The Varieties of Jewish Spiritual Practice to be Explored at Community Shavuot Observance

Please plan to join us in what promises to be a remarkable evening of prayer, song, study, chanting, contemplation, camaraderie and Torah (and cheesecake, of course) as we explore the many paths to Jewish spirituality.

Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg, a founder of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS), poet, educator, nationally recognized pioneer in contemplative practice and author of prayers, poems and commentary for the Reconstructionist prayerbook, (and Student Intern Ezra Weinberg’s Mom!) will lead this year’s Tikkun Leyl Shavuot for Montclair-area synagogues. The night of study inaugurates the Festival of Shavuot.

Bnai Keshet is hosting clergy and congregants from Beth Ahm, Ner Tamid, Shomrei Emunah and Temple Sholom on Sunday night, June 8, beginning at 8:00 p.m. Following a centuries-old kabbalistic tradition, the evening continues until dawn. (Don’t worry – you can check in and out.)

Part I, from 8:00 to 12:30 a.m., features Rabbi Peltz Weinberg’s teachings on contemplative practice and the powerful effects it can have on our minds, consciousness and character. Rabbis, cantors and others in the community will lead singing, prayer, text study and spiritual disciplines, including yoga and drumming. Refreshments and urns of tea and coffee will be available throughout the evening. This first segment will culminate at midnight in the reading of the Ten Commandments from our new Bnai Keshet Torah as we commemorate the giving of the Torah at Sinai.

Part II begins at 12:45 a.m. and continues with study sessions and prayers, punctuated by brief stretches of chanting and yoga. Those who make it through the night will celebrate a Community Shachrit at 5:30 a.m. and enjoy a bagel breakfast around 7:00.

Rabbi Peltz Weinberg is Outreach Director of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (www.ijs-online.org). IJS seeks to create intensive learning experiences for Jewish professionals and lay people committed to deepening their own Jewish spiritual lives and making the connection between the “inner” work of spiritual growth and the “outer” work of creating more justice and compassion in the world.

As Rabbi Peltz Weinberg has written, contemplative practice can have a powerful impact, making a difference in “how we live our lives, how we relate to ourselves and others, how free we become to embody the values and ideals we embrace in our minds, how we deal with temptations of all sorts.”

This will be a unique evening of learning, prayer, spirit and camaraderie happening right in our own synagogue. Come for an hour or two or the whole experience.