Returning to Spiritual Practice
The first retreat was a powerful experience of opening and the second retreat was a sustained week of poignant experiences of prayer. Between the second and third retreats I felt God's sustained presence during a difficult time. The third retreat was teshuvah - turning me back to my spiritual practice.
— Rabbi Paul Kipnes (R3), Reform Rabbi, Congregation Or Ami, Calabasas, CA
The Journey of Spirit
Spirituality is the connection between what we do and feel as hazzanim and what we strive to inculcate in our congregations and communities. The elements of contemporary spirituality, when properly grounded in Jewish practice, are indispensable to enriching your journey and the journey of those you serve.
— Cantor Jack Chomsky (C1), Conservative Cantor, Congregation Tifereth Israel, Columbus, OH
A Much More Personal Sense of God's Involvement in my Life
The IJS has transformed my life. I do not believe that I could have done the work of being a congregational rabbi without this experience. First and foremost, my experience with the IJS has widened my heart and enabled me to feel compassion for my congregants. Instead of feeling critical or judgmental about them, common traps I think for rabbis, I am able to hold them with love and to view their actions with humor, detachment and an awareness of the goodness of their intent, even when their actions fall short of it.
...my experience with the IJS has widened my heart and enabled me to feel compassion for my congregants.
Second, I have been able to find a stronger center in myself to which I can return so that I am not shaken by the daily ups and downs of congregational life. I do not use the tools I have learned often enough, but I do know the experience of being able to slow down and be with what is and somehow, knowing that I know that, even when I don't do it, changes things. Lastly, I have arrived at a much more personal sense of God's involvement in my life -- hashgacha pratit -- than I have ever held before. This enables me, in this work, to notice how God is moving through me or us, to have more patience for what is, and to teach Torah in a way that makes God's presence more immediate and less mystified for my congregants.
— Rabbi Rona Shapiro (R3), Conservative Rabbi, Congregation Bethaynu, Cleveland OH
My Work as a Rabbi has Changed Significantly
My own spiritual practice and my work as a rabbi has changed significantly as a result of my participation in the first rabbinic cohort of IJS (2000-2001) and my continued participation in retreats and hevruta study, etc... My meditation practice has deepened and I have gained many tools and experiences that contribute to my teaching of meditation to both high school students at Milken Community High School, and to adults in a variety of settings.
...colleagues who have participated in IJS over the years have found their studies in IJS have positively affected their work as rabbis and cantors.
...High Holy Day sermons and teaching have also been positively affected by my studies in IJS. I have explored themes of listening and paying attention, cultivating middot, and different understandings of God. I have brought Hassidic and kabbalistic interpretations into my teaching and divrei Torah since beginning my studies in IJS—something I did not do before. In general, I talk about God, spiritual experience and spiritual practice more freely and in a greater variety of ways. Through my studies in IJS, I continue to grow in my ability to articulate and address these and related issues.
I know from colleagues who have participated in IJS over the years that they too have found their studies in IJS have positively affected their work as rabbis and cantors. They talk about God and spiritual experience more freely and in different ways. They conduct services differently. They counsel and teach differently. We have so many Jews who look East when they feel spiritual yearnings… and I do not mean East to Jerusalem! Having more rabbis and cantors and Jewish educators who address issues of spiritual practice and growth in richer and deeper ways is so important!
— Rabbi Ruth H. Sohn (R1), Reform Rabbi, Milken High School, Los Angeles, CA
A New Vocabulary
Through my work with IJS over the past six years, I have gained a new vocabulary for speaking about spiritual life that makes real sense to me, is accessible for most of my people and resonates deeply with the growing number of those who are spiritual seekers. I have gained an appreciation for spiritual practice and have internalized the wisdom of meditation practice (even when not always being a consistent practitioner). The teachings of our Hasidic masters has given my work a more profound and nuanced spiritual dimension.
IJS has reshaped and given new focus to the wisdom I have gained as a congregational rabbi over the past 30 years.
The insights and wisdom I have gained from my ongoing work with IJS (and it is always a work in progress) have helped me through my own personal difficult times, as well as having transformed much of my teachings in the form of divrei Torah, sermons, and counseling. I have developed a Wednesday morning meditation minyan and have been fortunate to have taught a group of congregants the IJS curriculum for mature adult spirituality. In more subtle ways, IJS has reshaped and given new focus to the wisdom I have gained as a congregational rabbi over the past 30 years.
If only more rabbis and congregations were to be enriched by the IJS, Jewish life would truly enter the next stage of "spiritual religion" that my teacher, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, z"l, spoke about over half a century ago in The Future of the American Jew. I can only hope that IJS will go from strength to strength.
—Rabbi Ron Aigen (R2), Congregation Dorshei Emet, Montreal
Space to Refresh and Renew my Rabbinate
...it changed my life, as a rabbi and as a Jew and a person.
I am writing to support the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, under the extraordinary leadership of Rabbi Rachel Cowan. She, along with a gifted team of rabbis and teachers has created the most unique program for in service rabbinic training. I know because I participated in the second cohort, from 2002-2004 - IT CHANGED MY LIFE, AS A RABBI AND AS A JEW AND A PERSON!!!
The Institute gave me the safety and space to refresh and renew my rabbinate and made me a better professional, specifically a better listener, and more calm and focused senior staff person. It is a gift to rabbis and cantors to take time out to reflect, to pray, to interact with colleagues and to grow. It has enriched my involvement in the Blaustein Center and Mezorim immeasurably.
— Rabbi Naamah Kelman (R2), Reform Rabbi, Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem