Meditation from the Heart of Judaism: Today's Teachers Share Their Practices, Techniques, and Faith

by Avram Davis (Editor), Alan Brill (Contribution by), Andrea Cohen-Keiner (Contribution by), David Cooper (Contribution by), Avram Davis (Contribution by)

Overview

Techniques explained by the masters—for today's spiritual seeker

Meditation is designed to give you direct access to the spiritual. Whether it’s through deep breathing during a busy day, listening to the quiet after turning off the car radio, chanting in prayer or ten minutes of visualization exercises each morning, meditation takes many forms. But it is always a personal method of centering our spiritual self.

Meditation has long been practiced in the Jewish community as a powerful tool to transcend words, personality and ego and to directly experience the divine. Inspiring yet practical, this introduction to meditation from a Jewish perspective approaches it in a new and illuminating way: As it is personally practiced by today’s most experienced Jewish meditators from around the world.

A "how to" guide for both beginning and experienced meditators, Meditation from the Heart of Judaism will help you start meditating or help you enhance your practice. Meditation is a Jewish spiritual resource for today that can benefit people of all faiths and backgrounds—and help us add spiritual energy to our lives.

Contributors include:
Sylvia Boorstein • Alan Brill • Andrea Cohen-Keiner • David Cooper • Avram Davis • Nan Fink • Steve Fisdel • Shefa Gold • Lynn Gottleib • Edward Hoffman • Lawrence Kushner • Alan Lew • Shaul Magid • Daniel C. Matt • Jonathan Omer-Man • Mindy Ribner • Susie Schneider • Rami M. Shapiro • Shohama Wiener • Sheila Peltz Weinberg • Laibl Wolf • David Zeller

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683361916
Publisher:	TURNER PUB CO
Publication date:	10/01/1997
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Avram Davis is a respected teacher of Jewish meditation and spirituality, and the founder and codirector of an independent renewal center for Jewish learning and meditation, Chochmat HaLev in Berkeley, California. He is the author of The Way of the Flame (Jewish Lights), an introduction to the practice of meditation, and coauthor of Judaic Mysticism.

Rabbi Shefa Gold, is director of C-DEEP: The Center for Devotional, Energy and Ecstatic Practice in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. Shefa composes and performs spiritual music, has produced several recordings, and her liturgies have been published in many prayer books. She teaches workshops and retreats on the theory and art of chanting, devotional healing, spiritual community building and meditation around the world. She also trains chant leaders in Kol Zimra, a two-year program for rabbis, cantors and lay leaders. Shefa, who is on the faculty of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, combines her grounding in Judaism with a background in Buddhist, Christian, Islamic and Native American spiritual traditions to make her uniquely qualified as a spiritual bridge celebrating the shared path of devotion. She is author of Torah Journeys: The Inner Path to the Promised Land and In the Fever of Love: An Illumination of the Song of Songs. For more information about Rabbi Shefa Gold, please visit her website at www.RabbiShefaGold.com.

Rabbi Shefa Gold is available to speak on the following topics:

• The Magic of Hebrew Chant
• Ecstatic Meditation
• The Path of Love
• Gratefulness as the Foundation of our Spiritual Practice
• The Power of Intention

Click here to contact the author.

Rabbi Lawrence Kushner is one of the most widely read authors by people of all faiths on Jewish spiritual life. He is the best-selling author of such books as Invisible Lines of Connection: Sacred Stories of the Ordinary; God Was in This Place & I, i Did Not Know: Finding Self, Spirituality and Ultimate Meaning; Honey from the Rock: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism; The Book of Letters: A Mystical Hebrew Alphabet; The Book of Miracles: A Young Person's Guide to Jewish Spiritual Awareness; The Book of Words: Talking Spiritual Life, Living Spiritual Talk; Eyes Remade for Wonder: A Lawrence Kushner Reader; I'm God, You're Not: Observations on Organized Religion and other Disguises of the Ego; Jewish Spirituality: A Brief Introduction for Christians; The River of Light: Jewish Mystical Awareness; The Way Into Jewish Mystical Tradition; and co-author of Because Nothing Looks Like God; How Does God Make Things Happen?; Where Is God?; What Does God Look Like?; and In God's Hands. He is the Emanu-El Scholar at San Francisco's Congregation Emanu-El and an adjunct professor of Jewish mysticism and spirituality at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion.

Rabbi Lawrence Kushner is available to speak on the following topics:

• Jewish Mystical Imagination

• Rymanover's Silent Aleph: What Really Happened on Sinai

• Zohar on Romance and Revelation

• What Makes Kabbalah Kabbalah

• Sacred Stories of the Ordinary: When God Makes a Surprise Appearance in Everyday Life

Click here to contact the author.

Alan Lew is the rabbi of Congregation Beth Sholom in San Francisco and is at the forefront of the movement to develop new forms of Jewish spiritual expression. His work in the area of using Zen meditation to enhance Jewish spirituality has been highlighted on programs such as ABC News, The MacNeil-Lehrer Report, the PBS news magazine Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, and National Public Radio's All Things Considered. He also serves as moderator of Mosaic, CBS's weekly religious talk show. Lew explores meditation in Jewish contexts, and has conducted workshops and retreats on Jewish meditation throughout the United States and Canada.

