, July 7, August 4, September 1 and September 29

Here’s What Rabbi Lisa’s Students Have to Say About The Impact of Her Teaching on Their Practice:

“Rabbi Lisa is a gifted educator who makes our community members feel as if they are learners and teachers. She uses a strengths-based approach to bring people into text, and to foster spaces that invite constituents to be vulnerable and open. We have benefited deeply from the way in which she transmits and elicits knowledge.” – Claire Nisen

“Rabbi Lisa is notably attentive to creating inviting and peaceful atmospheres for learning. She skillfully reads the temperature of the room with care and her invitations for participation are genuine invitations. She provides clarity and guidance to her students while holding their energy, spirit, and needs with utmost sensitivity and consideration. She is a true gift to each student fortunate enough to learn with and from her.” – Abby Mintz

In this text study, Rabbi Lisa Goldstein will take us on a healing journey through the Torah, which has been called “Etz Chayim—the Tree of Life” for giving strength and hope to Jews for millennia. During troubled times like these, we yearn to heal ourselves and to grow, and the stories of our ancestors grappling with their own hardships can provide a guide.

We will examine each Torah portion through a trauma-informed lens so we can draw upon its wisdom, find the potential for growth within ourselves, and cultivate resilience and open-heartedness to help us navigate the days ahead.

This offering is designed to be accessible to all learners – no prior experience with Torah study or mindfulness is required.

Rabbi Lisa will also offer monthly live Zoom sessions for practice and Q&A. (recorded for those unable to attend live)

In this text stream, every week you will receive:

  • Teachings drawn from the well of ancestral wisdom and resilience, including exploration of Torah, midrash, mystical texts, and other sources from Jewish tradition.
  • Cutting-edge insights into the ways that different kinds of trauma (intergenerational, attachment, complex, shock, etc.) impact our lives and how healing takes place.
  • A trauma-informed lens to mindfulness practices that can support resilience, personal growth, and self-harmony, even as challenging events continue to take place. (Growth doesn’t have to be “post-traumatic”!)
  • Instructions for personal practice and chevruta discussion that can deepen integration of learning and experience.
  • Access to an archive of all texts and materials from previous weeks’ teachings.

Monthly Live Sessions will be held on Tuesdays from 3:00-4:00 PM ET on the following dates:

2025: November 4, December 2
2026: January 6, February 3, March 10, April 7, May 5, June 2, July 7, August 4, September 1 and September 29

Here’s What Rabbi Lisa’s Students Have to Say About The Impact of Her Teaching on Their Practice

“Rabbi Lisa is a gifted educator who makes our community members feel as if they are learners and teachers. She uses a strengths-based approach to bring people into text, and to foster spaces that invite constituents to be vulnerable and open. We have benefited deeply from the way in which she transmits and elicits knowledge.” – Claire Nisen

 

“Rabbi Lisa is notably attentive to creating inviting and peaceful atmospheres for learning. She skillfully reads the temperature of the room with care and her invitations for participation are genuine invitations. She provides clarity and guidance to her students while holding their energy, spirit, and needs with utmost sensitivity and consideration. She is a true gift to each student fortunate enough to learn with and from her.” – Abby Mintz

For Seasoned Learners

Awareness in All Things

 Rebbe Nachman of Breslov on the Weekly Torah Portion
with Rabbi Sam Feinsmith
In this new IJS course—Awareness in All Things: Rebbe Nachman of Breslov on the Weekly Torah Portion—Rabbi Sam Feinsmith will guide us through the powerful teachings of the charismatic Hasidic master Rebbe Nachman (1772-1810) and his principal student, Reb Noson (1780-1844).

During his lifetime, Rebbe Nachman inspired the revival of the Hasidic movement, drawing thousands of followers on account of his unparalleled piety and erudition; practical, down-to-earth, joyous spirituality; and his emphasis on cultivating a personal, unmediated relationship with the Divine. His prolific, original teachings continue to provide practical wisdom that remains highly relevant in our time.

Each week, we will ground our work of cultivating spiritual awareness and refining our character in a single teaching from Rebbe Nachman on the Torah portion, available in Hebrew and English. Rabbi Feinsmith will translate each teaching into a contemporary idiom with an original, mindfulness-inspired commentary, reflection questions for journaling/chevruta study, practice instructions, and guided audio meditations.

