This episode of our podcast features a teaching and meditation by Rabbi Sara Brandes of The Awakened Body. It's a meditation for the second week of the Omer, the period between Passover and Shavuot. In this second week of the Omer, the spiritual theme is Gevurah -- Might or Strength. In these especially fraught times Rabbi Brandes invites us to situate ourselves at the "front lines" of conflict, and to notice our ability to hold both loving kindness and strength, to integrate softness and...

This episode of our podcast features a teaching and meditation by Rabbi Sam Feinsmith of the IJS Core Faculty. It's the last in a series of four meditations on the theme of "From Constriction to Expanse," a series intended to help us prepare inwardly for Passover. Rabbi Feinsmith reminds us that we are usually suffering from a case of mistaken identity. We erroneously understand our constructed self-identity, generated by our ego, as our true self. But the ingrained narrowness of our ego,...

This episode of our podcast features a teaching and meditation by Rabbi Sam Feinsmith of the IJS Core Faculty. It's the first in a series of four meditations on the theme of "From Constriction to Expanse," a series intended to help us prepare inwardly for Passover. The Jewish mystical tradition teaches that beyond the tyranny and constriction of the ego lies our true nature: a spiritual core or essence that is innately compassionate, wise, connected, and spacious. In Hasidic teachings in...

This episode of our podcast features a teaching and meditation by Rabba Dr. Mira Neshama Weil, of Neshimah in Israel. She notes that just like the experience of childbirth, all new beginnings and liberation often require of us blood, sweat, tears, and brokenness. She asks: What might be born out of the heartbreak so many of us feel these days? What destructive patterns are being shattered right now? What might break open within ourselves that might give birth to new possibilities? In this...

This episode of our podcast features a teaching and meditation by Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein of Applied Jewish Spirituality. It's a teaching he offered just as Rosh Hodesh Nisan, the new month of Nisan, was arriving in Israel. The appearance of the first sliver of the New Moon of Nisan — the first month of the year for the Jewish people — is an especially auspicious moment of renewal. Rabbi Silverstein invites each of us to grow in awareness of the freshness, the newness of each...

This episode of our podcast features a teaching and meditation by Rabbi Sara Brandes of The Awakened Body in Israel. Rabbi Brandes invites us to hold in our imagination two cups from the Passover Seder: the Kiddush cup, representing goodness and blessing, and the cup of Miriam, a cup filled with water inspired by Miriam's well. Rabbi Brandes describes how her family combines the traditional diminishing of the wine in our cup of blessing during the recitation of the 10 plagues with a family...

This episode of our podcast features a teaching and meditation by Rabbi Dr. Jenny Solomon of Beth Meyer Synagogue in Raleigh, North Carolina. Rabbi Solomon offers a simple but deep practice based on a teaching from the Jewish mystical tradition that one of the names for the Divine is simply "zot," the Hebrew word which means "this." We can connect with the sacred simply by bringing our attention to what is present for us in each moment — in this place, this sensation, this person, this...

This episode of our podcast features a teaching and meditation by Jenna Zadaka, the Director of Jewish Learning for the At the Well Project. Jenna led this meditation on the IJS Daily Sit on the occasion of the full moon of the second month of Adar, a month that is doubled in a Jewish leap year such as this. She offers us an intense, powerful practice based on a teaching that we can experience joy simply in identifying our purpose in this world. And what is our purpose? Jenna invites us to...

This episode of our podcast features a teaching and meditation by Cat Korren, an Israeli-based mindfulness teacher whose teaching today guides us in emerging from the winter and transitioning into the spring. Her teaching merges the Jewish practice of Hitbonenut -- observing nature to connect with the Divine -- with Vipassana techniques of introspection.

This episode of our podcast features a teaching and meditation by Rebecca Schisler of the IJS Core Faculty. This is a meditation Rebecca led for Shevet: A Mindfulness Community for Young Adults, a weekly sit offered by IJS specifically for those in their 20s and 30s, held every Monday at 8 pm ET, 5 pm PT, with Rebecca serving as the host. For this episode, Rebecca offers a practice for the Jewish month of Adar on "basking in the good," wiring into ourselves and memory that which is...

This episode of our podcast features a teaching and meditation by Rabbi Joshua Boettiger, Jewish Chaplain at Bard College and Rosh Yeshiva at the Center for Contemporary Mussar, where he teaches text, theology, and Jewish approaches to mindfulness and service. It's based on the novelist Marilynne Robinson's observations about the corrosive effects of cynicism on our society. Rabbi Joshua invites us to understand mindfulness meditation practice as taking a stance against or transforming...

This episode of our podcast features a teaching and meditation by Rabbi Jenny Solomon. It's based on this week's Torah portion, Vayakhel, which describes the process by which the Israelites contributed materials for and built the Mishkan, the Tabernacle that accompanied them in their wandering through the wilderness. The Torah portion describes those who contributed to the project as being nediv lev, willing-hearted, and operating from chochmat lev, from heart-wisdom. Rabbi Jenny leads us in...

