Meditation Video Series
Judaism is a fourfold path. There are physical practices that rectify the body, prayer that cleanses the heart, meditation that stills the mind, and Torah study that awakens the deepest layer of soul.
Meditation #1 -- A Meditation from the Code of Jewish Law
The first level of meditation instruction appears on the opening page of the Code of Jewish Law (Shulchan Arukh). It is an obligation that takes hold at the moment of awakening.
Meditation #2 -- The Benefits and Obstacles of Meditation
This second video on Jewish Meditation gives useful tips and incentives. Hopefully you have been experimenting with the meditation from the Code of Jewish Law presented in Lesson 1. Before moving to more advanced techniques it is good to have some practice under your belt. The next lesson will suggest ways to deepen the experience.
Meditation #3 -- Labeling as a Meditation Tool
“The Cosmic Roots of Paradox” explains why a deepening relationship with the Holy One requires us to grapple with ever more challenging dilemmas. Know, says kabbala, that each new paradox is a portal to higher consciousness.
Meditation #4 -- Speaking Truth to Lie
This FOURTH video teaching on Jewish meditation, explains how meditation expands our field of awareness to include (at least parts of) our unconscious self. And it provides an opportunity to clean out the self-destructive thoughts that pervade this layer of psyche. The practice is simple; it is called SPEAKING TRUTH TO LIE.
Meditation #5 -- Kabbalistic Underpinnings of Speaking Truth to Lie
This FIFTH video teaching on Jewish meditation explains how meditation, and in particular the practice called Speaking Truth to Lie, is a powerful agent of Tikun Olam (mending the world). This illustrated video teaching describes the kabbalistic underpinnings of this discipline.
Meditation #6 -- Meditation and Shabbat
Our break from work on Shabbat creates an atmosphere of rest that permeates both body and soul. But if we also meditate we harness the principle of resonance to bring the peace of Shabbos into the deepest reaches of our soul. In meditation, we touch the inwardness of Shabbat, and Shabbat touches the inwardness of us.
Meditation #7 -- Textual Study as Meditation
Textual Study as Meditation alternates study with meditation in a way that dissolves their boundaries and eventually fuses them. It is the best of all worlds.
Meditation #8 -- Prayer as Meditation
Prayer is called “service of the heart” because it’s challenge (and calling) is to commune with Divinity heart to heart. That happens naturally in spontaneous prayer but with liturgy it takes work (and meditation). This lesson presents a meditative prayer technique called, “pausing after ever few words.”
Meditation #9 -- The Obstacle of Strange Fire (part 1 of 2)
One of the most difficult and subtle challenges of a spiritual path is the matter of “strange fire” which we’ll define as: “taking pleasure from something that violates one’s own moral code.” It makes sense to avoid temptation whenever possible, but that’s a strategy that needs to be augmented with an equal (perhaps even greater) measure of inner work, i.e., meditation.
Meditation #10 -- The Obstacle of Strange Fire (part 2 of 2)
A spiritual path asks its adherents to walk their talk. Yet that is easier said than done. Most of us are challenged by the obstacle of Strange Fire. Meditation, and in particular the practice called “Withdrawal of the Senses,” is a helpful (if not essential) tool for addressing this challenge.