Where do we stand

After three years in operation, we presently have ongoing meditation groups in five cities in Israel. Last year at this time, we were in Melbourne, Australia, and found many people who were eager to learn with us and become members. We started an intensive training program for meditation instructors this past spring, located in Tzfat, which will continue over two years. We also presented a three-day program of meditation and philosophy in Maine this summer, which was well-attended and well-received. Our website continues to offer asynchronous educational resources. We once again held online classes in Newton and Sharon, Massachusetts. Our weekly posts on the parashah of the week have over 200 subscribed, with another 108 members, plus over 240 members on Facebook. Our Tal Orot website continues to get over 2500 views per month.

Our Goals for our fourth year

• to continue to expand our network of Jewish meditation groups in Israel,
• cultivate active groups in other countries,
• start an online meditation training class to serve people worldwide,
• 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 meditation training class meets weekly, and the other groups once a month.

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 developing a meditation retreat program this spring in Tzfat.

We hope to start our new programming combining meditation and prayer after the holidays here in Tzfat and in other locations.

We are once again 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 expanding the meditation group we started there last year.

We are also now finalizing plans for a general meditation training online class, so we can connect to people beyond specific locations, which we also hope to start after the holidays this fall.

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 and prayer
• 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.
• To set up a conference on Jewish meditation, and
• To develop an app for Jewish meditation

On a Personal Note

Meeting people of kindred spirits all over the world has been so inspiring and gratifying. We certainly appreciate our connection to so many of you over the last year, especially in Tzfat. 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