Where do we stand

After two years in operation, we presently have ongoing meditation groups in five cities in Israel. We also presented a five-day program of spiritual skill-building followed by a two-day meditation seminar in Tzfat in the spring, which was well-attended and well-received. Our website offers asynchronous educational resources. We held online classes in Newton and Sharon, Massachusetts, as well as a series in Minnesota. Our weekly posts on the parashah of the week have 200 subscribed, with another 108 members, plus over 200 members on Facebook. Our Tal Orot website gets over 2500 views per month.

Our Goals for our third year

• to continue to expand our network of Jewish meditation groups in Israel,
• cultivate active groups in other countries,
• develop our website into a full-featured vehicle that can help knit together our members around the world, synchronously and asynchronously, providing them with a flexible and inspiring interactive and inter-relational experience.
• and develop programs for spiritual tourism in Israel.

The ongoing groups take place in Tzfat (both in English and Hebrew, for women, men, and mixed groups), Jerusalem, Zikhron Yaakov, Pardes Hanna (in Hebrew, for women) and Efrat. The men’s group in Tzfat meets weekly; the women bi-weekly, and the other groups once a month. We plan also to start another monthly group for women in Bat Ayin.

We are also looking to hold learning sessions in other cities as special events. This includes holding Shabbatonim or other such longer-term seminars, both in the Tzfat area as well as other parts of the country or world. We are finalizing plans to lead another 5-day adult-tour entitled Self-Renovation in conjunction with Livnot U’Lehibanot from May 28-June 2 here in Tzfat, with a two-day follow-up of intensive meditation on June .

We also are working with some significant teachers in Israel to develop new programming combining meditation and prayer, which we hope to start after the holidays here in Tzfat and in other locations.

We will be in Melbourne, Australia for this Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur, where we will work with our son, Rabbi Noam Sendor, from the Blake Street Hebrew Congregation, teaching meditation and working to start an ongoing meditation group there.

We plan on continuing our three groups meeting online for classes in Jewish meditation. We are also now working on a general online class, so we can connect to people beyond specific locations.

Long-term goals and dreams

• To develop interconnectivity between our meditation groups,
• To develop a Beit Midrash in Tzfat for regular study of Kabbalah in connection with regular in-depth practice of meditation
• To develop a detailed curriculum for Jewish meditation that can be shared with educational institutions in Israel and around the world.
• To develop a program for training teachers of Jewish meditation.
• Set up a conference on Jewish meditation, and
• Develop an app for Jewish meditation

On a Personal Note

We have been grateful to have connected with many of you during the past year here in Tzfat. We love sharing our experience of our adopted home town. We appreciate the way technology can keep us connected, but being together in person is wonderful. We look forward to having as many of you visit as possible — let us know when!

שנה טובה ומתוקה!

Shanah Tovah Umetukah! 

Meir and Anne Sendor