Shaul Magid, PhD, is the Jay and Jeannie Schottenstein Professor of Modern Judaism and professor of religious studies at Indiana UniversityBloomington. He is the author of Hasidism on the Margin: Reconciliation, Antinomianism, and Messianism in Izbica/Radzin Hasidism and From Metaphysics to Midrash: Myth, History, and the Interpretation of Scripture in Lurianic Kabbala, which won the
American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the Textual Studies category.

Rami Shapiro, a renowned teacher of spirituality across faith traditions and a noted theologian, is a popular speaker on the topics of religion, theology and spirituality. He is author of the award-winning The Sacred Art of Lovingkindness: Preparing to Practice; Recovery—The Sacred Art: The Twelve Steps as Spiritual Practice and Hasidic Tales: Annotated and Explained; among other books.

Rami Shapiro is available to speak on the following topics:

• Writing—The Sacred Art: Beyond the Page to Spiritual Practice
• Stop Playing God: 12 Steps as Spiritual Practice
• Biblical Wisdom for Post-biblical Times: An Exploration of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job
• The Sacred Art of Lovingkindness: Cultivating Compassion in Daily Life
• Hasidic Wisdom: An Exploration of Hasidic Storytelling, Theology and Contemplative Practice
• Saints and Sages: Biblical Prophets, Ancient Rabbis and the Building of a Just World

Rabbi David Zeller, storyteller, teacher and musician, is a pioneer in Jewish spirituality and transpersonal psychology. He helped establish the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology; the Network of Conscious Judaism; Yakar: Center for Tradition and Creativity; and Shevet: Center for Jewish Spirituality and Meditation. He has produced five recordings of meditative and healing music. He travels extensively throughout the United States and Europe several times each year to teach and perform. Learn more about David Zeller, his stories and his music at www.davidzeller.org.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Heart of Jewish Meditation
Avram Davis

1 The Teaching and Practice of Reb Yerachmiel ben Yisrael
Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro
2 Silencing the Inner Voice(s)
Rabbi Lawrence Kushner
3 It Doesn't Matter What You Call It: If It Works, It Works
Rabbi Alan Lew
4 Study as Meditation
Susie Schneider
5 Keeping God Before Me Always
Mindy Ribner
6 Noble Boredom: How to View Meditation
Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man
7 Jewish Meditation Today and Its Obstacles
Avram Davis
8 The Hierarchy of Jewish Meditation
Rabbi Alan Brill
9 Opening the Inner Gates
Edward Hoffman
10 A Splendid Way to Live
Rabbi David Zeller
11 On Mindfulness
Sylvia Boorstein
12 Meditation as Our Own Jacob’s Ladder
Rabbi Steve Fisdel
13 That This Song May Be a Witness: The Power of Chant
Rabbi Shefa Gold
14 Meditating as a Practicing Jew
Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg
15 Meditation and the Art of Growing Your Neshamah
Rabbi Laibl Wolf
16 Healing and Meditation
Rabbi Shohama Wiener
17 Why Meditate?
Daniel C. Matt
18 The Promise of Jewish Meditation
Rabbi David Cooper
19 Go to Your Self
Andrea Cohen-Kiener
20 Meditation and Women’s Kabbalah
Rabbi Lynn Gottleib
21 Piety Before Ecstasy
Shaul Magid
22 Notes from a Beginning Meditation Teacher
Nan Fink
Best Practices: A Distillation of Techniques and Outlook
Avram Davis

Notes
Glossary
Suggested Readings and Materials
About the Editor

Editorial Reviews

Davis (The Way of the Flame, HarperCollins, 1996) has compiled 22 essays on meditation by Jewish leaders, teachers, and writers such as Lawrence Kushner, Rami Shapiro, Nan Fink, Edward Hoffman, and others. These thinkers discuss issues of interest to the Jewish lay reader: traditional background, meditative approaches and techniques, obstacles to practice, and the importance of attitude. Davis summarizes the basics in the final chapter, noting that because it did not spring from a monastic tradition, the essence of Jewish meditation lies largely in a concern with everyday life. A worthwhile addition to the growing number of books on Jewish spirituality.

Library Journal

"Avram Davis is a pioneer in the new art of teaching Jewish meditation.... He has assembled a sparkling catalog of some of its best contemporary teachers. Their many perspectives light up facets of the holy quest for nearness to the One."
—Rodger Kamenetz, author, Stalking Elijah and The Jew in the Lotus

“One of the most inspiring books I have ever read in my professional career. Absolutely spectacular. Wise, delicious, inspiring and comforting. A journey into the richness of spirituality.”
—Caroline M. Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit; coauthor, The Creation of Health

“In dozens of beautiful ways this book shows how meditation can bring you home to yourself and God.”
—Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart

“A treasury of meditative insights and techniques from some of the most enlightened teachers in Judaism. Each page is a meditative experience that brings you closer to God.”
—Rabbi Shoni Labowitz, author, Miraculous Living: A Guided Journey in Kabbalah through the Ten Gates of the Tree of Life

From the Publisher