In this episode, Rabbi Shir Meira Feit explores the rich interplay between movement and stillness in Judaism — especially the layered, elusive nature of stillness in the body, heart, and mind. Through the lens of Kabbalistic wisdom and awareness of this season in the Jewish year, they reflect on the spiritual energy of the month of Sivan and the Hebrew letter Zayin, inviting us into a practice honoring both stillness and motion. Join Rabbi Shir Meira Feit for a short meditation to sense the pulse of life, even in stillness.

In this episode, Rebecca Schisler explores the spiritual concept of Yesod (foundation) during the sixth week of the Omer period, focusing on how we can become vessels ready to receive divine blessings in our lives. She guides us to connect with our inner foundation—that unchanging awareness that remains steady even during life's storms—while imagining what it would feel like to embody readiness for the blessings we long for. Join her for a guided practice to integrate this spiritual foundation into our everyday actions -- even washing the dishes.

In this episode, Rabbi Jenny Solomon explores how we might understand atonement not as erasure, but as gently covering our wounds, as with a bandage or blanket, with the intention to heal and learn from them and move forward. She connects the ancient ritual of Yom Kippur with breathwork and mindful awareness, creating space for both rootedness and rising. Join her to practice tending to our past mistakes with compassion, covering them over -- not to conceal, but to acknowledge and heal, to return and renew.

In this episode, mindfulness teacher and coach Yael Shy explores the spiritual significance of waiting, based on the Torah's description of the priests needing to keep "God's watch" for seven days before the Divine Presence can dwell within them. She connects this with our own yearning and waiting for spiritual connection, inviting us to explore how recognizing divinity within ourselves might transform our relationship with ourselves and others. Join her for a guided meditation to imagine the Divine Presence dwelling within us, embracing the uncertainty of spiritual waiting with kindness and faith.

In this meditation for Passover, Rabbi Dorothy Richman explores how the Seder ritual of dipping spring greens in salt water represents our ability to accept both freshness and bitterness, both joy and sorrow. She invites us to notice and embrace the "brutiful" nature of existence, where seeming opposites are actually unified experiences within our bodies. Join her for a short, beautiful teaching and meditation for tasting ancestral tears and hopes, and remembering that we have navigated narrow places before -- and can find our way to openness again.

In this episode, Rabbi Marcelo Bronstein explores the concept of "enoughness" in generosity, drawing from the Torah's account of Moses halting contributions to the tabernacle because the people had given sufficient resources. He reflects on Parker Palmer's distinction between ego-driven giving and soul-driven purpose, inviting us to meditate on when generosity crosses from authentic giving into ego-driven excess. Through guided meditation, he encourages us to examine our personal patterns of giving and our ability to recognize when "enough is enough" in our relationships and acts of kindness.

In this episode, host Rabbi Marc Margolius guides a meditation for pausing to investigate truth through curiosity and loving connection, drawing inspiration from the Torah's description of the essence of the Divine as love. He invites us to set aside distractions, settle into our bodies through mindful awareness, and practice receiving and channeling divine love as a response to the challenges we face in our lives and our world today. The practice includes a beautiful rendition of Olam Chesed Yibaneh ("A World of Love") by Rabbi Menachem Creditor, and a meditation for experiencing ourselves as vessels for radiating love in a world that desperately needs it.

In this episode, Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife explores the transitional period between winter and spring as a time of gentle awakening and realignment -- a time for thawing after emotional or psychological numbness. Kohenet Keshira reflects on finding balance amidst overwhelming world events and personal challenges, offering guidance to counteract our sense of life being out of control. As we transition into the month of Adar, here's a helpful meditation for staying grounded and responsive, not reactive, during deeply challenging times.

In this episode, Rabbi Dorothy Richman delves into the meaning of "Zeh Eli v’Anveihu" — "This is my God, and I will make a place" — from the Song at the Sea. Through Midrash and commentary, she explores how even the most vulnerable, from maidservants to infants, personally experienced the Divine at the Red Sea, and how their experience offers us a model for spiritual awareness. Through breath, song, and meditation, Rabbi Dorothy Richman guides us to explore the practice of creating space for the sacred in moments of upheaval – just as our ancestors did in their journey to freedom.

In these fraught times, expert mindfulness teacher Alison Cohen explores the power of names and the wisdom found in the second book of the Torah, Shemot (Exodus), which literally translates to "Names." She offers a beautiful, simple meditation practice: giving ourselves “permission to pause” to bring compassionate awareness to the “names” or identities we have unconsciously adopted or inherited, seeing these “names” for what they are — temporary labels that don't define who we truly are. Join Alison Cohen as she offers us the gift of pausing, being fully present, and reconnecting with the wisdom of our deepest, most authentic selves.

In this episode, Rabbi Shefa Gold explores the idea of the "precious circle," a concept that profoundly changed the way she practices meditation and connects with Divine support. It began during a walk along the beach in San Diego when Rabbi Gold realized that in order to receive blessings, one must first be open to divine support. When we feel supported, we can relax, and when we relax, we can open, ultimately receiving the blessings we seek. This is the "precious circle” – a cycle of feeling supported, relaxing, opening, and receiving. Listen now and rest in Shabbat consciousness of timeless time, and spaceless space.

In this episode, Zac Newman of HaMakom, a Jewish mindfulness center in the United Kingdom, offers a teaching and practice for acknowledging and meeting with compassion and wisdom the inevitable challenges we may experience which obstruct the light and joy of Hanukkah. He suggests a simple three step meditation practice: noticing any difficulty that is present, and meeting it mindfully; acknowledging the shared humanity of the difficulty; and offering ourselves compassion. This practice encourages us to make space for both what is hard and what is joyful, helping us hold both with openness and care. Join us for a guided meditation that nurtures self-compassion and allows us to find light, even in moments of struggle.