This episode of our podcast features a teaching and meditation by Rabba Dr. Mira Neshama Weil. It's the first in a series of five meditations she led for the IJS Daily Online Meditation Sit on the theme of Yeridah Tzorech Aliyah, the Jewish mystical concept of “descent for the sake of ascent” – or, what goes down, must come up. Obviously, it is an especially powerful theme in these difficult times. In this first meditation in the series, Rabba Mira introduces us to practicing with the...

This episode of our podcast features a teaching by Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein of Applied Jewish Spirituality in Israel. In these less-than-joyful times, Rabbi Daniel offers a meditation to nurture our innate capacity to experience joy alongside other, more challenging emotions – by practicing acceptance and trust in the way things are.

This episode of our podcast features a teaching by Cantor Kerith Spencer-Shapiro of Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles. Cantor Spencer-Shapiro offers a meditation perfect for these turbulent and painful times, guiding us to explore how to keep our hearts open and receptive to the world – and, at the same time, how to protect our tender hearts when they may be prone to becoming overwhelmed by our reality today.

This episode of our podcast features a teaching by Rebecca Schisler of the IJS Core Faculty. It's the last of five daily meditations she led on the theme of "Practicing with the Elements: Earth-Based Jewish Wisdom for Tu B'shvat." The series takes us experientially through the four elements of earth, water, air, and fire. And in this concluding meditation, Rebecca guides us to greater awareness of the sacred fire that is both an essential and the most intangible aspect of our being,...

This episode of our podcast features a teaching by Rebecca Schisler of the IJS Core Faculty. It's one of five daily meditations she led this week on the theme of "Practicing with the Elements: Earth-Based Jewish Wisdom for Tu B'shvat." The holiday of Tu B'shvat, the 15th of the Hebrew month of Shevat, is the "New Year of the Trees." And in Jewish tradition, human beings are likened to the trees of the field. Just like the trees, we are of the earth. In this meditation, Rebecca guides us to...

This episode of our podcast features a teaching by Sarah Waxman, founder and CEO of At the Well Project. It’s a meditation for the month of Shevat, during which we celebrate Tu Bishvat, the "New Year of the Trees." Sarah guides us to greater awareness of our roots — our connection to our planet and our ancestors — and the interrelatedness of human beings, our planet, and all Being itself.

This special episode of our podcast features a previously recorded meditation by Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg, beloved teacher and spiritual mentor for many years with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. It’s a meditation based on Shabbat, the timeless Jewish spiritual practice of simply being, rather than doing, of being fully present, of allowing awareness to bear witness to what is, exactly as it is. Rabbi Weinberg teaches here that “the stillness and peace of Shabbat are actually...

This episode features a teaching and meditation entitled "Now. Here. This. Yes. Perfect. Thank You," by Rabbi Marc Margolius, host of the podcast. In this session, Rabbi Margolius invites us to "come closer," to "draw near" to the truth of our experience, to dwell in the here and now, in the truth of this moment. He reminds us that when we "digress," when we drift away into the past or future, we can always wake up to that digression, catch ourselves with compassion, and return to our...

This episode features a teaching and meditation entitled "It'll Be OK (Even If It's Not)," by Rabbi Dan Liben. In this session, Rabbi Liben draws on the story of our ancestor Jacob to help us access our innate soul trait of Bitachon, or Trust: our ability to be resilient and to persist in the face of what can feel like insurmountable challenges. He connects our ability to trust in the unfolding story of our lives and our world to our awareness that we are deeply connected to, and loved by,...

This episode features a teaching and meditation on "Expanding our Inner Light,” by Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari of Kol Tzedek Synagogue in West Philadelphia PA. It’s one in a series of five meditations for Hanukkah led by Rabbi Fornari. The full series of five meditations is available on our YouTube channel. Hanukkah celebrates how the Maccabees lengthened the use of a little bit of oil, realizing they could live with less and make it last. It’s a story about stretching our finite resources and...

This episode features a teaching and meditation by Rabbi Margie Jacobs on "Speaking with the Heart." In the midst of these challenging times, she leads us in a meditation based on a verse from Ecclesiastes (1:16), "I have spoken with my heart." In this gentle teaching and meditation, Rabbi Jacobs suggests that this means listening to or witnessing the many, often contradictory states within our hearts, especially in turbulent times. No matter where we sit, we are holding so many different...

This episode features a teaching and meditation by Rabbah Dr. Mira Neshama Weil on "Healing Our Shadows." As we move more deeply into the month of Kislev, towards Hanukkah, we often think about light as juxtaposed with darkness, light emerging from darkness. But light and darkness are always present. In this gentle teaching and meditation, Rabbah Mira invites us to attend to our own internal shadows—the aspects of ourselves we'd rather avoid, but which actually require kind attention and...