Jewish Spiritual Direction

Description

The first comprehensive resource for spiritual direction in the Jewish tradition—
a vital resource for people involved in spiritual leadership.

The essential reference for people who are called to help others listen for God’s voice—not only through prayer and sacred texts, but also through dance, art and interactions with other people—this groundbreaking volume draws on both Jewish tradition and the classical foundations of spiritual direction to provide invaluable guidance.

Offering insight into all aspects of spiritual direction, including theology, practice, companionship, group work and embodied spirituality, the contributors to this guide are innovators in their fields and represent all four contemporary Jewish movements. Topics explored include:

Jewish Theologies and Jewish Spiritual Direction • The Vocabulary of Jewish Spiritual Direction • Spiritual Direction as a Contemplative Practice • Contemplation and Social Action • Cultivating a Hearing Heart • Spiritual Types • Community for Spiritual Direction • Spiritual Direction and the Cycle of Holy Time • Spiritual Companionship and the Passages of Life • Jewish Spiritual Direction and the Sacred Body • Integrating Spiritual Direction and Visual Creativity • and many more ...

An exciting and practical addition to an emerging field, this is the definitive guide for all who accompany Jewish seekers on their spiritual journeys.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Jewish philosophy
• Judaism
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 06 octobre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781580235259
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

Jewish Spiritual Direction
An Innovative Guide from Traditional and Contemporary Sources
Edited by
Rabbi Howard Avruhm Addison Barbara Eve Breitman
Books by Howard A. Addison
The Enneagram and Kabbalah: Reading Your Soul (Jewish Lights)
Cast in God s Image: Discover Your Personality Type Using the Enneagram and Kabbalah (Jewish Lights)
Show Me Your Way: The Complete Guide to Exploring Interfaith Spiritual Direction (SkyLight Paths)
Jewish Spiritual Direction:
An Innovative Guide from Traditional and Contemporary Sources
2006 First Printing
2006 by Howard Avruhm Addison and Barbara Eve Breitman
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information regarding permission to reprint material from this book, please mail or fax your request in writing to Jewish Lights Publishing, Permissions Department, at the address / fax number listed below, or e-mail your request to [e-mail] .
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jewish spiritual direction: an innovative guide from traditional and contemporary sources / edited by Howard Avruhm Addison and Barbara Eve Breitman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-58023-230-2
ISBN-10: 1-58023-230-2
1. Spiritual direction-Judaism. 2. Jewish way of life. I. Addison, Howard A., 1950- II. Breitman, Barbara Eve.
BM723.J486 2006
296.6 1-dc22
2006005276
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Jacket design: Tim Holtz
Manufactured in the United States of America
Published by Jewish Lights Publishing
A Division of LongHill Partners, Inc.
Sunset Farm Offices, Route 4, P.O. Box 237
Woodstock, VT 05091
Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]
www.jewishlights.com
To my beloved father, Henry, and my beloved children, Mara, Jon, Leora, Arona, Aley, and my most precious grandson, Amiel: May God watch over you and always guide your steps.
-HAA

