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Showing posts from September, 2012

Parshat Vayelekh (and Shabbat Shuvah) - Returning to the Mountaintop

- September 21, 2012

This week's parashah /portion is Vayelekh ( Devarim / Deuteronomy 31:1-30). As Moses prepares to die, he continues his oration to the people. In this parashah , he informs them that God has revealed to him that, after his death, the people will go astray, break the covenant that God has made with them and worship alien gods. As consequence, many evils will befall them. But God reveals to Moses that they will realize the error of their ways and proclaim, " 'surely it is because God is not in our midst that this evil has befallen us.' Yet I (God) will keep my countenance hidden on that day, because of all the evil they have done in turning to other gods." (Deut. 31:17-18). Rabbi Isaac Meir Rothenburg Alter of Ger (1787-1866) commented on this passage, that if a person is aware that something is hidden from him, then the disaster is not so great, for he will follow his yearning, and break down every barrier that exists in order to discover what is hidden. Howe...

Parshat Ki Tavo: Neither an Oppressor nor a Wanderer Be

- September 07, 2012

This week's parashah /portion is Ki Tavo ( Devarim / Deuteronomy 26:1 -29:8). The opening lines describe the ritual that the people are meant to enact when they enter the Promised Land and bring their first fruits of their harvest as an offering of thanks to God. When the people bring the basket of first fruits to the priest we read: "And the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down in front of the altar of YHWH, your God. And you shall answer and say in front of YHWH, your God: My father was a wandering Aramean, so he went down to Egypt and resided there with few persons and became a large, powerful and numerous nation there. And the Egyptians oppressed us and degraded us and imposed hard work on us. And we cried out to YHWH ... And YHWH brought us out from Egypt ... to this place and gave us this land ... and now, here, I've brought the first of the fruit of the land that you've given me, YHWH." (26:4 - 10) . The phrase used to begin...

Bio

Rabbi Steve Nathan is a 1994 graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, PA. He has also trained in storytelling with Peninnah Schramm and in mindfulness meditation with Sylvia Boorstein, Rabbi Jeffrey Roth, and Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg.

Steve has served in numerous Jewish communal settings and feels blessed to be able to share his thoughts and his writings with you. He always welcomes comments or questions regarding his blog posts and is also happy to visit your community (see information below).

Currently Steve lives in Bethlehem, PA and serves as Director of Jewish Student Life and Associate Chaplain at Lehigh University. He also leads services and teaches adults learning on regular bases at Reconstructionist Congregation Am Haskalah in Bethlehem.

Bring me to Your Community as a Scholar or Artist in-Residence!

BRING ME TO YOUR COMMUNITY!
All programs can be tailored for your community. This information is followed by some "reviews" of my work.

Hear
With Your Heart
Listen
With Your Soul

A Mindful Approach to
Jewish Spirituality and Life

Experiencing the Heart
and Soul of Shabbat
Discover new meaningful ways to experience Shabbat and create spiritual community through …
• Mindfulness meditation
• Chants, songs, and niggunim
• Poetic and other original Torah commentary
• Contemplative prayer and Torah study
• Creating original Torah commentaries, poetry or midrash

Preparing Your Heart and Soul for the Holy Days
Use meditation, chanting, prayer, study and other practices to prepare your heart and soul for the High Holy Days, Sukkot, Passover, Shavuot or other holy days.

Mindful Torah and Mindful Midrash:
Finding Yourself in the Torah and the Torah in You
• Enter the Pardes (orchard) of Torah through relaxation, meditation, chanting and contemplative Torah study.
• Discover and explore personal and group connections with the Torah text and the personalities within it.
• Create original interpretations and midrash using prose, poetry, music, art, or any medium to express your personal connection to the narrative and the people in them.
• PERFECT for adults preparing to deliver a d’var torah, or who simply want to experience the Torah in a different way.
• A UNIQUE way for educators of all experience levels to engage and excite their students through learning Torah.

For more information on how to bring me to your community e-mail me at mindfultorah@gmail.com or call 215-514-3463.

A Little About Me

I was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (www.rrc.edu) in 1994. In addition to serving as a rabbi and educator in synagogues and school, as well as on college campuses, I have studied midrash and storytelling with renowned storyteller Peninnah Schram at the Institute for Contemporary Midrash. I have also studied Judaism and mindfulness practice with Sylvia Boorstein and Rabbis Jeffrey Roth and Sheila Peltz Weinberg through the Meditation Leadership Training program at Elat Chayyim Spiritual Retreat Center (www.elatchayyim.org).

Read what others have to say about me as a teacher, scholar, writer and artist ...

"Your scholar in-residence program here was wonderful! I have heard from the community how the variety of teaching, meditation, drumming, and sharing your original poetry moved people from different age groups, interest groups, and varying levels and styles of spiritual and religious connection. Thank you!"

- Rabbi Sarah Rubin, Congregation Ahavas Achim, Keene, NH

“Steven uses a Jewish sense of play-on-words in creating new worlds through words. He transforms ancient stories through connections I hadn't realized until now. He brings the stories alive with a midrashic wonder and infuses them with creative imagination and passion in a sacred storytelling voice.”
- Peninnah Schram, author of Jewish Stories One Generation Tells Another and Stories Within Stories: From the Jewish Oral Tradition

“Steven has a wonderful way of integrating mindfulness insights into his interpretation of Jewish texts. He enables us to delve deeply into them and the characters within them in order to discover something new within ourselves.”
- Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg, senior faculty, Institute for Jewish Spirituality

“Rabbi Nathan brought a deep sense of kavvanah and spirituality to our weekend together. He did this through Friday evening Kabbalat Shabbat drumming and chanting, heart-felt prayer explanations, early morning guided meditation program, his poetic interpretation of the Torah portion and his interactive Havdalah midrash program. Rabbi Nathan is the one to turn to if you want to experience Shabbat in a whole new way!”
- Rabbi Michael Beals, Congregation Beth Shalom, Wilmington, DE

“It is clear that Steven knows and cares about Jewish spirituality. His mindfulness about the material as a teacher is matched only by his thoughtfulness in helping us uncover our own feelings about its meaning in our lives.”
- Janet Ruth Falon, author of The Jewish Journaling Book (Jewish Lights Publishing)