Integrating Jewish Mindfulness into the Classroom Presenter: Rabbi Sam Feinsmith
Presenter: Rabbi Sam Feinsmith This session provides participants with an overview of best practices, research, and concrete mindfulness-based techniques to promote prosocial classrooms, social and emotional skills, and support educators and youth touch their essential goodness and wisdom. Addressing fundamental questions about the intersection of secular mindfulness and Jewish practices such as tefillah, Torah study, Shabbat and hagim, and middot, this session includes mindfulness meditation, discussion, journaling, embodied exercises, and direct instruction on the whys and hows of integrating Jewish mindfulness practice into the classroom in a developmentally appropriate manner. It is accessible for educators of youth in grades K-12 who wish to deepen their understanding and practice of Jewish mindfulness in the service of supporting youth to live with wisdom and deeper Jewish engagement. This session is designed for educators working with grades K-12. Some prior experience with mindfulness practice required.
Mindfulness and Mussar, a Wonderful Shidduch Presenter: Rabbi Sam Feinsmith
Both mindfulness and mussar practice seek to support human liberation and contact with our essential goodness. And though there is much overlap between the two traditions, each one goes about getting us in touch with our true nature in very different ways. This session examines the ways in which, taken together, mindfulness and mussar can promote a well-balanced orientation to practice that is both loving and rigorous. Featuring learning through experience, this session includes brief periods of mindfulness meditation as well as mussar practice. This session is designed for anyone who has some experience and interest in either discipline.
Rabbi Sam Feinsmith has been immersed in the world of Jewish contemplative living, learning, and teaching for fifteen years. Serving as a consultant on a number of cutting-edge projects related to prayer, spirituality, and education, he has conducted Jewish meditation workshops and retreats for young children, teens, and Jewish educators and community leaders. After over a decade of teaching high school in NY and the Chicagoland area, Rabbi Feinsmith currently directs the Center for Jewish Mindfulness at Orot: Center for New Jewish Learning, as well as the Institute for Jewish Spirituality's national Educating for a Jewish Spiritual Life pilot for Jewish day schools and summer camps.
