Fall Semester: Exploring the Centuries of Traditional and Creative Pathways to God
Wednesdays, 12:30 to 2:00 pm
Queens Campus for Rabbi Judy’s Sessions
Zoom for Guest Scholars
September 14 through November 16 (no class on October 5 and November 9)
One need not be left to face the hard moments of life without spiritual resources. This community course will explore ancient and creative words that offer strength in the face of life’s storms and expand one’s sense of gratitude in the midst of their daily routine. Participants will have the opportunity to enhance their educational experience by crafting their own personal prayer books. This course will be offered in person with a hybrid option and recording for those who are traveling. Guest scholars will be incorporated into the program.
Our core text will be Making Prayer Real: Leading Jewish Spiritual Voices on Why Prayer is Difficult and What to Do about It by Mike Comins. The author will join us for a session in the fall and spring.
Wellsprings of Prayer: Finding Resources to Support your Own Spiritual Journey
Fall Semester: Exploring the Centuries of Traditional and Creative Pathways to God
Wednesdays, 12:30 to 2:00 pm
Queens Campus for Rabbi Judy’s Sessions
Zoom for Guest Scholars (Sessions 2, 5, 7)
September 14 through November 16 (no class on October 5th and November 2nd)
One need not be left to face the hard moments of life without spiritual resources. This community course will explore ancient and creative words that offer strength in the face of life’s storms and expand one’s sense of gratitude in the midst of their daily routine. Participants will have the opportunity to enhance their educational experience by crafting their own personal prayer books. This course will be offered in person with a zoom link and recording for those who are traveling. Guest scholars will be incorporated into the program.
Our core text will be Making Prayer Real: Leading Jewish Spiritual Voices on Why Prayer is Difficult and What to Do about It by Mike Comins. The author will join us for a session in the fall and spring.
Session 1 – The World Of Jewish Prayer
September 14, 2022
From Heschel to Reb Nachman of Braslov, from feminist liturgy to Chasidic masters, prayer is meant to be offered with intention. What are the roots of Jewish prayer? What is the role of community in prayer? What is the place of fixed prayer versus spontaneous prayer?
Session 2 – Prayer as a Practice: The Why and How of Learning Prayer
September 21, 2022
Guest Presenter: Rabbi Mike Comins
Rabbi Mike Comins is author of Making Prayer Real: Leading Jewish Spiritual Voices on Why Prayer is Difficult and What to Do about it (Jewish Lights) and the Making Prayer Real Course hosted by the College Commons. He is also founder of the TorahTrek Center for Jewish Wilderness Spirituality and author of A Wild Faith: Jewish Ways into the Wilderness, Wilderness Ways into Judaism (Jewish Lights). A native of Los Angeles and a graduate of UCLA, Rabbi Comins made aliyah and lived in Israel for fifteen years. He studies classical Jewish texts at the Pardes Institute, earned his MA in Jewish Education from Hebrew University and was ordained in the Israeli rabbinical program of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
Session 3 – When I Awake: Gratitude, Morning Reflections on the Body, Mind and Soul
September 28, 2022
Session 4 – The Shema, Hearing God, and Our Unfolding Relationship (Creation, Revelation and Redemption)
October 12, 2022
Session 5 – Petitions What We Need & What the World Needs
October 19, 2022
Guest presenter: Rabbi
Rabbi Jonathan Slater was part of Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s (IJS) Core Faculty for two decades, during which he directed the Institute’s Clergy Leadership Program and created and directed the IJS Text Study Program. In addition to teaching on numerous retreats for both clergy and laypeople, Jonathan has contributed to and written numerous books including A Partner in Holiness: Deepening Mindfulness, Practicing Compassion and Enriching Our Lives through the Wisdom of R. Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev’s Kedushat Levi. He was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminar and served congregations in northern California for over twenty years. He was also a participant in the first IJS rabbinic cohort. In 2020, he published an IJS podcast on contemplative prayer practice featuring leading spiritual teachers.
Session 6 – The Evolving Meanings of Chosenness and Tikkun Olam
October 26, 2022
Session 7 – Kaddish and The Journey Through Grief
November 2, 2022
Guest presenter Rabbi Anne Brener
Rabbi Anne Brener, LCSW, is Professor of Ritual and Human Development at the Academy for Jewish Religion, California. She is a Psychotherapist and Author, specializing in grief and healing, who assists institutions in creating caring communities., and has contributed to many other publications. Her acclaimed book, Mourning & Mitzvah, is now being translated into Spanish and sections of the book have been translated into several African dialects for AIDS hospice workers on that continent. Rabbi Brener was a Bereavement Chaplain for Skirball Hospice and is a founding faculty member of Yedidya’s Morei Derekh- Jewish Spiritual Direction Program. She serves on the steering committees of the Kalsman Institute on Judaism and Medicine and the Southern California Jewish Burial Society.
Week VIII – The Sabbath – An Island In Time
November 16, 2022
The fee for the fall semester is $275/semester. Financial assistance is available. To register click here or contact Talia Goldman, Goldmant@queens.edu.
Comments
I wish to register for this series
How do I register? Is it too late?
We’d love to have you join us. I’ll send the info through email.