Meditations

MEDITATION: My Soul Thirsts for God (Tzama Nafshi)

In this meditation, we explore the intense feeling contained in the Shabbat song, Tzama Nafshi, “My soul thirsts for God.” (Click image to read more)

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MEDITATION: On “Chayut,” Aliveness (Parashat Vayechi)

This week’s parsha begins, Vayechi Yaakov, “Yaakov lived,” but it is a parsha about Yaakov’s death. In this meditation, we work on expanding our notion of aliveness in two ways: 1) As Yaakov had a very difficult life, but still vayechi, still loved, so we experiment with seeing our most difficult emotions as manifestations of

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MEDITATION: Glimpsing Goshen: the Land of Connection (Parashat Vayigash)

In this meditation, we explore the emotional complexity of the first scene of the parsha . . . (Click image for more)

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MEDITATION: Bringing the Miracle Inside (Chanukah)

On Chanukah, we celebrate the miraculous — the impossible becoming possible. This meditation explores what it feels like to bring this sense of the miraculous inside — through the Chanukah light and all its particular miracles — especially to our darkest places, the places of despair and impossibility.

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MEDITATION: “You have Prevailed”: Feeling Our Own Strength (Parashat Vayishlach)

Yaakov struggles with the angel and is told, vatukhal, “you have prevailed.” In this meditation, we work with our own struggles and fears and find the strength and resililence to meet them face to face and feel our capacity to handle what is difficult. Photo by Snapwire from Pexels

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MEDITATION: Resting in “Hamakom” — This Place (Parashat Vayetze)

Yaakov stopped on his journey away from home at Hamakom, “the place.” In this meditation, we intrepret hamakom to mean where he was at that moment, the emotional space he was in, a fearful, lonely space. We imitate Yaakov’s instinct to rest in the place that he was in — in its hard rocks —

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MEDITATION: Rivka’s (And Our) Emotional Journey, In Three Parts (Parashat Toldot)

Rivka, now pregnant with twins, feels them struggling inside her, pulling in different directions. In this meditation, we follow her emotional journey from this sense of inner conflict to collapse to seeking God. We work to feel each difficult step, and then the unifying, calming energy of focusing on our deepest desire for divine connection.

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MEDITATION: Your Power of “Elekh” — I will Go (Parashat Chayei Sarah)

Rivka said one word which changed her life and the world forever: Elekh — “I will go.” I will go to Canaan to marry Yitzhak. In this meditation, we explore the strength and power of this word and how we can inhabit that strength. If you would like to join our Wednesday parsha meditation group

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MEDITATION: Welcoming Our Inner Guests (Parashat Vayera)

In this meditation, we bring Avraham’s spirit of hospitality inside and explore what it means to really open to and welcome any emotional visitors that stand at our doorway. (Click image to listen)

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MEDITATION: Adding the “Heh” of Spaciousness (Parashat Lekh Lekha)

We are so much larger than we think! We contain the whole universe inside us. In this meditation, we work on opening up some space around our contracted parts by breathing in the extra letter “Heh” from Avraham’s new name along with the vastness of the earth and the stars in his divinely granted vision.

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