A Post-Election Practice: Cultivating Our Loving Intention
We live in a world that demands results. (And those results must come quickly enough to match our impatience). We live in a world that keeps score. (How are we doing?) We live in a world that is always comparing. (Am I better or worse, smarter, more righteous?) We live in a world that measures success by how much money we make or how many people like us. I want to suggest another way to live. I’m all for doing what I can to relieve suffering; I’m all for being kind, creating beauty, and bringing my loving attention to what needs healing. AND YET, I may or may not succeed in fixing this world. And perhaps fixing it is not the point. Perhaps it is our loving intention that matters the most,...
Finding God in the Depths
In times of darkness and struggle, what if the deepest divine connection is found not in the absence of hardship, but in the raw, authentic moments of longing and love shared with others? This teaching from Rebecca Schisler is an invitation to discover that the true power of the divine is always present—one breath, one moment, one prayer away—ready to be felt even in the most challenging of times.
Creating a Sacred Space to Pray
Episode 24: Creating a Sacred Space to Pray Many of us know where to sit in our synagogues for prayer, and allow the space to lead us into prayer. But, what do we do when we are on our own, even if joining in Zoom-prayers? Cantor Shayna DeLowe shares her personal experience of creating a sacred space for prayer, so that we might pray with her, as well. Read the episode transcript
A Rabbi, Yehudah Amichai, and Leonard Cohen Daven Together
Episode 23: A Rabbi, Yehudah Amichai, and Leonard Cohen Daven Together Weaving traditional liturgical melodies and the poetry of Amichai and Cohen, Rabbi Neil Blumofe walks us deep into the heart of love, through the morning/Shacharit service. Read the episode transcript
Expectancy — not Expectation
Episode 22: Expectancy -- not Expectation "All of Scripture is holy, but the Song of Songs is holy of holies" said Rabbi Akiva -- and also Rabbi Shefa Gold. She mines this book as a source of inspiration and personal teaching, through chant and silence. "Here comes my beloved!" Read the episode transcript
What Are We? The Redemptive Power of Prayer
Episode 21: What Are We? The Redemptive Power of Prayer In the early part of the morning service, we meet a passage that carries us through a profound contemplation of our lives. Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell leads us through the prayer, and into it, to find our way to love. Read the episode transcript
A Conversation about Purim with Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie
In case you missed it, watch Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie in conversation with Rabbi Josh Feigelson, IJS Executive Director. This live public event sponsored by IJS, took place on Thursday evening, February 12, 2021 with an audience of more than 600 people. Rabbi Amichai shares a unique perspective on Purim and offers new ways to celebrate virtually this year. Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie is...
Kissing the Mezuzah Opening the Door to Prayer
Episode 20: Kissing the Mezuzah Opening the Door to Prayer Who doesn't like to kiss? But, how many extend that to kissing the mezuzah? Aviva Chernickk has -- as a practice when she comes home and leaves the house, and as a prompt to cultivate the love invoked in the Shema. Read the episode transcript
Chant as the Heart of Prayer
Episode 19: Chant as the Heart of Prayer Cantor Audrey Abrams brings her background as a music therapist (and her self-awareness as a "shower davener") to help us use chant to open the heart, face our truth, and emerge more whole. Read the episode transcript
I am? And You are? Dialogic Personal Prayer
Episode 18: I am? And You are? Dialogic Personal Prayer Grounding his practice in the teachings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hacohen Kook and Rav Dov Singer, Rabbi Yosef Goldman leads us into a deep engagement with our own lived experience, grounding us in a heart of gratitude. Read the episode transcript
Listen to Rabbi Josh Feigelson on a New Episode of Drinking and Drashing
Newly released! Listen to IJS Executive Director, Rabbi Josh Feigelson, discuss Jewish Spiritual Practice, Parshat Yitro, and much more in the latest episode of Drinking and Drashing: Torah with a Twist.Available wherever you get your podcasts!
Waking Up to Blessing
Episode 17: Waking Up to Blessing Rabbi Susan Leider invites us to join her as she wakes up, connecting the daily Birkhot Hashachar to each step along the way. Read the episode transcript
Chant to Open the Heart
Episode 16: Chant to Open the Heart Chanting a niggun is not only an outward expression of yearning. It can also penetrate the heart. Rabbi Hannah Dresner, chanting in her car, leads us in practice from a parched place, to open to the flow available at all times. Read the episode transcript
Music to Evoke Prayer
Episode 15: Music to Evoke Prayer Music is so evocative! In just a few notes we can be taken back in time to a far-off place, to a connection with another person. How does that work? What is added through words? Cadence, intonation, emphasis? Join Rabbi Lydia Medwin as she sits with and unpacks her experience of "Change is Gonna Come" with Otis Redding, and find your own prayer through music,...
Personal Morning Davening
Episode 14: Priestly Blessing: Lovingkindness Prayer Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari starts his morning davening (prayers) with the awareness that prayer is an embodied practice. He connects with sensation, with sound, with memory, and with the words of the Tradition for a personal engagement with the morning liturgy. Read the episode transcript
Priestly Blessing: Lovingkindness Prayer
Episode 13: Priestly Blessing: Lovingkindness Prayer How do we prepare our hearts to pray? What conditions our souls to know what is important? Rabbi Amy Eilberg has used the mindfulness meditation practice of metta, or lovingkindness, for this purpose. The phrases she employs to settle and orient her heart are those of the Priestly blessing (Num. 6:2-26). Join her in this prayer practice for...
Prayer as a Hug
Episode 12: Prayer as a Hug The spring and summer of 2020 have been tumultuous, burdened by isolation and confusion during the pandemic, by fear and anger at systemic racism, uncertainty about the future in the run-up to an election. Hazzan Sabrina Sojourner invites us to rest in the hugs of our ancestors, In God's embrace, to find strength and hopefulness. Read the episode...
Etz Hayyim Hi — Praying With A Tree
Episode 11: Etz Hayyim Hi -- Praying With A TreeThe biblical book of Proverbs refers to the Torah as a "Tree of Life" and we sing those words when we return the Torah to the Ark after reading from it. But, what does that really mean? Maor Greene asks just this question, and investigates the experience of prayer with a Tree. Go outside with them to see what it's like!Read the episode...
Embodied Awakening Prayer
Episode 10: Embodied Awakening Prayer The traditional Jewish morning service begins with blessings acknowledging the workings of the body. But, sometimes we need to wake up more fully even before engaging in liturgical prayer. Rabbi Myriam Klotz leads us through her embodied awakening practice, inviting you to join in as well. Read the episode transcript
Embodied Chant to Open the Heart
Episode 9: Embodied Chant to Open the Heart Many people approach prayer as an intellectual endeavor: I read the prayers and they say something, perhaps even what I mean. Others sense that prayer comes from the heart: when in community the sense of belonging and the invitation to connect with spirit opens the heart. Hazzan Joanna Dulkin reminds us that prayer begins in the body, and is energized...
