Join Zac Newman, Community Director of Hamakom, for the next in his guided Jewish meditation series.
Rabbi Alan Lew says of the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur: “this is real and you are completely unprepared”. It is a time of reckoning with the unknown, and with ourselves, in all our complexity and humanity.
We might understandably feel overwhelmed and shaken by the magnitude of these days. Or we might close down the awe, majesty and wonder of the season, because it feels easier to stay within a smaller range.
Is there something in between these two extremes? Can we open to the significance of the new year, and the new possibilities it offers, with a steadiness and clarity that keeps us grounded and connected all the while?
Jewish meditation offers us tangible practices we can engage in order to find and inhabit this middle ground, even in very painful and challenging times. We will explore several of these in this session. Everyone is welcome. No previous experience - of meditation or Judaism or anything else - is assumed or required. We’d love to share this with you.
This event will include:
- Guided meditations
- Concrete practices to take away with you
- Q&A
- Opportunity to talk with others
Zac Newman
Zac Newman is the Community Director of HaMakom, the centre for Jewish meditation and wisdom teachings in the UK. He has been teaching meditation for over a decade, including in workplaces, retreats, conferences, schools and a wide variety of other venues. In addition to his teaching for HaMakom, Zac also teaches for Or HaLev and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. He is a long-time teacher of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction programme. Zac trained to teach through the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University. He has spent extensive time on retreat.