Where do we stand

After four years in operation, we had ongoing meditation groups in five cities in Israel. We continued our intensive Jewish meditation training program in Tzfat into the second year. With the onset of the COVID-19 virus, in March, we chose to switch to teach online exclusively. This virus has jumpstarted us to have an advanced Meditation class as well as an introductory class. We have decided on a format with series of four classes, followed by a separate session of a conversation with one of our members as to how they utilize what they have learned in real life. Our request for membership has allowed us to jump to over 300 members. This motivated us also to increase the educational resources on our website, including YouTube videos of classes and basic meditation techniques. We also are promoting our members’ use of the forum on our website to develop our community. Last year at this time, we were again in Melbourne, Australia, and we renewed our connection with many people who were eager to learn about Jewish Meditation. We are hoping to maintain connection with online classes with the Blake Street Congregation, and have started a course on tefillah. Our weekly posts on the parashah of the week have over 200 subscribed, plus 279 members on Facebook. Our Tal Orot website continues to get over 2500 views per month.

Our Goals for our fifth year

Due to health and safety precautions, we have readjusted our goals for the year to keep an online presence, whether via Zoom classes or asynchronous materials. We pray that we are able to restart our in-person classes here in Israel, and God-willing, in other countries. But in the meantime, realistically, we hope to

• continue to expand our online classes,
• move to higher quality media,
• cultivate active membership and interaction with the members,
• create a higher tier membership with special classes and more personal interaction,
• continue to 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.

Long-term goals and dreams

• To develop interconnectivity between our members,
• 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 continue developing and expanding 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 the time when we can safely meet here at our home in person!

שנה טובה ומתוקה!

Shanah Tovah Umetukah! 

Meir and Anne Sendor