In the modern period, especially after the horrific events of the Holocaust, liberal Jews have, on the whole, expressed ambivalence about or aversion to the idea of being in or cultivating a personal relationship with the Divine. Synagogues rally people to engage in social action, to attend services, to study and to observe mitzvot, but usually without helping people to hear God's voice for themselves in the midst of such activities. For this reason, many Jews have experienced an emptiness or shallowness at the heart of Jewish life. Along with other people of other faith traditions in the West hungering for spiritual sustenance and guidance, Jews are searching for ways to know the Divine directly in their own lives. Spiritual direction offers a way for Jews to discern the movement of God's spirit in their own lives.

What is the Practice

Spiritual Direction is a practice of feeling, discerning, understanding and articulating the movement of Spirit in a person's life. It may be described as a practice of refining the ability to hear the voice of one's soul, of discerning the Sacred/Holy in one's experience, discovering God's direction for us, and cultivating awareness of God's presence in our lives, as well as discerning the obstacles to such awareness.

It is a practice based upon a trusting, confidential, one-on-one relationship with a "spiritual director" or "spiritual guide" which takes place within an agreed upon structure for meetings and an agreed upon intention of purpose.

Why We Do It

Hasidic spiritual practice is closely attentive to the movement of awareness of God, of discerning God’s presence even in the most mundane activity, event or object. Hasidic teachers remind their students that consciousness expands and contracts, only to expand again, if we pay attention. Human agency is valued, even as God’s direct providence is identified as the true, ultimate source of all becoming.

We have selected as Core Practices those practices that we believe help to develop this awareness and sensibility (mindfulness meditation, yoga, prayer, text study). What is necessary, as well, is a means to bring this awareness to the surface, to express it verbally to make it present as an ongoing element of our deepening practice. The movement from inner awareness to conscious intention happens in the process of communication, of externalization through speech. Spiritual Direction is a practice that supports and frames just this movement.

The Value of the Practice

We value this particular practice as a core of contemporary Jewish spirituality for the following reasons:

• It provides a way, particularly and specifically for Jews, to engage in an exploration and discussion of God's presence (or absence) in their lives.
• It provides a dedicated, structured and ongoing way for the individual to process, understand and value his/her own, unique relationship to God.
• It provides a way for Jews to work toward, experiment with and explore Jewish language as a reflection and illumination of their inner lives. (For instance, using the language of middot; incorporation of the idea of and personal experience of such primary Jewish concepts and experiences as "yetziat mitzrayim," "midbar," "Sinai"; seeking the face of the Beloved; using psalms as devotional texts, etc.)

Interaction with the Other Practices

Engaging in Spiritual Direction provides a way for Jews to reflect upon, refine and integrate other spiritual practices, such as meditation, prayer, text study, mitzvot observance and cultivation of middot. We invite our participants to engage with these practices while involved in our programs and beyond. These spiritual practices become the fertile ground out of which grow awareness of their unique, personal relationship with God. The awareness that arises from these other practices is brought to expression and examination in the practice of Spiritual Direction. In turn, during a Spiritual Direction session some of these practices might be incorporated, to retrieve a previous experience or deepen the awareness of the moment so that it might be examined and expressed. Further, that which is brought to light and examined in a Spiritual Direction, now made more concrete or available through expression, becomes the ground for further spiritual practice, introduced as the foundation for meditation, yoga, prayer etc.

How We Do It

We provide a selection of readings about spiritual direction in general and Jewish spiritual direction, in particular. We also encourage and facilitate participants' engagement with an ongoing spiritual direction practice for themselves. We invite those participants who have entered into Spiritual Direction to report on their experience to their fellows in the program, to encourage others to consider taking up this practice. Further, during the course of each retreat the faculty and staff make themselves available for brief periods of consultation that often serve as moments of Spiritual Direction for the participants.

Empowering Professional Participants to Manifest Spiritual Direction in Their Leading

While we are clearly not training our participants to be spiritual directors (and direct them to training programs if they would like to do so), we do encourage them to use the tools of spiritual direction in their work with others: providing "holy," "contemplative" or "prayerful" listening. We encourage participants to consider how the posture and principles of spiritual direction may be useful in the many contexts in which they already work. For instance, we encourage participants to be more attentive to the moments when what is required of them is the simple witnessing of another's relation to the Divine, reverently observing God's presence in the other's life situation and the encounter itself, rather than providing pastoral counseling or religious education. We guide our participants to reflect on the many situations that might be deepened by bringing to them an ever greater sense of awe, reverence, inner stillness and attentiveness.