Opening Towards Freedom:
Concrete practices, teachings and Seder activities to find liberation in the midst of this difficult time
With Rabbi Dr. James Jacobson-Maisels, Rabbi Genevieve Greinetz & Carrie Watkins
In partnership with Pardes North America
Monday, April 1, April 8 at 5:00-6:15pm PT / 8:00-9:15pm ET
Sunday, April 14 at 10:30-11:45am PT / 1:30-2:45pm ET / 6:30-7:45pm UK / 8:30-9:45pm Israel // on Zoom
*Sessions will be recorded for those who cannot make the live sessions
Come and explore Jewish texts and mindfulness practices for an embodied and heartfelt experience of Pesach liberation that you can take into your daily lives and offer to loved ones at your Seder
We are approaching Passover, our holiday of liberation. How do we prepare ourselves - not just physically by cleaning the house and cooking for our Seder - but spiritually?
In this series we will be exploring themes of softening, storytelling, grief and loss, and integration. Through a variety of teachings and practices, participants will embark on a journey of preparation for the Seder.
Each session will include:
Jewish wisdom to prepare us for the liberation of Passover.
Specific spiritual practices of liberation.
Concrete activities you can bring to your Passover Seder to make it more meaningful, connected and attuned to this time.
Session 1 / April 1, 2024: Opening Towards Resilience
With Carrie Watkins
While Biblical Hebrew didn’t have words for “trauma” or “resilience,” our tradition, and the Passover Seder in particular, contain deep and precise wisdom on the subject. In this session, we’ll explore the Passover story and seder through the scientific lenses of trauma and resilience and see what it can teach us about Passover, and what Passover can teach us about collective trauma and collective resilience. We’ll explore a poignant Hasidic teaching and engage in informal mindfulness and formal meditation practices to bring these concepts to your seder and to life.
Session 2 / April 8, 2024: Opening Towards Receiving
With Rabbi Geneveive Greinetz
Often in our mindfulness practices, we are instructed to “wake up,” and to actively engage with the present moment. Sometimes this can be helpful, but if we are not feeling wakeful or present, we may end up trying to force ourselves to have a different experience than the one we’re having. In their teaching on the Pesach Seder, the Sages of the Mishnah and Talmud teach that there are varying levels of wakefulness, and that there is wisdom in states of passivity, and even in sleep. In this session, we will explore a teaching from the Talmud, and inspired by its wisdom we will practice receiving our experience with softness. We will play with letting go of what we think mindfulness ought to look like and will instead practice receiving our states of mind as they are, with trust. Participants will create their own mindful kavanot (intentions) for their Seder this year.
Session 3 / April 14, 2024: Opening Towards Grief and Joy
With Rabbi Dr. James Jacobson-Maisels
Leaving Egypt for the Israelites was a time of both grief and joy, loss and relief. In this year filled with loss, how do we bring the fullness of ourselves to the Pesach Seder in a way which holds our grief and opens us to the power of liberation? In this session, we will explore a Hasidic teaching and visualization practice that touches on the pain of slavery and the delight of the Exodus and turn that into a concrete practice for our Seder that makes space for all the many emotions we are feeling.
Meet Your Teachers
Rabbi Dr. James Jacobson-Maisels
Rav James leads and directs the vision of Or HaLev. Ordained by Rav Daniel Landes, with a doctorate in Jewish Studies from the University of Chicago, he has been studying and teaching meditation and Jewish spirituality for over twenty five years. He was the founding Rosh Yeshiva of Romemu Yeshiva and has taught and innovated programs in Jewish thought, mysticism, spiritual practices and meditation at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, Haifa University, Yeshivat Hadar and in a variety of settings around the world. He strives to integrate his study with his practice, and to help teach and live Judaism as a spiritual discipline.
Rabbi Genevieve Greinetz
Genevieve Greinetz serves as Assistant Rabbi and Director of Education at Peninsula Temple Beth El in San Mateo, CA where, among other things, she gets to engage in Jewish mindfulness with people of all ages. She has an academic background in East Asian religion and a Master’s in Jewish Studies and very much enjoys studying text. She is a published poet and someone with many passions – mindfulness is a common thread through all that she does.
Carrie Watkins
Carrie Watkins is a practitioner, organizer, and teacher of Jewish Meditation. A third year Rabbinical Student at Hebrew College, Community Manager for Or HaLev: Jewish Spirituality and Meditation, and Rabbinic Intern for the Boston Synagogue, Carrie has been teaching meditation and mindfulness for startups, on silent retreats, for teenagers on backcountry trips, from her living room, and from other peoples’ living rooms, for the last 7 years. A systems thinker with a Master in City Planning from MIT, Carrie is attentive to the ways meditation and mindfulness can bring healing both our own internal systems and to the communal, societal, and ecological systems of which we’re a part. Carrie has a certificate in Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy and is in her second year of the Gates of Awareness: Jewish Meditation Teacher Training program.
Choose your rate
At Or HaLev, we believe in the spirit of generosity as an essential part of practice. We also acknowledge that financial abilities differ for everyone and we strive to make this class accessible to those who wish to participate, regardless of ability to pay.
Please consider paying at the highest rate that you are able to. Your generosity will help in supporting Or HaLev's activities and in growing our community.
Supporter
Enables a scholarship for those who cannot afford the course.
Standard
Covers the actual cost
of the course.
Scholarship
A subsidized rate
of the course.
If the scholarship rate is financially unfeasible for you, please write to naomi@orhalev.org and we will do our best to make the course accessible to you.