Awareness in Action

Awareness in Action

Aug 6, 2024

Awareness in Action

Cultivating Character Through Mindfulness and Middot

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Learn The Jewish Practice That Teaches You How To Be Your “Best Self”

How often do you feel out of sync with your own inner values… prompting  your inner voice to whisper: “I wish I hadn’t done that” or “I wish I hadn’t said that.”

Judaism can, in fact, help us align our actions and words with our “best selves”… as we learn to become less reactive and habit-driven, and instead respond more wisely…. as a partner, a friend, a parent and colleague.

The ancient Jewish practice of developing desirable character traits (tikkun middot) is a powerful, practical tool for aligning our actions with our most deeply held values. Tikkun middot practice is for anyone who wants to more often be their “best selves” in the small and large actions of daily life… in traffic, in meetings, in interactions with family and friends… and when life is particularly challenging.

That’s why the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, the global leader in teaching Jewish mindfulness and spiritual practice, created Awareness in Action: Cultivating Character through Mindfulness and Middot, a professionally-produced, self-paced online course that helps you more consistently align your inner values with how you are in the world… from the comfort and convenience of your home.

In Awareness in Action, you’ll learn how to access and practice eight core character traits (middot), each of which builds upon and integrates those which 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)

Bringing mindfulness practice more deeply into your life

Expert teachers Rabbi Marc Margolius and Rabbi Lisa Goldstein, together with Rabbi Tamara Cohen, Kohenet (Hebrew Priestess) Keshira haLev Fife, and Rabbi Aaron Weininger, will expertly guide you each step of the way through establishing a tikkun middot practice that can support you in:

  • Growing in self-awareness and gain 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 How This Course Transformed 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
  • 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 questions

Also included:

  • A live 90 minute weekly online practice session hosted by Rabbi Margolius, with teaching and practices led by Rabbi Tamara Cohen, Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife, and Rabbi Aaron Weininger. Each of these sessions will also be recorded and posted on the course platform.
  • Daily email practice prompts with poetry, songs, texts and practices sent each weekday throughout the program.

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:

  • 8 sets of self-paced video teaching sessions – that you can access anywhere, anytime from your computer or mobile device.
  • 8 guided “Mindful Life” practice scenarios – designed to help you integrate the course teachings into your everyday life.
  • 8 teachings from Jewish texts – that will provide a Jewish frame and additional insights into the character trait (middah).
  • 8 downloadable chants – one for each module, professionally recorded by Cantor Julia Cadrain with Elana Adrian 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.

You will also receive an invitation to attend the free, live, weekly online sessions with Rabbi Marc Margolius, joined by Rabbis Tamara Cohen, Aaron Weininger, and Kohenet (Hebrew Priestess) Keshira haLev Fife.

Awareness in Action

Meet your facilitators:

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 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.

Meet the musicians and vocalists:

Elana Arian

Musician and Vocalist

Cantor Julia Cadrain

Vocalist

Rabbi Sam Feinsmith

Musician and Vocalist

The Gift of Awareness

The Gift of Awareness

Aug 6, 2024

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.