This course is for seasoned students of Hasidic text and mindfulness practice who wish to draw inspiration, deepen their contemplative practice, and expand their knowledge of Kabbalah and Hasidic spirituality. Though the teachings of Rebbe Nachman and Reb Noson are widely available, this year-long offering supports us to work with them in an accessible, immersive, and transformative manner and explore their profound relevance for our times.

Rabbi Sam will also offer monthly live Zoom sessions for practice and Q&A. (recorded for those unable to attend live)

In this text stream, every week you will receive:

  • A carefully-selected piece of commentary on the weekly Torah portion, excerpted from the original Hebrew text
  • An annotated English translation of the week’s text along with a summary of key points that pertain to spiritual practice
  • Reflection questions designed to support you in discovering authentic connections between the text and your lived experience
  • Detailed instructions for mindfulness practice
  • Access to an archive of all texts and materials from previous weeks’ teachings

Monthly Live Sessions will be held on Mondays from 3:00-4:15 PM ET on the following dates:

2025: November 10, December 15
2026: January 12, February 9, March 9, April 13, May 11, June 8, July 6, August 10, September 14, and October 5

This offering is best suited for seasoned students of Hasidic text and mindfulness practice, and it will also provide rich content for those who wish to develop sermons and teachings for their congregations.

By participating in this course of study and practice, you will:

  • Grow your knowledge of key Hasidic terms, ideas, views, and practices
  • Deepen your mindfulness practice
  • Deepen your awareness of God’s loving presence within and all around you
  • Cultivate habits of heart and mind that nurture greater balance, well-being, and resilience during difficult times
  • Gain access to new materials for developing sermons and teachings for your community
  • If studying with a chevruta, develop a deeper sense of spiritual intimacy and kinship as you practice and study together and explore the relevance of the teachings to your spiritual growth
In this new IJS course—Awareness in All Things: Rebbe Nachman of Breslov on the Weekly Torah Portion—Rabbi Sam Feinsmith will guide us through the powerful teachings of the charismatic Hasidic master Rebbe Nachman (1772-1810) and his principal student, Reb Noson (1780-1844).

During his lifetime, Rebbe Nachman inspired the revival of the Hasidic movement, drawing thousands of followers on account of his unparalleled piety and erudition; practical, down-to-earth, joyous spirituality; and his emphasis on cultivating a personal, unmediated relationship with the Divine. His prolific, original teachings continue to provide practical wisdom that remains highly relevant in our time.

Each week, we will ground our work of cultivating spiritual awareness and refining our character in a single teaching from Rebbe Nachman on the Torah portion, available in Hebrew and English. Rabbi Feinsmith will translate each teaching into a contemporary idiom with an original, mindfulness-inspired commentary, reflection questions for journaling/chevruta study, practice instructions, and guided audio meditations.

This course is for seasoned students of Hasidic text and mindfulness practice who wish to draw inspiration, deepen their contemplative practice, and expand their knowledge of Kabbalah and Hasidic spirituality. Though the teachings of Rebbe Nachman and Reb Noson are widely available, this year-long offering supports us to work with them in an accessible, immersive, and transformative manner and explore their profound relevance for our times.

Rabbi Sam will also offer monthly live Zoom sessions for practice and Q&A. (recorded for those unable to attend live)

In this text stream, every week you will receive:

  • A carefully-selected piece of commentary on the weekly Torah portion, excerpted from the original Hebrew text
  • An annotated English translation of the week’s text along with a summary of key points that pertain to spiritual practice
  • Reflection questions designed to support you in discovering authentic connections between the text and your lived experience
  • Detailed instructions for mindfulness practice
  • Access to an archive of all texts and materials from previous weeks’ teachings

Monthly Live Sessions will be held on Mondays from 3:00-4:15 PM ET on the following dates:

2025: November 10, December 15
2026: January 12, February 9, March 9, April 13, May 11, June 8, July 6, August 10, September 14, and October 5

This offering is best suited for seasoned students of Hasidic text and mindfulness practice, and it will also provide rich content for those who wish to develop sermons and teachings for their congregations.
By participating in this course of study and practice, you will:

  • Grow your knowledge of key Hasidic terms, ideas, views, and practices
  • Deepen your mindfulness practice 
  • Deepen your awareness of God’s loving presence within and all around you
  • Cultivate habits of heart and mind that nurture greater balance, well-being, and resilience during difficult times
  • Gain access to new materials for developing sermons and teachings for your community
  • If studying with a chevruta, develop a deeper sense of spiritual intimacy and kinship as you practice and study together and explore the relevance of the teachings to your spiritual growth 

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:

A Healing Journey Through the Torah

$349
$299
$199

 For Seasoned Learners:

Awareness in All Things

$449
$399
$299

Meet Your Instructors

Rabbi Lisa Goldstein is a teacher, consultant, and Master Practitioner of NARM, a modality of healing complex trauma. She consults in the fields of education, trauma healing and spirituality for organizations including M2 Institute for Experiential Jewish Education and the Covenant Foundation. She also works one-on-one to support people in their journeys of healing and spiritual growth.

Educated at Brown University and Hebrew Union College, Rabbi Goldstein has almost 25 years of executive experience, having served as the executive director of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and Hillel of San Diego. She teaches a wide variety of courses, both online and in person, with an emphasis on spiritual wisdom, prayer and meditation, and the teachings of R. Nahman of Breslov.

Rabbi Sam Feinsmith

Rabbi Sam Feinsmith has been immersed in Jewish contemplative living, learning, and teaching for over twenty years, conducting Jewish meditation workshops, programs, and retreats for children, teens, Jewish educators, clergy, and community leaders. He’s passionate about practicing and teaching meditation and making the spiritual teachings of Hasidism available to all. He received an MA in Talmud and Rabbinics from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and rabbinic ordination from YCT Rabbinical School. He also trained as a Jewish mindfulness meditation teacher with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program. Sam lives on the land of the Council of the Three Fires – the Potowatami, Ojibwe, and Odawa tribes – currently known as Evanston, IL with his wife Sarah-Bess and daughter Elanit.

The Gift of Awareness

The Gift of Awareness

Jul 28, 2025

The Gift of Awareness

Cultivating Mindfulness Through Jewish Meditation

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN

Discover the Jewish Practice That Wakes You Up to the Magic and Meaning of Your Life

When is the last time you remember being fully present – not worrying about the past or anxiously planning for the future – just available to appreciate all the goodness of the moment?

It’s probably easier to recall the last time you arrived at work and then didn’t remember driving there. Or finishing a meal not having tasted a single bite.

Or being so preoccupied during a conversation with a friend, spouse or co-worker that you couldn’t really listen to them or remember anything they said.

If so, you’re not alone.

Today most of us regularly experience being so lost in our thoughts, distracted on our phones, and caught-up in our never-ending to-do lists that we aren’t really experiencing our lives in the present moment.

We have a tendency to think – and our culture reinforces – that doing more and achieving more is what will bring our lives into alignment with our core values and what matters most to us.

Access a More Relaxed, Restorative Way of Being That Offers a Deeper and More Meaningful Life Experience

You Can Start with Just 5 Minutes a Day

You may already recognize that you need some support managing your stress, being more present, reinvigorating your connection to Judaism, and skillfully navigating the challenges in your life and in the world.

You’ve likely heard mindfulness is helping others, but may not have figured out how to make it work for you. And you may not realize that you can practice mindfulness within a Jewish context . . . in a way that makes mindfulness accessible, familiar and perhaps even more meaningful to you—in addition to potentially creating new and possibly unexpected connections to Judaism itself.

That’s why the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, a global leader in teaching Jewish mindfulness and spiritual practices, has created The Gift of Awareness: Cultivating Mindfulness Through Jewish Meditation a first-of-its-kind, self-paced, online Jewish meditation course that offers new access to expanded awareness to support you in becoming more consistently who you want to be in the world . . . all from the comfort and convenience of your own home.

Here’s how it works . . . during The Gift of Awareness, mindfulness educators Rabbi Sam Feinsmith and Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell will expertly guide you each step of the way through establishing a Jewish mindfulness meditation practice that can support you in:

  • Showing up non-reactively in your life
  • Finding ways to deal skillfully with your inner critic
  • Finding an anchor of peace and positivity in stressful situations
  • Reawakening or deepening your connection to Judaism
  • Being a powerful example of resiliency, empathy and connection in your life and in the world

With regular practice – even for just 5 minutes a day – you can gain access to an inner refuge or sanctuary that you can take with you wherever you go . . .

So that no matter the circumstances you may find yourself in, no matter how stressful and strenuous your responsibilities may become, you can always discern a subtle quality of awareness hovering in the backdrop and permeating your experience of body, heart, mind and world.

