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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. 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.

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

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.

Supported Level

$149

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 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.

Rabbi Sam Feinsmith

Musician and Vocalist

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

• 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.

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 Three:

Listening to Your Body 
From Thinking to Sensing

Module Five:

Working with Difficult Emotions
From Avoidance to Approaching

Module Eight:

Resting in Shabbat Mind™
From Doing to Being

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

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.