Torah is the foundation of Jewish life, and the study of Torah has been the energizing force of Jewish spirituality. Whatever else we might teach our participants to help them wake up in their lives, to experience the presence of God in their lives, the core of our teachings is Torah.
Our approach to text study is to address the needs of seekers for teachings that connect text to experience, that offer the esoteric in an accessible and meaningful manner. That is why we have chosen to access Torah through those texts that emerged from the Jewish mystical tradition (long suppressed or ignored). That is why we have moved the form of study from academic and intellectual investigation to that of spiritual community and spiritual experience. While we hold ourselves accountable to teach what is true historically and scientifically, we also seek to enliven the scholarly and academic by returning to that spiritual impetus and experience that produced the texts in the first place.
The Practice: Why We Do It
In every Institute program we engage in text study, in large study sessions, in small groups and in havruta pairs. The fundamental reason for this practice is that it is through the study of Torah we come into contact with the source of our direct, verbal awareness of God’s relationship with the world. In turn, the study of Torah gives rise to commentary – other texts that expand, deepen, redirect, open up, invert, respond to and continue our sense of connection to God. It is, thus, that through language we enter into an understanding of our relationship with God, at least so far as we can express it in words. Further, because the original Text is one of relationship – of God’s “communication” to Israel and the world – its study is best accomplished in relationship. In the mutual interaction of two or more hearts, minds and souls we are more able to sense God’s presence, understanding better our place in God’s world.
What We Study; How This Practice Relates to Other Practices
The texts that our participants study are selected primarily from the corpus of the Hasidic tradition. We have set this priority because we believe it supports contemplative study, and because it expresses a fundamental element of the spiritual orientation of the Institute. The nature of Hasidic spirituality points squarely and consistently to developing a sustained awareness of God in one’s daily life. It leads us to become aware of the nature of awareness itself. The texts challenge us to pay attention to what thoughts arise in our hearts and minds, to notice our response to these thoughts, and to then to raise these thoughts and our reactions up to God; to perceive God even in them, transforming them from “our” thoughts and “our” responses to the flow of God’s intention in the world. This process, which might remain a curious intellectual idea on the page, is brought to life as a living practice through contemplative listening as text study.
The second reason that we focus on Hasidic texts is their theological orientation. The central teaching of the Baal Shem Tov, even when filtered through that of the Maggid of Mezritch, is that the whole world is filled with God’s glory – literally. There is nothing that is not God; no place or no experience that is not part of God. There are two implications of this approach. One is that the dualism of God and the world is broken down. There is nothing but God. We may (by nature and necessity) see diverse and multiple phenomena, but our charge is to see beyond them to the oneness of God and Creation. The second is that our experience of the world, of our lives, is an avenue to experience of God. The practice of mindfulness meditation provides a direct analog to this spiritual practice. Yoga helps us to develop a deeper sensitivity to our bodily sensations, and to experience our lives in a more integrated manner. Spiritual Direction supports us in our intention to sense God’s presence in our every experience, and to sense God’s intention for us every day. In this way, there is a confluence of these forms of practice – text study, mindfulness practice, yoga/body practice and Spiritual Direction – in the program.
What We Ask of our Participants
We set our text study, and in particular the havruta component, in the context of the practice of “contemplative listening.” We invite our participants to sit quietly, to attend to their inner experience. As that awareness grows and deepens, we invite them to rest easily in the present moment. The capacity to simply be present to what is without assessing, correcting or attempting to banish the uncomfortable or discordant, creates the context in which they will be more able to be present to the views, ideas and responses of the person opposite them. They will be able to hear a new teaching emerging, true in this moment, without having to first place it in a predefined framework, without constraining the other in discovering what is true right now. It is with this orientation that we invite the participants to engage in study together.
This approach also allows us to offer an additional instruction, deepening the experience of text study as a spiritual practice. We ask after having clarified the text in terms of content, form, style, etc., that the participants stop to reflect on how they respond to the text emotionally, psychically and spiritually. How does this text resonate for them in their life? What issues does it raise in their experience? In what ways might this text help them feel more connected to God (or not), more open to God (or not), more aware of God’s presence or activity in the world (or not), etc.? The goal of study is not only to know more of a body of literature, to develop a suite of terms, concepts, and practices from the text in order later to teach or frame sermons (though that is important) – but to open our hearts and deepen our sense of how God is present in our lives. There is no right or wrong answer in this case. The process of havruta study is not merely to uncover a “truth” in the text, or to innovate some “chiddush (innovative reading),” but to uncover the truth of our experience and renew our inner lives.
Opportunities for Practice
We integrate this practice into all of our programs. In every professional retreat and lay program there is time set aside for text study. Whether the discussion takes place in the larger group or in dyads/triads, this is the method we employ for text study. Further, between each retreat and lay program, our participants engage in ongoing text study in havruta pairs. Each week they are asked to study a text, reflecting again on its content and how it works as a means to open the heart. In both cases – at the program and following the interim period – we invite reflection and feedback about the texts. This is aided, for the professionals, by a listserve through which they are encouraged to share their responses to and reflections on the texts.
Text study in this form does not end at the conclusion of the formal retreat program. For the past six years we have offered our professional alumni texts that they could continue to study together, a listserve through which they might communicate, and we have facilitated the formation of havruta pairs when called for. We have now expanded this program, and it is open to all interested students.
Our professional participants come to our programs with a fairly sophisticated skill-set when it comes to text study. Our approach, however, is different from most others that they have experienced. Rather, it is another way to support their personal internal spiritual transformation while continuing in their roles as teachers and leaders. Thus, in the retreat program we model how teachers engage in this sort of study, in particular what it means to be a “teacher participant.” That is, as teachers we do not have all the answers, nor have we concluded our own spiritual journeys. When we study together even the teachers are prepared to be surprised, to learn something new even in an old and familiar text. In this way, we invite students to join us in engaging in text study toward the end that we might all continue to grow, supporting them in turn to become teacher participants when they return to their home communities.
What the Practice Leads To
When taken together, the contemplative approach to text study that we employ and the texts that we have chosen to study support the development of our Core Values (conscious awareness of God’s presence; compassion; wisdom; love; openheartedness; justice), as well as other values help to sustain these Core Values (humility; honesty; teshuva; joy). Taken together, this practice and these values deepen the awareness of God’s presence even in moments of darkness, in the presence of suffering and pain. For our clergy, this approach and these texts help to break down the gap between themselves as leaders and their community, even as they help to identify them as spiritually attuned and valued leaders. The sustaining value of awareness of God’s presence in all that we do, even when it seems our actions are futile or misdirected, helps to support leaders in their work over the long haul. Trust in God is sustained and expressed in compassionate, determined work toward positive ends. Friction, conflict and contention can be managed within a community with greater grace and compassion.
One of the goals of the Institute and its programs is to train leaders to welcome spiritual seekers, to help them find a place in Jewish institutions where their needs may be addressed. Those Jews whose spirituality is that of the head (study) or hands (hesed) have been fairly well served over the past century or so. Those who are more devotional, or whose spirituality is grounded in experience have not been as well served. Further, we sense that there is a growing desire among Jews to speak about Judaism and Jewish life as a way of “walking with God.” They want to hear and experience in study (and worship and service) how these practices help them to connect with God. Our commitment to this manner of study, to this spiritual practice, is based on our sense that it responds directly to the needs of this population.