A Jewish Meditation Retreat for Women
with Rebecca Schisler, Batsheva Meiri, and Sheila Katz
In-Person at Wisdom House Retreat Center in CT
Tuesday, July 11 - Sunday, July 16, 2023
Sponsored by the Awakened Heart Project and The Institute for Jewish Spirituality
In a world of constant change, our practice provides a stable training ground for us to learn to navigate the full spectrum of life’s unpredictable terrain, with all of its joys and sorrows. What does it mean to be a blessing and bring blessing into the world, even in the face of suffering? Inspired by the sage wisdom of our foremothers and other female role models throughout history, we will learn to meet difficulties with a compassionate heart, while simultaneously welcoming in joy, awe, equanimity, and gratitude for the gift of being alive. With mindful awareness as our foundation, we will explore practices from the Jewish and Buddhist traditions.
Together we can cultivate peace, healing, and tikkun (repair), from the inside out.
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The retreat will include daily chant, prayer, meditation instruction, teaching, movement, Q&A, meetings with teachers, and a beautiful celebration of Shabbat. Within the nourishing and sacred container of retreat community, we will create a unique space for the emergence of women’s wisdom, depth of practice, empowerment and creative blossoming.
Past participants have said:
"Being together this way was a reimagining of how humans can be with each other. It will have reverberations way beyond our time together."
"I feel very awakened after this retreat and committed to my practice. I feel more connected to G-d as well."
Registration Information
Fees for the retreat cover room and board only. The teachings are offered freely. We will welcome donations to support the teachers. We hope you will support this model of charging only the actual costs to participants, as this allows us to offer these retreats regardless of ability to pay the full cost.
Financial support is available through The Awakened Heart Project.
Contact brian@awakenedheartproject.org with requests for aid.
For questions about registration or for additional information contact brian@awakenedheartproject.org
Room and Board Costs
Costs for room and board for the five nights are:
Single rooms with a private bath are no longer available
Single room with hall bathroom $795.00
Double Room
with hall bath $650.00
Quad Room (four women) $495.00
Note regarding meals served at Wisdom House
Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free options are available at each meal.
For more details on Wisdom House Food Service please visit their webpage at Dining from Wisdom Kitchen
To register, please click on the "Register Now" button above and make a partial payment. One half of the total is recommended amount to pay to reserve your spot in the retreat. The balance will be due later. Financial support is available through The Awakened Heart Project.
Faculty Biographies
Rebecca Schisler is a meditation teacher, artist, and Jewish educator. A devoted contemplative practitioner, she has sat intensive retreats in the US and abroad for over a decade, and has trained with Mindful Schools and the Engaged Mindfulness Institute. A core faculty member at IJS, Rebecca also teaches with Or HaLev, Awakened Heart Project, Wilderness Torah, and Stanford School of Medicine. She was previously the Director of Student Health & Well-being at Stanford University’s Hillel, and co-authored the Mahloket Matters Schools Curriculum with the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators. A student rabbi at ALEPH, Rebecca is passionate about integrating ancestral wisdom traditions with innovative approaches to personal and collective healing and liberation. She teaches Jewish spirituality as an embodied, holistic, and accessible path, with relevant and timely wisdom for all. Learn more at www.rebeccaschisler.com.
Sheila H. Katz, PhD, (aka “Yocheved”) loves finding teachings of meditation in Hebrew texts and traditions. She got hooked on exploring the roots of suffering and awakening consciousness from reading Buber’s I and Thou at age 14. As a Berklee Professor of Contemplative Studies, her courses explore non-dual strands of religious wisdom traditions in global history. Her work with Palestinians and Israelis (Connecting with the Enemy: a Century of Palestinian-Israeli Joint Nonviolence) illuminates how attending to suffering can open paths to compassionate action. She is a co-founding teacher of Nishmat Hayyim ("Breath of Life”) meditation community. Her doctorate is from Harvard University in Middle East History which she taught for 36 years. She co-leads the annual 3-week retreat of the Awakened Heart Project. Sheilahannahkatz.com
Rabbi Batsheva H. Meiri, is a 24-year veteran congregational rabbi in Asheville, NC. For the last decade, her primary focus has been the mindfulness training she has pursued in various Jewish, Buddhist and secular settings and discovering the ways those practices can inform and shape the life of the synagogue community she leads. Her practice and teaching draws from the training she has received at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, Awakened Heart Project, Or Halev, Spirit Rock, True Nature Education and Asheville Mindful Living. In the last 4 years, she has co-taught numerous retreats in both Asheville and around the United States alongside her teachers and colleagues..