Fellowship allows rabbis to focus inward, then out

For all the counseling, teaching and assistance rabbis provide to others, it’s rare that they have a similar network for their own needs.

“Rabbis lead pretty lonely lives,” said Rabbi George Gittleman of Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa. “Ironically, we’re around a lot of people, but because of the role we play, our own personal needs and struggles are often left to ourselves.”

To give rabbis a safe space to explore their own spiritual and personal needs, the Institute for Jewish Spirituality created a fellowship for rabbis, cantors and Jewish educators.

The program consists of five four-day retreats, in Los Angeles and West Cornwall, Conn., over the course of 18 months; the first one was held this week.

This year, six of the 36 rabbis accepted into the select program hail from the greater Bay Area: Gittleman, David Booth of Congregation Kol Emeth in Palo Alto, Rosalind Glazer of Congregation Beth Israel–Judea in San Francisco, Marv Goodman of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, Stacy Friedman of Congregation Rodef Sholom in San Rafael and SaraLeya Schley of Chochmat HaLev in Berkeley.

The fellowship was created 10 years ago as a resource for rabbis to enrich their own personal practice.

“Rabbis can’t give what they don’t have,” said Rabbi Nancy Flam, founding director of the IJS Rabbinic Leadership Institute. “Jewish leaders need to do their own spiritual development not only for their inner lives, but to be excellent guides and teachers for their congregants.”

In most seminaries, the professional and practical training is “pretty slim,” Flam added. Rabbinical school mainly focuses on text study, Jewish history, language and literature, and not on developing the rabbis’ own spiritual life. This means when they get to their pulpit they’re not always prepared to focus inwardly.

“We see rabbis who will be exhausted from their work, and are also dry or stale because they’re not revisiting their own wells of spiritual nurturance,” Flam said.

At the rabbinic retreats, each morning begins with silent meditation, followed by breakfast, “which was usually in silence as well,” said Rabbi Dorothy Richman of Berkeley Hillel, who completed the fellowship in 2003. In all, 15 rabbis and cantors from the greater Bay Area previously have participated in the program.

Breakfast is followed by more meditation, then yoga, text study, lunch, more yoga, more learning, dinner, more learning and more meditation.

“The whole point is to spend time with yourself and quiet down all of the voices that speak to you throughout the day in your own mind, and actually listen to what they’re saying,” Richman said.

This year’s participating rabbis said they are looking forward to carving out time for their own personal study, prayer and meditation. They’re also eager to be part of a collegial and supportive network of rabbis, which Flam said is one of the key components of the fellowship.

Connecting with a variety of rabbis will “give me a bigger sense of the Jewish world,” Gittleman said.

Richman said she still feels the effects of the fellowship in her work with Berkeley students. For instance, after the fellowship, she began planning spirituality retreats at U.C. Berkeley. She led students through meditation and learning to help them listen to themselves.

But the fellowship also “gave me permission and skills to explore whole new ways of relating to my Judaism,” she said. “It was a very profound, moving experience for me as a person and ultimately as a rabbi.”