Three Mindfulness Lessons From The Wilderness
It’s usually high summer when we enter the wilderness in the Jewish calendar – by that I mean the book of B’midbar (also known as the Book of Numbers) in the Torah.
Rabbi Jill’s Meditation & Mindfulness Booklist
Jewish Meditation & Mindfulness Books (* most highly recommended) As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you for your support! *Meditation App: I use Insight Timer (available on the Apple & Android app stores.) See you there! Bloomfield, Diane. Torah Yoga: Experiencing Jewish Wisdom Through Classic Postures. Jossey-Bass, 2004. *Boorstein, Sylvia. That’s …
Practicing Self-Compassion Daily
We live in a world that can batter our fragile souls. Harsh words, outright violence, destruction, suffering… We all need a safe place to return, to receive kindness, hugs, and comfort. We seek out people who see the best in us, bring compassion to us when we are hurting or ill. For some of us, it’s easy …
4 Ways to Enter Your Day
One of the most joyful times of my life was the year I spent becoming certified as a Master Gardener. As part of my training, I attended a lecture by a talented landscape gardener whose speciality was “Entrances.” He taught that the garden plantings leading up to your doorway set the tone for your guest’s …
When Finding the Right Word is Difficult & (another) Miracle on Facebook
I was preparing for my workshop this week called “Five Jewish Mindfulness Practices that Cultivate Wholeness.” The first category of discussion was going to be about what Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel called “radical amazement.” He writes, “Wonder, or radical amazement, is a way of going beyond what is given in thing and thought, refusing to …
Waking Up: Am I Present? Am I “enough?”
Welcome to the third day of Journey of the Soul. We* continue with this week’s kavannah (intention) Waking Up Journey of the Soul: Making the Omer Count On day one, we wrote of God’s call of Ayeka (Where are you?) to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:9) In response to this question …
“We Are All Just Walking Each Other Home”
A favorite poem, by Lawrence Tirnauer* for anyone who (sometimes or all the time) is challenged to get a full night’s sleep – accompanied by an amazing quote by Ram Dass. Whether we are meeting in our mind’s eye in the middle of the night, or in real life, we need each other on this journey “home.” …
Lovingkindness (Chesed) Practices and Resources
Judaism holds that the world was built with chesed (lovingkindness) We read in Psalms: Olam Chesed Yibaneh עוֹלָם, חֶסֶד יִבָּנֶה (The world is build with chesed*) Psalm 89:3. Our entire world is not only built with chesed but continually sustained our acts in the world. A few weeks ago, in our Hineni community, I taught …
Mindfulness, Poetry, Prayer and Song to Open Hearts
At our beautiful all-day retreat last Shabbat, “A Mindful Journey Through Shabbat” we did a morning of chant/kavannah/music/silence. As leaders, we chose several key prayers (only a few) from the morning Shabbat service and went deeper into each one. For example, we started with Modah/Modeh Ani, which means “Grateful/Thankful am I” and offered a brief …
Take A Snow Day (or even a Snow Moment)
There’s something about really bad weather (like blizzards) that are so freeing. No matter what your plans are, your meetings and appointments, if you can’t get out of the driveway, you have to stay put. You are forced to “stay.” You can’t will yourself forward when the Big Snow says, “I don’t think so.” (I …
