I remember one clear moment when I knew I had found “my place.” I was in my 4th year of rabbinic school participating in a 5-day Jewish spirituality retreat.* We were studying “Lech Lecha” from the Zohar (a mystical perspective.)
Lech Lecha is the Torah portion where God (Divine Mystery) tells Abraham to “go forth” – leave everything he knows – to a place he will be “shown.”
The move requires enormous trust, and yet the Zohar tells us that Abraham had already been “on the move” and that God was right there, meeting him, responding to him, with Yes, Go. The interplay between the Divine and human beings is not one directional – it is a partnership with the intention to grow souls.
Tears sprang to my eyes. This was the story of my life. At each point when I have been seeking, “something” (a teacher, a community, a book, a text) arrives as if to take me by the hand and answer: “Yes. Here’s the path….”
I remember exactly where I was sitting in that room that day when Melila Hellner-Eshed taught the Zohar on Lech Lecha, saying to myself, THIS is what I’ve been searching for. Just This.
It wasn’t only the teaching itself that touched me so deeply. It was the grace-filled combination of gifted heart-based teachers, spiritual practices, fellow travelers on the same path, silence, poetry and music.
I knew I had arrived at a special “place.” And at a deep level, I also knew that I had found my particular vision and path as a rabbi. I wanted my work to be about blending Jewish wisdom with mindfulness and spirituality and to create an “place” of welcome and soul.
This is the intention that led me to create Hineni: The Mindful Heart Community and I am warmly inviting you to join us. (Very beautiful people have already signed on…)
And the cool thing is — you can be part of “this” from wherever you are.
All the details are here. We are beginning soon, so please join as soon as you can. Click here for all the info:
http://www.ravjill.com/2015/10/21/hineni-the-mindful-heart-community/
$36/month Subscribe here: https://goo.gl/5QU3wu
My deepest prayer is that you will find many “Yes” moments in this community. Please check it out and pass it on. I’d LOVE to have you be part of This Place (which is anywhere….)
Many blessings
Rabbi Jill
Rabbi Jill Berkson Zimmerman
rabbijillz@gmail.com
Every blade of grass has an angel bending over it saying, “Grow, grow.” Midrash Rabba, Bereshit 10:6.
*put on by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality
Hineni: The Mindful Heart Community goo.gl/8vx7s
The Jewish Mindfulness Network
http://www.ravjill.com/
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