Lev Shomea
Lev Shomea is a unique training program offering an opportunity for professional growth and personal transformation. As members of an evolving spiritual community participants engage in textual study, prayer, various forms of spiritual practice and experiential learning to:
Explore and practice the emerging art of
Jewish Spiritual Direction
Areas of study will include the “Practices of ‘Holy Listening’” and Discernment, Contemplative Psychology, Boundaries and Ethics and Phases of the Spiritual Journey. In addition, students will learn to offer spiritual direction in individual and group settings through skill development using small group formats, participation in real play demonstrations and supervision.
Cultivate contemplative mind and presence
“Oh my soul, be truly silent for God, from where my redemption comes”
—Psalm 62
Spiritual direction is a contemplative practice, involving silent attention to God, reflection and response.
Engage Classical Jewish sources on Spiritual Formation
For centuries our prophets, sages and mystics have emphasized continuing awareness of God and moral development as Jewish paths to holy living. We will learn from Rabbinic wisdom to Hasidic teaching those hanhagot yesharot, transformative mussar practices, that can help cultivate a mature spirituality.
Explore the redemptive dimension of Spiritual Direction
Participants will explore how a deepening awareness of the holy and the inter-connectedness of life calls us and sustains our efforts towards tikkun olam, the repair and healing of the world.
A Jewish Spiritual Director recognizes the spiritual hunger of contemporary Jews. Throughout Jewish history, mentors such as the mashpia, chaver or mashgiach provided spiritual guidance for their settings and eras. Drawing on our heritage to create a contemporary model of spiritual companionship, a Jewish Spiritual Director helps people to connect experiences of the holy to Jewish vocabulary and tradition, explore Jewish pathways that sustain the inner life — panimiyut — and inspire participation in kehillah, spiritual community.
Serving as a Mashpia to another brings about wholeness unlike anything one might attain alone….
—Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague, Netivot Olam
Learn to offer Spiritual Direction in
Individual and Group Settings
Skill development will be nurtured through the use of small group formats, participation in real play demonstrations and supervision by faculty with unique experience in establishing both one-on one spiritual direction practices and spiritual direction groups at synagogues and other Jewish Institutions.