(RNS) — Elul, the present and ultimate month within the historical Hebrew calendar, is a time of introspection, preparation and forgiveness as Jews put together for the Excessive Holidays: first the brand new yr celebration of Rosh Hashanah, adopted by Yom Kippur, the day of repentance. On this time, Jews usually blow the shofar, a trumpet usual from a ram’s horn, to finish morning providers and recite Psalm 27 (“The Lord is my gentle and my salvation; whom shall I concern?”) at morning and night prayers.
However Cantor Lizzie Shammash, who leads on-line yoga lessons from her Pennsylvania house for the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, a web-based neighborhood and suppose tank, believes that Elul’s introspection — and even shofar blasts — could be for anybody.
In the course of the month of Elul, “you are taking account of your soul,” she stated. “The shofar is a strong non secular alarm to wake us up, to develop our capability to keep up an open coronary heart and awaken from any non secular slumber so we are able to reside our most significant life.”
This month Shammash’s yoga lessons are a part of the Shofar Undertaking, a program on the institute designed to encourage attendees to delve deeper into their non secular practices throughout Elul. It gives weekly reside periods, readings and yoga practices that emphasize the custom of self-reflection, all of them open to folks of all backgrounds.
Based 25 years in the past as a means for rabbis to reconnect to their spirituality, the Institute for Jewish Spirituality counters the notion that the Jewish religion is a faith of dietary guidelines and traditions, as a substitute treating it as a deeply non secular apply that accommodates and even deepens mindfulness practices similar to meditation and yoga. Over the previous twenty years, as these practices have been imported into mainstream society, largely via curiosity in Japanese faiths similar to Hinduism and Buddhism, the institute and different organizations, similar to Or HaLev, have emerged to supply assets for these in search of a mindfulness primarily based on contemplative Jewish practices.
The Institute for Jewish Spirituality hosts day by day meditations and teaches prayer, contemplative Torah examine, yoga, singing and dealing with middot (character traits). In her lessons, Shammash incorporates Torah textual content in addition to readings from the “Zen Rabbi” Alan Lew. Throughout Elul’s Shofar Undertaking, she works from the week’s theme, whether or not opening the guts or listening to the ache of the world, for her yoga lessons that draw round 100 attendees. “It’s about bringing non secular themes into an embodied apply,” she stated.
Whereas open to all, Jewish spirituality applications have begun to draw Jews in search of new methods of connecting with their Jewish id.
Dori Haber, a 37-year-old studying specialist in Manhattan, associates her childhood in Cleveland together with her Jewish id, from spending time in her reformed synagogue to Jewish summer season camp, the place there was no discuss of Jewish spirituality.
However when she moved to New York Metropolis after faculty, she, like many younger adults, discovered she didn’t have a spiritual place like a synagogue or camp to name house. “Becoming a member of a congregation felt costly!” Haber informed RNS. In Manhattan, a synagogue membership can price a number of thousand {dollars}.
As a substitute, she discovered a free meditation class on the Jewish Neighborhood Heart close to her residence and started to discover a strictly Buddhist strategy to the apply on the Shambhala Meditation Heart of New York.
However finally, her meditation apply introduced her again to Judaism. She attended a meditation retreat led by Jewish mindfulness trainer Rebecca Schisler, whom Haber had adopted for a number of years. “My apply began on the JCC, then went to Buddhism, and now has gone again (to Judaism) a little bit bit,” Haber informed RNS. “They’re all related. And it felt like a homecoming to know that these practices have been really rooted in Jewish practices.”
Haber stated she has discovered a profound sense of belonging in organizations just like the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, the place Schisler leads younger adults in weekly meditation periods and annual silent retreats.
Rebecca Schisler in a current video about getting ready for the 2024 Excessive Holidays. (Video display seize)
This yr, as many Jews reel from the Oct. 7 Hamas assault and its aftermath, Schisler’s lessons appear to have supplied some a refuge. She began the group, initially known as “Holding Our Heartbreak,” after the violence broke out final yr. When attendance surpassed her expectations, she began a digital weekly meditation “sit” for younger adults, providing an area the place “it doesn’t matter what their political orientation is, regardless of who they’re of their 20s and 30s, to only come collectively and be in an area that’s welcoming and the place we are able to dive into Jewish spirituality knowledge and apply collectively.”
Throughout Elul, the group’s 140 largely youthful individuals have been exploring the lunar Hebrew calendar’s “cyclical, rhythmic and earth primarily based” nature. Schisler urges them to “return to their deepest intentions,” saying, “We miss the mark all year long, and we go astray from our intentions. Yearly, we’ve got this chance to return to our deepest intention.”
Schisler stated she realized Judaism had a deeply innate non secular custom when she attended a Jewish meditation retreat in faculty. She lives by the Hebrew calendar, which she stated brings completely different energies every lunar month, holidays all year long and a cycle of participating in Torah examine. “Relying on the place we’re within the calendar, we’re participating with completely different themes, emotionally and spiritually, which might help us hook up with the collective expertise of different Jews and in addition folks on the planet,” she stated.
The core of Judaism’s mindfulness, stated Schisler, is celebrating Shabbat, or Sabbath. “Shabbat is, in its essence, what mindfulness is all about,” she stated.
Whereas she attracts from Buddhism and Judaism, Schisler stated she is conscious of the variations in objectives and worldviews of the 2 traditions. For Buddhism, the height of 1’s non secular improvement is enlightenment; in Judaism, she stated, it’s prophecy.
However she sees no conflict in utilizing thought from each faiths. “In any custom of historical knowledge, there are points which can be common and points which can be explicit,” she stated. “There could be magnificence in trade.”
Haber gives her personal path as proof, including that, whereas mindfulness introduced Haber again to Judaism, she has been “rethinking” how she grew up and what elevating youngsters in a Jewish family means right now.
“I’m going to boost my youngsters Jewish, however it’s a rethinking of how I grew up. Now it appears much less and fewer like congregations are the middle of Jewish life.” Haber stated. “It feels extra like a few of these different alternatives, like IJS and even the native JCC, can really feel extra accessible.”
