During this class we will study a letter written by a student of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, a Chassidic Rebbe of Piaseczno, Poland, who became a spiritual leader in the Warsaw Ghetto and left behind profound teachings on resilience and inner work amidst crisis. The letter describes a meditative technique known as the Hashkata (Quieting) Practice, one of the clearest recorded accounts of Jewish meditation. After exploring its meaning and significance, we’ll take time to experience the practice ourselves.

No prior experience needed!

Carrie Watkins is a fourth year rabbinical student at Hebrew College and an organizer and teacher for Or HaLev: Jewish Spirituality and Meditation. A systems thinker with a master’s in City Planning from MIT, Carrie is attentive to the ways Jewish communal practice 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 third year of the Gates of Awareness Jewish Meditation Teacher Training program.