Here’s What People Who’ve Established a Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Practice Tell Us About How It’s Transformed Their Lives

“Before I came to IJS and took the course, I thought my yoga meditation that I practiced before classes was all that there was to meditation. During the course, I experienced a deeper inner look into myself and was surprised that feelings of loss that I had suppressed surfaced. Now that I’ve experienced The Gift of Awareness, my life is calmer and I realize that I can live at a bit of a slower pace, be more aware and present, be a better listener, and still get the things done that matter to me.”

Marlene Aron

“IJS has changed my life. I know it sounds dramatic. But I want everyone to know what I now know – our Jewish Hassidic wisdom has deepened my prayer, my meditation and my mindset. Even more essentially, because of IJS I have changed the way I speak to myself, which has changed everything.”

Aliza Kline

“Jewish spiritual practice has made me so much more spiritually alive. It inspired me. Refreshed me. Many of us go to yoga, meditate and are looking for spiritual practices to help us in our lives. What I didn’t know is that I could do all of that within the context of Jewish prayer and tradition—and that it would be so much more meaningful as a result.”

Rabbi Rachel Timoner

The Gift of Awareness
A Session-by-Session Course Overview

Here’s a closer look at everything you’ll cover:

Every module is between 30 and 45 minutes in length, and includes:

  • Video teachings with Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell
  • A text study with Rabbi Sam Feinsmith
  • A guided meditation
  • A mindful life practice
  • Reflection questions and discussion forums
  • A supplemental handout

Each session builds on the next so that you feel relaxed, inspired, and confident in each new skill before moving onto the next.

Module One:

Waking Up to Your Life
From Automatic Pilot to Intention

Module Two:

Strengthening Attention
From Distracted to Present  

Module Three:

Listening to Your Body 
From Thinking to Sensing

Once you have finished the first three modules you may notice . . .

  • You’ve begun moving through your life more intentionally, instead of being on automatic pilot
  • You find it easier to anchor your attention to be more present
  • You’ve become better able to notice your mental habits and unsupportive thought patterns that habitually move you into reactivity and away from feeling calm and centered.

Module Four:

Turning Towards the Stream of Your Emotions
From Reactivity to Responsiveness

Module Five:

Working with Difficult Emotions
From Avoidance to Approaching

Once you have finished Modules Four and Five you may notice . . .

  • You’re better able to identify emotions in your body, such as “Oh, I must be feeling sadness because there’s sensation in the pit of my stomach” or “My face is flushing, which means I’m feeling angry.”
  • You’re more in tune with your emotions and able to know precisely what you’re feeling moment by moment, instead of having only a vague sense of ease or uneasiness.
  • You’re more able to cultivate non-judgemental attention to your own emotions, allowing you to be more responsive instead of getting stuck in emotionality and reactivity.

Module Six:

Befriending Your Own Mind
From Conviction to Curiosity

Module Seven:

Cultivating Your Loving Heart
From Judgment to Compassion

Module Eight:

Resting in Shabbat Mind™
From Doing to Being

Once you have finished Module Six you may notice . . .

  • You’re more able to be the observer of your thoughts and the student of your habits instead of believing those thoughts and habits are what define you.
  • As you realize more clearly that you’re not actually your thoughts and mental habits, you become more in touch with who you really are.

Once you have finished Module Seven you may notice . . .

  • You’re better able to cultivate loving emotions when you need them — the kind of emotions that open the heart and leave the mind feeling spacious and connected.
  • You’re better able to skillfully handle emotions (like anger) that distort your ability to see clearly.

Once you have finished Module Eight you may notice . . .

  • You’re better able to de-stress, regulate and strengthen your attention, and practice emotional self-regulation.
  • You feel more resourced, restored and supported as you do your work and live your life.
  • You’re able to meet others (and yourself) with a deeper quality of love, compassion and acceptance.
  • You have access in any moment to what Shabbat represents — peaceful awareness that you need to do nothing else or be anywhere else.
  • That practice grounded in Jewish wisdom has changed your relationship with Judaism and possibly even God.

