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 Practice. New York: Aviv, 2004
Testimonies and reflections on the encounter between Judaism and Buddhism
Sylvia Boorstein is the “mother” of all contemporary attempts to integrate Buddhism and Judaism. A Buddhist teacher in the insight (Vipassana) meditation tradition and co-founder of Spirit Rock Meditation center in the San Francisco Bay area, she wrote a best-selling book on how her Buddhist practice brought her closer to her Judaism. When she started attending synagogue as a result of this as an adult, she started teaching meditation to her rabbi, Jonathan Slater, a now teacher of Jewish mindfulness. She trained many other rabbis such as Jeff Roth and Sheila Weinberg, who have evolved to become the first generation of rabbis and mindfulness meditation teachers within the jewish tradition.
Boorstein, Sylvia. That's Funny, You Don't Look Buddhist: On Being a Faithful Jew and a Passionate Buddhist. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997.
Lew Alan, Jaffe Sherill, One God Clapping, The spiritual path of a zen Rabbi. New York, Kodansha, 1999.
Soketzu Norman Fischer is the former zen abbott of the San Francisco Zen Center. He cofounded Makor Or, a jewish meditation project with his Friend rabbi Alan Lew Z’l, and he is pursuing this work today.
Fischer, Norman. Opening to You: Zen-inspired Translations of the Psalms. New York: Viking Compass, 2002.
Orthodox rabbi Akiva Tatz text the pretext of a dialog with a Chicago based jew who practices zen meditation but feels guilty about his judaism, to adress the wider anonymous crowd of the « jewish buddhists » in an attempt to convinve them of the superiority of Judaism over Buddhism.
Tatz Akiva, Gottlieb David, Lettres à un juif-bouddhiste, Paris, Feldheim, 2008.
Embodied Jewish spiritual practices
Frankiel, Tamar, and Judy Greenfeld. Minding the Temple of the Soul: Balancing Body, Mind and Spirit through Traditional Jewish Prayer, Movement and Meditation. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Pub., 1997
Martin Buber
Daniel Matt Matt, Daniel Chanan. The Zohar. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ., 2007
Matt, Daniel Chanan. The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism. [San Francisco, CA]: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995
Gershom Scholem
Scholem, Gershom Gerhard. Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition. New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1965
Scholem, Gershom, and R. J. Zwi Werblowsky. Origins of the Kabbalah. [Philadelphia]: Jewish Publication Society, 1987
Elliott Wolfson
Giving Beyond the Gift: Apophasis and Overcoming Theomania. Fordham University Press, 2014.
A Dream Interpreted Within a Dream: Oneiropoiesis and the Prism of Imagination. Zone Books, 2011.
Open Secret: Postmessianic Messianism and the Mystical Revision of Menahem Mendel Schneerson. Columbia University Press, 2009.
New Studies in Jewish Philosophy, edited with A. Hughes. Indiana University Press, 2009.
Luminal Darkness: Imaginal Gleanings From Zoharic Literature. Oneworld Publications, 2007.
Footdreams and Treetales: 92 Poems. Fordham University Press, 2007.
Alef, Mem, Tau: Kabbalistic Musings on Time, Truth, and Death. University of California Press, 2006.
Venturing Beyond: Morality and Law in Kabbalistic Mysticism. Oxford University Press, 2006. Language, Eros, Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and Poetic Imagination. Fordham University Press, 2005.
Pathwings: Poetic-Philosophic Reflections on the Hermeneutics of Time and Language. Station Hill/Barrytown Press, 2004.
Suffering Religion, edited together with Robert Gibbs. Routledge, 2002.
Abraham Abulafia--Kabbalist and Prophet: Hermeneutics, Theosophy, and Theurgy. Los Angeles: Cherub Press. 2000.
Reading the Veil: Concealment and Secrecy in the History of Religions. New York: Seven Bridges Press. 1999.
Along the Path: Studies in Kabbalistic Myth, Symbolism, and Hermeneutics. State University of New York Press. 1995.
Circle in the Square: Studies in the Use of Gender in Kabbalistic Symbolism. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1995.
Through a Speculum That Shines: Vision and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism. Princeton University Press. 1994.