To my mother, Mary, for her abiding and sustaining love. To my beloved daughters, Keyonnee and Kimberly: May you always be blessed with love, friendship, good health, and lives full of joy and meaning. Know that you are loved by an unending love and by hands that uplift you even in the midst of a fall.
-BEB
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
To Revitalize the Spirit of God: Toward a Contemporary Practice of Jewish Spiritual Direction
Rabbi Howard Avruhm Addison and Barbara Eve Breitman
SECTION I
An Evolving Practice
Jewish Theologies and Jewish Spiritual Direction
Rabbi Jacob J. Staub
Creating Jewish Spiritual Direction: More Than an Act of Translation
Linda Rabinowitch Thal
Reciprocal Grace: The Vocabulary of Jewish Spiritual Direction
Rabbi Howard Avruhm Addison
SECTION II
Practicing Spiritual Guidance
Spiritual Direction as a Contemplative Practice
Rabbi Zari M. Weiss
Holy Listening: Cultivating a Hearing Heart
Barbara Eve Breitman
Berur: How Do You Know If It s God?
Rabbi Howard Avruhm Addison
Spiritual Types: One Size Doesn t Fit All
Rabbi Shohama Harris Wiener
Spiritual Direction: No Inside, No Outside
Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg
Chavurat Ruach (A Fellowship of Spirit): Community for Spiritual Direction
Ann Kline
SECTION III
The Jewish Path
Spiritual Transformation: A Psychospiritual Perspective on Jewish Narratives of Journey
Barbara Eve Breitman
The Siddur: A Guide to Jewish Spiritual Direction
Rabbi Amy Eilberg
Live with the Times: Spiritual Direction and the Cycle of Holy Time
Rabbi Marcia Prager
Spiritual Companionship and the Passages of Life
Anne Brener
Soul-Traits in Classical Mussar and Contemporary Jewish Spiritual Direction
Alan Morinis
SECTION IV
New Dimensions in Spiritual Guidance
From My Flesh I See God: Embodiment and Jewish Spiritual Direction
Rabbi Myriam Klotz
New Horizons: Poetry and Spiritual Direction
Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffman
God Danced the Day You Were Born: Jewish Spiritual Direction and the Sacred Body
Julie Leavitt Kutzen
Opening Doors, Windows, and Vistas: Integrating Spiritual Direction and Visual Creativity
Laine Barbanell Schipper
Glossary
Where Do I Go from Here? Resources in Jewish Spiritual Guidance
Index of Terms and Concepts
Index of Classical Sources Cited (Biblical and Rabbinic)
About Jewish Lights
Copyright
Preface
More than ever before, contemporary Jews are seeking spiritual fulfillment. They recognize sparks of holiness in their lives and want to connect them with Jewish tradition, but don t necessarily know how. That s why the time is right for this book.
Spiritual direction has had a profound impact on the lives of those seekers and guides engaged in the process. It supports people as they examine their inner being and learn to recognize the sacred possibilities in everyday life. To demonstrate both the benefit and the promise that spiritual direction can offer to us as Jews, we thought that we might share with you the effect this sacred practice has had on each of our lives.
Rabbi Howard Avruhm Addison: When thinking about my spiritual journey, I often recall an insight attributed to Simchah Bunim of Pzhysha, a nineteenth-century Hasidic master, which I read in Martin Buber s Tales of the Hasidim: Later Masters. Reb Bunim observed that the difference between cognitive study and lived religious experience is akin to the difference between reading a playbill and personally experiencing the play.
Although my parents came from nonobservant Jewish homes, they wanted their sons to have strong religious foundations. Our Conservative synagogue on Chicago s Far South Side was the hub of a vibrant Jewish community, and throughout childhood and adolescence, my brother and I spent most of our after-school hours in Jewish study, worship, and youth activities. Upon graduating from college, I followed what seemed like my life s natural progression, entering the Jewish Theological Seminary. There I was privileged to study with world-class scholars, including Professors Moshe Zucker, Seymour Segal, and the revered Abraham Joshua Heschel. In rabbinical school our critical examination of classical Jewish texts was engaging and extensive. I was encouraged in my doctoral studies of philosophy, Kabbalah, and Hasidut. In retrospect, however, something was missing: Even our mystical texts courses offered faint instruction on how we might deepen our own connections to God. It was like reading about inwardness, penimiyut , from a playbill, with little opportunity to experience the play or learn how to join in the action ourselves.
I have spent most of the thirty years since ordination serving congregations according to the rabbi/scholar model I learned at JTS. As the demands of the pulpit, with its pastoral, scholarly, and communal responsibilities increased, my sense of calling grew ever more faint. Neither advanced study in the United States nor that in Israel helped me find an ongoing sense of spiritual connection. While sporadically welcomed, I was rebuffed more than once when seeking more traditional modes of study and guidance in the yeshiva world, due to my Conservative affiliation.
By the mid 1990s my life, while outwardly successful, was internally a wreck. Five of my nearest and dearest, including my mother, my brother, and a young niece, were dead; my home life was unraveling. At the suggestion of a Rabbinical Assembly colleague, I attended two seminars sponsored by the Alban Institute, an interfaith center dedicated to the ongoing support of clergy and congregations. Daily we deepened our contemplative practice; I was introduced to the Enneagram theory of personality and spiritual direction. My response was twofold. My mind, almost on its own, began to filter out the Christology and search for spiritual correlations and contrasts within our own tradition. More profoundly, my heart began to sing, as I sensed that here were hints of the experiential reality to which my previous study had but alluded.
Those Alban seminars over a decade ago impelled me to enter spiritual direction and to study further in both Jewish and Christian contexts. While I love the continuing intellectual challenge of mining Judaism s texts for their spiritual riches, it is the inner personal work that constantly proves transformative and amazing. During some very dark hours, it has literally been lifesaving. The insights gained and the changes I see in my own priorities, teaching, and behavior confirm that the Blessed Holy One is truly Oseh Phele , a God of Wondrous Surprise. More importantly, I have been privileged to witness among both fervently committed and marginal Jews, among those we ve trained as mashpi im and those I ve been fortunate to companion, profound, life-giving spiritual changes as they-and I-try, like our Father Abraham, to become wholehearted and walk continually before God (Genesis 17:1).
Barbara Eve Breitman: I discovered spiritual direction during a time of loss and spiritual crisis. In the summer of 1995, a first cousin of mine was murdered; my then-husband and I took her orphaned children into our home. One year later my husband died suddenly. Life as I knew it and my understanding of God crumbled. As my beloved friends helped me put my life back together, I searched for Jewish wisdom about suffering, but could find little then that was helpful to me. It was in Buddhist writings, and later in spiritual direction, that I found more of what I needed to help me save my life, and, over time, to open myself up to a deeper, more embracing connection with the Holy.
I had difficulty finding the Jewish spiritual guidance I needed despite my involvement in the Jewish community and long-time commitment to Jewish learning. While attending Brandeis, I developed a profound interest in mysticism and