Wellsprings of Prayer: Finding Resources to Support your Own Spiritual Journey
Fall Semester: Exploring the Centuries of Traditional and Creative Pathways to God
Wednesdays, 12:30 to 2:00 pm
September 14 through November 16 (no class on October 5 or November 9)
Location:
Queens Campus for Sessions with Rabbi Judy
Zoom for Sessions with Guest Scholars (sessions 2, 5, 7)
Course Information:
One need not be left to face the hard moments of life without spiritual resources. This community course will explore ancient and creative words that offer strength in the face of life’s storms and expand one’s sense of gratitude in the midst of their daily routine. Participants will have the opportunity to enhance their educational experience by crafting their own personal prayer books. This course will be offered in person with a zoom link and recording for those who are traveling. Guest scholars will be incorporated into the program.
Our core text will be Making Prayer Real: Leading Jewish Spiritual Voices on Why Prayer is Difficult and What to Do about It by Mike Comins. The author will join us for a session in the fall and spring.
Session 1 - The World Of Jewish Prayer
September 14, 2022
Session 2 - Prayer as a Practice: The Why and How of Learning Prayer
September 21, 2022
Guest Presenter: Rabbi Mike Comins
Rabbi Mike Comins is author of Making Prayer Real: Leading Jewish Spiritual Voices on Why Prayer is Difficult and What to Do about it (Jewish Lights) and the Making Prayer Real Course hosted by the College Commons. He is also founder of the TorahTrek Center for Jewish Wilderness Spirituality and author of A Wild Faith: Jewish Ways into the Wilderness, Wilderness Ways into Judaism (Jewish Lights). A native of Los Angeles and a graduate of UCLA, Rabbi Comins made aliyah and lived in Israel for fifteen years. He studies classical Jewish texts at the Pardes Institute, earned his MA in Jewish Education from Hebrew University and was ordained in the Israeli rabbinical program of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
Session 3 - When I Awake: Gratitude, Morning Reflections on the Body, Mind and Soul
September 28, 2022
Session 4 - The Shema, Hearing God, and Our Unfolding Relationship (Creation, Revelation and Redemption)
October 12, 2022
Session 5 - Petitions What We Need & What the World Needs
October 19, 2022
Guest presenter tbd
Session 6 - The Evolving Meanings of Chosenness and Tikkun Olam
October 26, 2022
Session 7 - Kaddish and The Journey Through Grief
November 2, 2022
Guest presenter Rabbi Anne Brener
Rabbi Anne Brener, LCSW, is Professor of Ritual and Human Development at the Academy for Jewish Religion, California. She is a Psychotherapist and Author, specializing in grief and healing, who assists institutions in creating caring communities., and has contributed to many other publications. Her acclaimed book, Mourning & Mitzvah, is now being translated into Spanish and sections of the book have been translated into several African dialects for AIDS hospice workers on that continent. Rabbi Brener was a Bereavement Chaplain for Skirball Hospice and is a founding faculty member of Yedidya’s Morei Derekh- Jewish Spiritual Direction Program. She serves on the steering committees of the Kalsman Institute on Judaism and Medicine and the Southern California Jewish Burial Society.
Week VIII - The Sabbath - An Island In Time
November 16, 2022
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Registration is no longer available because the event has been cancelled.