The spiritual tools you can use to infuse Jewish life cycle
ceremonies with meaning, integrity and joy.

Discover the spiritual meaning in Judaism s major life cycle moments. Understand, create and enter wholeheartedly into Jewish life cycle ceremonies, preparatory practice, and celebrations.

More than just how-to, Rabbi Goldie Milgram guides you in making your Jewish rites come alive with meaning, beauty and with lasting impact on you, your friends and family. She takes you beyond rote rites beyond just surviving and directly into accessing Jewish rites of passage as a force for thriving. With careful attention to both traditional and emerging practices across the full spectrum of Jewish life, Rabbi Milgram examines: Jewish Weddings, Traditional and Inclusive Rites Welcoming a New Baby and Raising a Healthy Jewish Child Meaningful, Memorable Adolescent and Adult Bar/Bat Mitzvah Ritual Support for Many Stages of Adulthood Jewish Rituals for When Relationships End Jewish Approaches to Dying, Death, Burial, Mourning and Remembering

Wake up your Jewish spiritual life and restore your soul.

Has your heart ever been broken by loss, divorce, disappointment, awe, fear, hope? Have you multitasked, worked past the level of your endurance, accumulated possessions, jumped the hurdles, and gotten the grades only to wonder, Is that all there is? Do you wish for a life that is physically grounded, emotionally satisfying, intellectually expansive, and profoundly connected? These are the qualities Judaism can provide when you understand how to practice it. from the Introduction

This inspiring guidebook is your wake-up call for understanding the powerful intellectual and emotional tools that are essential for a lively, relevant, and fulfilling Jewish spiritual practice.

Designed to become a lifelong resource for holy days and Shabbat, it presents Judaism as an evolving tradition in which you are the entrusted heir. The exercises and practices draw from the foundations of Judaism and empower you to create meaningful, satisfying, contemporary Jewish experiences for how you live today.

Delve deeper into spiritual practice to find the power and meaning waiting there for you.

Spiritual practice reveals that the Garden of Eden is right where you are standing and helps you to be here, now. Therefore, Jewish spiritual practices cultivate joy, hope, resilience and understanding so that you can undertake your soul s work in this lifetime with vision, passion and integrity. from the Introduction

This innovative guidebook makes accessible Judaism s spiritual pathways, principles and applications, and empowers you to test their value within your own life. Each chapter provides step-by-step, recipe-like guides to a particular Jewish practice or group of practices, gives examples of how they might unfold inside your life, and shows how each can help refuel your spirit throughout the day.

You ll discover: Prayer practices for embracing the body and creation with awe, limbering up your mind, and preparing for compassionate action How to draw sustenance from the Great Mystery, the inexplicable and unknowable Source of Life How to mine the Torah s stories, commentaries, symbols and metaphors for meaning Ways to develop your Hebrew vocabulary so you can formulate your own interpretations of sacred text How to explore and practice mitzvot as meaningful, compelling parts of your spiritual life How to view the Jewish people as a precious human resource and as a model for resilience and much, much more.

This second edition of Seeking and Soaring: Jewish Approaches to Spiritual Guidance and Development provides the opportunity to meet and learn from thirty-one spiritual guides, teachers and scholars from across the spectrum of Jewish practice. The field of Jewish spiritual guidance, (also called Jewish Spiritual Direction), is expanded through the addition of essays that illustrate sessions in progress and exploration of topics such as the power of incorporating ritual, authentic movement, Focusing, and experiences in nature.

Articles contributed by leading spiritual directors, scholars, and clergy: Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Estelle Frankel, Barry Bub, Diane Elliot, Howard Cohen, Jill Hammer, David Daniel Klipper, Goldie Milgram, Shefa Gold, Carola de Vries Robles, Marcia Prager, Joyce Reinitz, Carol Rose, Melinda Ribner, Hanna Tiferet Siegel, Shulamit Fagan, Nadya Gross, Anne Brener, Chaya Gusfield, Shohama Harris Wiener, Ellen Kaufman Dosick, Ruth Gan Kagan, Howard Avruhm Addison, Elliot GInsburg, Rami Shapiro, Burt Jacobson, Mitchell Chefitz, Sandra Sarah Cohen, David Zaslow, Shawn Israel Zevit, Raachel Nathan Jurovics, Wayne Dosick.

Praise for Seeking and Soaring The rich and varied essays in this second edition address the needs and yearning of contemporary Jews. You will find much to nourish your soul and enrich your practice as you companion people at moments of suffering and joy. -Barbara E. Breitman, co-editor Jewish Spiritual Direction: An Innovative Guide from Traditional and Contemporary Sources

"Glows with Spirit. A must read for all who seek or teach about a meaningful life. The occasional Hebrew words are carefully explained. The profession of spiritual direction is enriched with the publication of Seeking and Soaring." -Dale T. Irvin, President, New York Theological Seminary

Provides the tools and understanding necessary to create a conscious Bar/Bat Mitzvah experience infused with spirituality and meaning. The original purpose of this important rite of passage is carefully reclaimed: Ensuring a healthy Jewish lens for living is conveyed to each student; a lens that supports love of life and respect for life. The building blocks of a mitzvah-centered life are taught through the methods of experiential and Jewish spiritual education. Step-by-step guides and riveting true stories help all involved to feel personally touched by Torah; through weaving student and family feelings, needs, interests, skills and talents into the preparation process, ritual and celebration. This innovative approach reduces stress and cultivates loving connections to family, friends, community and heritage. B'nai Mitzvah becomes a far more meaningful and memorable chapter of life as award-winning master teacher Rabbi Dr. Goldie Milgram inclusively leads every kind of family through this engaging, carefully researched and proven effective planning and preparation process.
Praise for Reclaiming Bar/Bat Mitzvah as a Spiritual Rite of Passage
This is a most valuable book to learn about Judaism for a Bar/Bat Mitzvah of any age --Peninnah Schram, author, Jewish Stories One Generation Tells Another
Solid, wise and inviting. --Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, author, Parenting as a Spiritual Journey
This book freed our family from the bar mitzvah machine that our Temple has turned into and helped us come up with a bar mitzvah that is relevant...It is full of wonderful ideas. --M. Shellster, Parent
Helps us to bring heart and soul to our involvement in Jewish life. Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi: Davenning: A Guide to Meaningful Jewish Prayer
Helps bar and bat mitzvah students enhance their autonomy, thinking, creative engagement, Jewish identity and authentic self esteem. --Ellen Weaver, psychotherapist, pastoral counselor, Bar/Bat Mitzvah Educator
I cherish this as a parent, educator, and impassioned adult bat mitzvah student. An invaluable tool to help transform this learning process into a joyous adventure. --Julia Indichova, author, Inconceivable and director, Fertile Heart Parenting Center
Restores relevance and spirituality to the process of becoming Bar/Bat Mitzvah. --Rabbi David A. Cooper, author, God is a Verb