Nan Fink Gefen’s spiritual odyssey took her from nothingness to emptiness, with a few pit stops along the way.
And, although she entered into a profound search for her spiritual home after her kids departed, she never noshed at the spiritual buffet bar.
“I never really investigated other religions,” said Gefen, whose road to harmony is detailed in her latest book, titled “Discovering Jewish Meditation.”
“To me it was clear that Judaism was the only spiritual route I wanted to investigate.”
Gefen, the co-director of Chochmat HaLev, a Jewish meditation center in Berkeley, converted to Judaism in the early ’80s. Her conversion, the subject of “Stranger in the Midst: A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery,” capped off a couple of decades of spiritual growth and burgeoning interest in Jewish texts and philosophies.
“I really converted from ‘nothing'” said the Berkeley writer and teacher last week. “That is to say, that growing up, I really didn’t have any religious inclinations — although I considered myself an atheist for a while.”
But Gefen’s atheist inclinations began to wear down in the ’70s, when she was working as a therapist. After her two children left for college, Gefen felt free to explore spiritual avenues.
“In my 20s and 30s, I was pretty down on organized religion,” she recalled. “But at the same time, I was very close to the [Bay Area] secular Jewish community — all of whom had a strong commitment to making the world a better place.”
It was the Jewish concepts of social justice and tikkun olam (healing the world) that led her to Judaism and Jewish meditation.
In fact, around the time of her conversion, she married Michael Lerner and they co-founded Tikkun magazine, a forum that enabled her to incorporate her long-standing concern for social justice with her newfound interest in spirituality.
“Spirituality was always seen as something of an aberration in the secular circles I ran in,” she said. “I was a little afraid to express my spirituality, and it was a little lonely at first. But I gradually opened up to the possibility of the holy in everyday life.”
Gefen, who joined Chochmat HaLev in 1995, is now married to Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man, a well-known Los Angeles spiritual leader and meditation scholar. She is familiar with those who dismiss meditators as Jane- and Johnny-come-latelies to Judaism.
“People can be quick to marginalize meditation as being New-Agey, and I think that some funding organizations are slow to understand the importance of Jewish meditation,” she said.
“And there are some people who are hopping on and off the Jewish meditation bandwagon. Not everybody’s a meditator — but then again, not everyone goes to synagogue or prays regularly. That doesn’t negate meditation as an important facet of Judaism.”
In fact, according to Gefen’s book, meditative practices can be seen as far back as biblical times, reaching their zenith among Chassidic rabbis in 18th- and 19th-century Europe.
The book, called a “how-to-meditate” guide, is geared toward the layperson. It includes sections on variables such as breath, preparation and physical positioning. Her technique involves the repetition of Hebrew letters or words to achieve a state of profound relaxation. At Chochmat HaLev, she and other instructors teach those techniques to hundreds of students.
The book also gives a brief historical overview of the subject, also examining other religious perspectives on meditation.
“A lot of people finding their way back to Judaism were really turned off by it,” she said. “Whether it was the patriarchal elements of Judaism, or the fact that so many people had it forced on them by their parents, there’s a definite renewal of interest in Judaism.
“And hopefully the book will continue that trend. I hope it’s a vehicle for re-introducing people to Judaism.”