Course Materials and Resources

When you register, you’ll get access to everything you need to take full advantage of the self-paced course, including:

  • 8 self-paced video teaching sessions, guided meditation “practices” and reflection questions – that you can access anywhere, anytime from your computer or mobile device.
  • Downloadable handouts for each module – so you can reference these powerful teachings anytime.
  • An online meditation timer you can load with your favorite guided meditations from the course – so you can practice them again and again.
  • 8 “Mindful Life” practices – designed to help you integrate the course teachings into your everyday life.
  • A personal online journal – your own personal space to record your reflections.

The Gift of Awareness

Course Tuition

$249

Purchase to get access to everything you need
to take full advantage of this self-paced course

Register Now

About Rabbi Sam Feinsmith

As Senior Core Faculty at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, Rabbi Sam Feinsmith directs the Clergy Leadership Program and teaches on the faculty of a variety of IJS programs. Previously, he taught Judaic Studies at Chicagoland Jewish High School, Illinois, and the Heschel School in NY, where he spearheaded initiatives to foster teen spirituality, mindfulness, and wellness. He is a co-founder of Orot: Center for New Jewish Learning, a center for contemplative Jewish learning and living. He served as a Kol Tzedek Fellow for American Jewish World Service, volunteering in Cambodia with their Volunteer Corps.

About Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell

Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell is a teacher of Jewish mindfulness and has spent years leading retreats and immersive experiences for adults in various settings through the National Ramah Commission, Orot: Center for New Jewish Learning, and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. Jordan was the founding Director of Ramah Beyond and was Director of Camp Ramah in Canada from 2019-2022. Previously, he worked for the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS) as a teacher of Jewish Mindfulness and as Director of the Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training. Jordan also taught meditation to rabbis and cantors through IJS’ Clergy Leadership Program. After being ordained in 2008, Jordan served as a congregational rabbi outside of Chicago and co-founded Orot: Center for New Jewish Learning. Jordan is a recipient of the 2014 Covenant Foundation Pomegranate Prize. He and his wife Yael live in Toronto and are the proud and grateful parents of three.

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. As a non-profit organization, IJS is able to provide programming and resources to the community thanks to the generosity of our donors.

Awareness in Action

Awareness in Action

Jul 28, 2025

Awareness in Action

Cultivating Character Through Mindfulness and Middot

Registration Now Open

Click Here to Register Now

Learn The Jewish Spiritual Practice

That Helps You Show Up More Often as Your “Best Self”

In challenging times like these—marked by political turbulence, rising antisemitism, war, and the climate crisis—we all can be reactive and defensive rather than our best selves. Flooded by our emotions, too often we may regret our words and actions, wishing we might have paused and responded more wisely.

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, humility, gratitude, and the discipline to set wise boundaries. Each of us possesses these traits, but our innate spiritual and ethical qualities can become blocked, causing us to behave in ways that miss the mark.

The Institute for Jewish Spirituality invites you to join Awareness in Action: Cultivating Character through Mindfulness and Middot, a self-paced online course to help you uncover your authentic best self and be the person you wish to be.

In this course, you’ll learn skills that can be applied in both the small and large actions of daily life: in difficult conversations, in interactions with family and friends, in traffic, and in meetings—whenever life is particularly challenging. You’ll learn to access and practice eight core character or “soul” traits (middot), each of which builds upon and integrates those that precede it:

 

    1. Loving connection (chesed)
    2. Setting wise boundaries for yourself and others (gevurah)
    3. A balanced self – taking up appropriate space and time (anavah)
    4. Energetic response – so you can get started and keep going (zerizut)
    5. Gratitude (hodayah)
    6. Righteousness – developing your capacity to do what is appropriate and just (tzedek)
    7. Mindful speech (sh’mirat hadibbur)
    8. Trustworthiness (emunah)

Practice your soul traits to bring mindfulness practice more deeply into your life.

 

Expert instructors Rabbi Marc Margolius and Rabbi Lisa Goldstein will guide you each step of the way to establish 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 the difference this course made in 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

Awareness in Action
A Session-by-Session Course Overview

Here’s a closer look at everything you’ll cover:

Every module is between 30 and 45 minutes in length, and includes:

 

    • Video teachings and guided “real life” scenarios with Rabbi Marc Margolius, Rabbi Tamara Cohen, Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife, and Rabbi Aaron Weininger.
    • A teaching from a related Jewish text with Rabbi Lisa Goldstein
    • A professionally recorded chant and sample “focus phrases” (a reminder to practice during the day)
    • A supplemental handout with reflection and journaling questions

Module One

Loving Connection: Chesed
Open 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: Avanah
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 the eight 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.

