I. Practice Resources Practices in America Practices Integrating
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I. Practice Resources Practices in America Practices integrating Buddhist meditation techniques East coast Boston Nishmat Hayyim http://www.tbzbrookline.org/prayer/nishmat-hayyim/ Connecticut Elat Chayyim at Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center: Non-denominational http://isabellafreedman.org/jewish-retreats/elatchayyim New York Makom at the Manhattan JCC. Non-denominational http://www.jccmanhattan.org/makom-meditation Jewish Meditation Center (JMC) of Brooklyn. Non-denominational http://jmcbrooklyn.org/ Mindfulness project at NYU: Non-denominational http://www.nyu.edu/life/student-life/student-diversity/spiritual-life/mindfulness.html Shivti, Shabbat meditation program at renewal synagogue Romemu. Rabbi David Ingber. Jewish Renewal http://romemu.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=817 Philadelphia Mishkan Shalom. Reb Moshe Waldoks. Conservative. http://mishkan.org/rhm/about-jewish- mindfulness Washington DC Jewish mindfulness at Adas Israel http://adasisrael.org/jmcw/ Center Chicago, MI Center for Jewish mindfulness. Reconstructionnist Rabbi Jordan Apple. Orthodox Rabbi Sam Feinsmith. Non-denominational http://jewishmindfulness.net/ Boulder, Colorado Rabbi Stephen Booth-Nadav. Reconstructionnist. http://www.adventurerabbi.org/congregation/jewish_meditation_denver.htm West Coast San Francisco Makor Or at conservative synagogue Beth Shalom. Founded by Rabbi Alan Lew Z’l. Conservative. http://www.bethsholomsf.org/worship-and-spirituality/makom-sholom-meditation- practice.html Makor Or at the San Francisco JCC. Founded by Rabbi Alan Lew and Zoketsu Norman Fischer. https://www.jccsf.org/adult/adult-classes/makor-or-jewish-meditation Everyday zen, founded by Norman Fischer http://everydayzen.org/ Berkeley Chochmat Ha lev. Jewish Renewal: http://chochmat.org/meditation/ Los Angeles Metvita. Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man. Non denominational http://metivta.org/ Torah-based meditation Brooklyn Iyyun Center. Rav Dov Baer Pinson. Orthodox. Chabad. http://iyyun.com/ Communities with itinerant and online teachings National organization for Jewish Mindfulness: Institute for Jewish Spirituality: http://www.jewishspirituality.org/ Awakened Heart Project: Rabbi Jeff Roth. Reconstructionnist. http://www.awakenedheartproject.org/ Rabbi David Cooper. Renewal. http://rabbidavidcooper.com/ Daat Elyon. Rabbi Yoel Glick. Orthodox and Renewal. http://daatelyon.org/ Or Ha Lev, Rabbi James Maisels. Orthodox and conservative. http://orhalev.org/ Online communities The Jewish mindfulness network https://www.facebook.com/TheJewishMindfulnessNetwork/posts/443272285745433 The Jewish yoga network: http://jewishyoganetwork.org/ Cross-religious communities of mindfulness meditation Urban mindfulness http://urbanmindfulness.org/reviews/ Torah-based Jewish meditation Rabbi Laibl Wolf, based in Australia.Chabad. http://www.laiblwolf.com/ Mystical meditation from the Zohar by Rabbi Blumenthal, based in the United States http://www.js.emory.edu/BLUMENTHAL/mysticalmeditation.htm Rabbi Yitzhak Gingsburg, based in Israel. Chabad. http://www.inner.org/ Practices available in Israel Hybrid meditation practices Jewish mindfulness weekly class with James Maisels at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem http://www.navatehila.org/35897/Heart-Consciousness---Jewish-Mindfull-Meditation Practices drawn from Torah and kabbalah Rabbi Avraham Sutton. Orthodox. http://www.avrahamsutton.com/meet-avraham/ Jewish meditation of Jerusalem Nathan Ophir. Orthodox. http://jewishmeditation.org.il/english/ II. Reading Resources The resources presented below do not reflect in any way the preferences of Nefesh Shalom. The aim is to present the widest range of contemporary available options in Jewish meditation. This list has no pretention of being exhaustive. The website will be updated regularly, and any suggestion is welcome. Jewish meditation Reading resources from Orthodox Judaism The Aish Kodesh was a chabad rabbi, a chassid and the spiritual teacher of the Warsaw Guetto until he was killed by the Nazis in 1942. His writings, buried underground, survived him. Ḳalonimus, Ḳalmish Ben Elimelekh. Conscious Community: A Guide to Inner Work. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1996 Rav Kook is the first rabbi of Palestine. He advocated both spiritual and physical tshuva, return to Israel. Kook, Abraham Isaac, and Ben Zion Bokser. The Lights of Penitence ; The Moral Principles ; Lights of Holiness ; Essays, Letters and Poems. New York: Paulist, 1978. Rabbi Yitshak Gingsburg is an American born Chabad rabbi and Kabbalah teacher living in Israel. He has been prosecuted for incitation for racism, and he is controversial for having supported halakhically the massacre in a Palestinian Mosq by Baruch Goldstein in 95. Ginzburg, Yitsḥaḳ. Living in Divine Space: Kabbalah and Meditation. Jerusalem: Linda Pinsky Publications, 2003 Ginzburg, Yitsḥaḳ. Body, Mind, and Soul: Kabbalah on Human Physiology, Disease, and Healing. Jerusalem: Gal Einai, 2003 Orthodox Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan z’l is the first to have introduced a larger audience to traditional Jewish meditation, starting the early seventies when Eastern traditions were occupying the front stage of the meditation scene. He has worked on investigating, translating and elucidating sources and techniques of Jewish spiritual practices in order to make them more accessible. His work may be regarded not so much as that of a meditation teacher per se, but of a very useful historian and compiler of sources of Jewish mystical techniques. Kaplan, Aryeh. Jewish Meditation: A Practical Guide. New York: Schocken, 1985. Kaplan, Aryeh. Meditation and the Bible. York Beach, Me.: S. Weiser, 1988. Kaplan, Aryeh. Meditation and Kabbalah. Boston, MA [u.a.: Weiser, 1985 Dov Ber Pinson is an orthodox rabbi in the lineage of chabad Loubavitch living in Brooklyn. He founded Yeshiva Yyun, which focuses particularly on Jewish mysticism. Pinson, DovBer. Meditation and Judaism: Exploring the Jewish Meditative Paths. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. Pinson, DovBer. Thirty-two Gates of Wisdom: Awakening through Kabbalah. Teaneck, NJ: Ben Yehuda, 2008 Pinson, DovBer. Reclaiming the Self: On the Pathway of Teshuvah. Brooklyn, NY: Iyyun Pub., 2011 http://www.amazon.com/Meditation-Judaism-Exploring-Jewish-Meditative/dp/0765700077 Books on the integration of the dharma, or Buddhist- based meditation practice and Judaism These resources draw mainly on hybrid practices born from the encounter between Judaism and eastern spiritualities. Jewish Meditation thought and teachings Renewal Rabbi David Cooper has been working on integrating his zen, sufi and theravadin Buddhism training with kabbalah and jewish mysticism which he learned in the old city in Jerusalem. With his wife Shoshana, he leads a yearly winter weeklong silent meditation retreat at Isabella Freedman Jewish retreat center. Cooper, David A. God Is a Verb: Kabbalah and the Practice of Mystical Judaism. New York: Riverhead, 1997 Cooper, David A. The Handbook of Jewish Meditation Practices: A Guide for Enriching the Sabbath and Other Days of Your Life. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Pub., 2000 Renewal rabbi Avram Davis is the founder of synagogue Chochmat Ha lev in Berkeley. He know lives in a farm and works on teaching jewish mysticism in relation to the earth and an organic life. Davis, Avram. Meditation from the Heart of Judaism: Today's Teachers Share Their Practices, Techniques, and Faith. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Pub., 1997 Davis, Avram. The Way of Flame: A Guide to the Forgotten Mystical Tradition of Jewish Meditation. [San Francisco]: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996 Nan Fink Gefen is a psychotherapist and Jewish spiritual teacher. She founded Tikkun magazine with non-denominational rabbi and political activist Michael Lerner. Gefen, Nan Fink. Discovering Jewish Meditation: Instruction & Guidance for Learning an Ancient Spiritual Practice. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Pub., 1999 Alan Lew Z’L was a conservative Rabbi in San Francisco and a former zen student. He worked at integrating the benefits of his zen practice with his Jewish practice. He is the first to have done formaly so, creating a meditation room in his synagogue for silent sitting meditation sessions before services. Lew Alan. Be Still and Get Going: A Jewish Meditation Practice for Real Life. New York: Little and Brown 2005. Jay Michelson is a scholar in Jewish thought, a writer and an activist on gay rights within Judaism. He is the founder of Zeek, an online Jewish magazine. In his work on Jewish spirituality he focuses on integrating Jewish mysticism and his experience of Buddhism. Michaelson, Jay. God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness and Embodied Spiritual Practice. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Pub., 2007 Michaelson, Jay. Everything Is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism. Boston: Trumpeter, 2009. Reconstructionnist rabbi Jeff Roth is the founder of Elat Chayim Jewish retreat center, which has now merged with Isabella Freedman. Having trained in insight meditation with the very Jewish Buddhist teacher Sylvia Boorstein, he has founder the Awakened heart project, an Jewish mindfulness meditation project that organizes regular retreats throughout America and Israel. Roth, Jeff. Jewish Meditation Practices for Everyday Life: Awakening Your Heart, Connecting with God. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Pub., 2009 Conservative Jonathan Slater was the rabbi of Sylvia Boorstein. He is one of the first rabbis who started teaching Jewish mindfulness. He serves as faculty at Makom at the JCC in New York, and at the IJS. Slater, Jonathan P. Mindful Jewish Living: Compassionate