A Selichot Meditation Retreat with

Sheila Yoheved Katz

Each day of the moon's cycle in this month of Elul brings us closer to the Days of Awe when we stand in the light of God. What will we see? Will the encounter make a difference? The Sages teach that its significance depends on our preparation by engaging in Heshbon ha-Nefesh, a spiritual accounting. But how? The Kav Hayashar reports that in its time people observed silence throughout Elul. Rabbi Alan Lew (z"l) writes that each Torah portion this month whispers to us "Wake up! Wake

up!" He teaches that through meditation we learn to "inhabit ourselves in a deeper way" and open to the truth of our lives beyond justification or denial to see more clearly our "moral position and what is required of us next."

Please join us in community to prepare for Selichot and the New Year with an afternoon of mindfulness meditation, opening our hearts to new insight, compassion, and bonds with each other, supporting the individual and collective soul work of this sacred time.

Dr. Sheila Katz is a professor of

Middle East History and Contemplative

Studies at the Berklee College of

Music. Her books include, Women and

Gender in Early Jewish and Palestinian

Nationalism (2003) and A Century of

Palestinian-Israeli Joint Nonviolence

(forthcoming). Dr. Katz is a founding

teacher of Nishmat Hayyim Jewish

Meditation Collaborative in

Brookline. She co-leads monthly

meditations on Shabbat afternoon, an

annual weekend Shabbaton, and a 3-

week winter retreat at Am Kolel in

Maryland.