Open My Heart
Living Jewish Prayer: A Podcast from IJS
Welcome to Open My Heart: Living Jewish Prayer. Each Monday and Friday, a different teacher will offer a new short prayer-practice, inviting you to join them. From one episode to the next, the practice, and the voices will be different. No one presenter, and no one prayer, will necessarily work for everyone. But our hope (and expectation) is that over time, joining in these prayers will lead you to find your own authentic and meaningful prayer practice and open your heart to prayer.
Listen to our most recent episode below, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Meet your host, Rabbi Jonathan Slater, Senior Program Director. Rabbi Slater has worked with IJS since 2002, having participated in the first rabbinic cohort. He is a co-director of the Clergy Leadership Program, and serves in multiple programs throughout the organization. Rabbi Slater was ordained by JTS and served congregations in northern California for over twenty years.
The Nighttime Shema
Episode 50: The Nighttime Shema
Prayer does not have to be complex, and we don’t have to go looking for it up in the heavens or over the sea. Sometimes it is just in our mouths and our hearts, in simplicity and directness. Rabbi Denise Eger shares her lifelong practice of reciting the Shema at night, when going to sleep.
Read the episode transcript
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