Course Materials and Resources

This course is appropriate for beginners as well as more experienced meditators and mindfulness practitioners. While the concepts and practices are framed in Jewish terms, no prior Judaic knowledge is assumed or necessary.

When you register, you’ll get access to everything you need to take full advantage of the self-paced course, including:

  • Eight sets of self-paced video teaching sessions – that you can access anywhere, anytime from your computer or mobile device.
  • Eight guided “Mindful Life” practice scenarios – designed to help you integrate the course teachings into your everyday life.
  • Eight teachings from Jewish texts – that will provide a Jewish frame and additional insights into the character trait (middah).
  • Eight downloadable chants – one for each module, professionally recorded by Cantor Julia Cadrain with Elana Arian or Rabbi Sam Feinsmith, to help you integrate the character trait (middah) into your life through music.
  • Downloadable handouts for each module – so you can reference these teachings anytime.
  • Additional resources for each middah, including poems and playlists.
  • A personal online journal – your own personal space to record your reflections.
  • Online study/practice partners – so you can share your experience with like-minded others on a similar path.

 

Awareness in Action

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

$399

Register Now

Basic Level

$299

Register Now

Supported Level

$149

Register Now

Meet the course instructors:

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.

Rabbi Lisa Goldstein

Lisa is a master teacher of Jewish-based mindfulness practices. She first came to IJS as a participant in the rabbinic leadership program and meditation teacher training. She served as the Executive Director of IJS, where, in addition to management responsibilities, she also taught at retreats and meditation programs. Educated at Brown University and Hebrew Union College, she previously served as the director of Hillel of San Diego, where she was recognized as an “Exemplar of Excellence.” Lisa She lives in New York City with her husband and foster son.

Rabbi Tamara Cohen

Rabbi Tamara Cohen is an educator and liturgist who has been using innovative ritual and feminist creative practice to bring Jews and their fellow travelers into deeper connection with themselves, their communities, Judaism and the Sacred, for over twenty-five years. As a partnered queer white anti-racist parent of two boys and a senior leader at Moving Traditions, a national organization that works to support the thriving of Jewish adolescents and their families, she brings a keen awareness of the spiritual challenges and blessings of daily life for people who care for others within their own families while also being engaged in and committed to the need for the larger systemic changes that would make care and repair easier to center and access. Tamara’s writing can be found in The Journey Continues: The Ma’yan Feminist Haggadah, Siddur Lev Shalem and ritualwell.org. She is blessed to live with her family at the edge of Carpenter’s Woods in Philadelphia.

Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife

Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife (she/they pronouns) sprinkles sparkles, disrupts expectations, and offers blessings wherever she goes. She serves as Oreget Kehilah (Executive Director) of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, Founding Kohenet of Kesher Pittsburgh and Program Director of the ALEPH Kesher Fellowship and also enjoys working with Keshet and Beloved Builders. Additionally, she delights in serving as a davennatrix (shlichat tzibbur), life spiral ceremony/ritual creatrix, teacher, facilitator, liturgist and songstress. Her work in these realms is informed by her lived experience as a queer, bi-racial, Jewish Woman, her belief that Book, Body and Earth are equal sources of wisdom, and the quandries she encounters as a scholar of the Orphan Wisdom School. Keshira received Kohenet smicha in 2017 and earned her BS 2000 and MS 2001 at Carnegie Mellon University. After many years of traveling and living in Australia, she and her beloved once again make their home on Osage and Haudenosaunee land, also called Pittsburgh, PA.

Rabbi Aaron Weininger

Rabbi Aaron Weininger joined Adath Jeshurun Congregation in 2012, upon receiving rabbinic ordination and an MA in Hebrew Letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary. He holds the Berman Family Chair in Jewish Learning. Aaron earned his BA at Washington University in St. Louis. In 2007 he became the first openly gay person admitted to rabbinical school in the Conservative movement of Judaism. That experience taught him the power of listening at the margins rather than pulling people into whatever the center is at that moment, and he is attuned to the spark each person brings to Torah, prayer, and acts of kindness in the warmth of community.

Meet the musicians and vocalists:

Elana Arian

Musician and Vocalist

 

Cantor Julia Cadrain

Vocalist

 

Rabbi Sam Feinsmith

Musician and Vocalist