This episode features a meditation led by Rabbi Jenny Solomon. She based this practice in a verse from the first chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes: "The sun rises, the sun sets, and glides back to where it rises; one generation goes, another comes, but the earth remains the same forever." This verse, and its rabbinic interpretation, reminds us that change is constant: the sun rises and sets; breaths, thoughts, feelings, sensations all come and go -- and, throughout it all, we can experience continuity of Divine Presence, consistency of Divine grace and love, which is woven throughout the changes. The earth remains the same. Join Rabbi Jenny Solomon for a short practice to help us join the flow of perpetual change, and notice within it God's constant love and sustenance.

This episode features a meditation led by Rabbi Marc Margolius, recorded a few days after the American elections. He reminds us that the Jewish people have been on a shared, often bumpy spiritual journey for thousands of years -- a journey informed always by God's instruction to Abraham to "go forth," and "be a blessing." No matter how challenging, in every moment we can touch into something larger or deeper than ourselves, and choose to be a channel for love and blessing. The meditation is framed by the language and music of the evening Hashkiveinu ("help us lie down in peace") prayer, in which we seek a sense of protection for the vulnerable aspects of ourselves, and pray that light and joy will arrive in the morning. In the aftermath of the election, join Rabbi Marc Margolius for a gentle practice for settling the body and the nervous system, so we can become more clear, more hopeful, more resilient.

In this episode, Chloe Zelkha leads a meditation for moving into Sukkot, a holiday known in Jewish tradition as z'man simchateinu, the season of our rejoicing. The holiday is rooted in experiencing the reality of impermanence, the awareness that everything is always in flux, that change is inevitable. Sukkot invites us to consider whether we can stay awake to the ever-changing, precarious nature of life without living in fear. Can we meet impermanence with equanimity? Can we experience it as pleasant, even as a source of joy? Join Chloe Zelkha for a beautiful practice for the holiday of Sukkot, which begins Wednesday night, October 16, 2024. We hope you find it supportive and meaningful; thanks for being here.

Rabbi Marc Margolius leads a meditation for holding all of the thoughts, feelings and sensations which arise for us one year after the atrocities of October 7, 2023. He grounds this practice in a verse from Psalm 145, "karov Adonai l'chol kor'av, the Holy One is close to all who call, l'chol asher yik'r'uhu b'emet, to all who call to God in truth." This meditation is for noticing and bearing witness to what is true, for each of us. This episode is a recording of a live session, "Holding our Heartbreak" held Monday evening, October 7, 2024. We hope you find it supportive and meaningful as you process your own thoughts and feelings, one year later. Thanks for being here and bearing witness together.

The Hebrew word "Amen" -- "I believe" -- is related to the Hebrew word for faith, "Emunah." But in this episode of our podcast, Rabba Dorothy Richman teaches that we can understand "Amen" not as a sense of cognitive affirmation, but as an expression of spiritual faith: repeatedly "showing up" for our life, regardless of everything that is happening around or within us. In this meditation, Rabba Dorothy teaches that whatever life throws at us, whether blessing or curse – every time we draw a conscious breath or are aware of being alive, every time we witness what is true in our lives, that is a living "Amen." Join Rabba Dorothy Richman now for a mindfulness practice in which we commit to simply showing up for our lives: breath by breath, sensation by sensation, thought by thought, moment by moment.

This episode of our podcast features a teaching and meditation by Rabbi Dr. Jenny Solomon of Beth Meyer Synagogue, Raleigh NC. It's a meditation for cultivating a sense of safety and ease even in the midst of challenges which stir up past traumatic experiences. Rabbi Solomon bases it on a verse from Deuteronomy in which Moses admonishes the Israelites to "wipe out the memory of Amalek," their prototypical enemy, when they enter and find rest in the Promised Land. This suggests that experiencing a sense of safety and security can help the people ameliorate the impact of their previous trauma at the hands of Amalek, who attacked the most vulnerable members of the community when they left Egypt. Join Rabbi Jenny Solomon now for a gentle meditation for finding shelter amidst the storms of our time.

This episode of our podcast features a teaching and meditation by Rabbi Dr. Josh Feigelson, the President and CEO of IJS, which he offered on Tuesday September 3, in the immediate aftermath of the news of the executions of six Israeli hostages. In this practice, he draws upon the example from the Book of Leviticus in which the High Priest Aaron, after the sudden, shocking death of two of his children, responds with silence. Rabbi Feigelson offers Aaron's silence as a model we might draw upon in moments of profound, tragic loss — times when words aren't appropriate, don't suffice, or can't express our feelings. Sometimes, he teaches, there's a kind of silence we can experience as Presence, which holds space for all we can't express, and at the same time envelopes us and invites us deeper. Join him now to delve into a silence that can hold and express all of the emotions we feel in these days: grief, sadness, anger, and more.

This episode of our podcast features a teaching and meditation based on the Torah portion Re'eh by Dr. David Gottlieb, Professor of Jewish Studies at the Spertus Institute in Chicago and co-host of the podcast series, "Self Control Through Torah." He invites us, through meditation, to explore the nature and the construction of our sense of self -- our "I-ness," as he calls it -- and how that self can be either a mask which separates us from the Divine, or a window which enables us to witness the infinite depth from which our lives arise. Every day, every moment, we can choose blessing rather than curse by witnessing the profound interconnectedness of all Being. Join Dr. David Gottlieb now for this beautiful teaching and practice, "Sight and Insight."