Exploring the Ancient Roots of Mindfulness in Judaism
By Sean Ference, MHWOW Host, Jerusalem
My wife Seri and I recently merited to host an amazing event for our local Jewish community here in Jerusalem. Several years ago, I attended an incredible seminar led by Rabbi Doniel Katz, an international speaker, spiritual educator, and an expert in Jewish Meditation. He specializes in sharing the beauty and depth of the hidden Jewish wisdom of Kabbalah and Chassidut.
In our generation, when people think of meditation, they associate it solely with Buddhist practice. They don’t realize that there is an incredibly ancient meditation practice in Judaism far predating the creation of Buddhism. Though the practice was mostly lost over the last hundred years, all of our prophets and great spiritual masters were known to have engaged in regular meditation.
Upon coming to Israel, I began to attend Rabbi Katz’s weekly meditation class and had the idea to bring him to my local community to lead a seminar. Since he has had such an incredible impact on my life and spiritual development, I wanted to share my amazing experience with my friends. With the help of Moishe House, we arranged for Rabbi Katz come to our neighborhood to teach us a seminar on improving one’s ability to focus on and elevate one’s prayer and overall connection to God.
The program was a great success! The Rabbi helped us to explore the Torah’s perspective on human psychology and consciousness. He taught us several foundational techniques for focusing and directing our thoughts and emotions so as to enable us to have a more meaningful prayer experience.
We learned how with a little preparation it is possible to connect deeply to your prayer and to a deeper side of yourself.
We also learned more about the Jewish path towards spiritual development and the elevation of one’s consciousness. Everyone left feeling like they had learned an incredible amount and had learned practical tools to improve their concentration and emotional connection to prayer.
Thank you Moishe House for making this event possible!
— Sean and Seri Ference, MHWOW Hosts, Jerusalem
Would you like to learn more about Jewish mindfulness and meditation? Join us on the Jewish Mindfulness retreat in May!
