Discovering Jewish Meditation: Instruction & Guidance for Learning an Ancient Spiritual Practice

Rating:
Summary: Nice Introduction to a Relaxing, Spiritual Experience
Review: Discovering Jewish Meditation: Instruction & Guidance For Learning An Ancient Spiritual Practice in a "reader friendly" manual on all aspects of meditation within a Judaic context. Author Nan Gefen teaches her readers how to meditate on their own, thereby placing them on the path to a deeper, establishing and maintaining a more intimate connection with the Divine, and garnering insight about their own lives. Ideal for the novice, Discovering Jewish Meditation also has much to recommend it to those already embarked upon a program of meditative practice as a key element of their Jewish tradition, practice, and spirituality.

Rating:
Summary: A Guide for the Perplexed Meditator
Review: Discovering Jewish Meditation: Instruction and Guidance for Learning an Ancient Spiritual Practice by Nan Fink Gefen Jewish Lights Publishing 175 pages

Reading this guide, one has the sense that Gefen stands alongside the novice meditator, encouraging, explaining, clarifying, reassuring. Discovering Jewish Meditation is an accessible, respectful and necessary companion for all those who long to take the first tentative steps into a spiritual meditative life.

Gefen's book on Jewish meditation is a primer and an invitation, the text both expansive and specific. Each section gently moves the beginning meditator through all the fears, obstacles, confusion and exhilaration that a new practice inevitably entails. It is written in a plainspoken manner, the author clearly identifying her own history of struggles with the judgement, discipline and discouragement. With each, she offers successful strategies that allow emergence into consistent on-going meditative practice.

Each section allows the reader to find her or his own concerns, anticipate those that may emerge and come to more deeply understand the foundations of a rich and complex tradition that is thousands of years old, yet for many end of the century Americans, brand new. The Resource Guide defines the landscape of this growing movement and allows the new practictioner to study further at their own pace.

By Sandra Butler, Author of: Conspiracy of Silence; The Trauma of Incest, New Glide Publications l978 Co-Author of: Cancer in Two Voices, Spinsters Ink, l991

Rating:
Summary: Nourish Your Spirit
Review: I was a meditation leader on a recent retreat. Most participants were new at Jewish Meditation and also meditation in general.This is a great book to use for this type of group ( and alone too!). Our "theme" was "Kabbalah" and these meditations worked very well with "Rabbis" lectures. We all came away feeling wonderful and ready to explore a whole new dimension of our Spirituality

Rating:
Summary: Nice Introduction to a Relaxing, Spiritual Experience
Review: It's a good book; an easy read. With a bit of background and set-up, Gefen quickly and easily gets the reader into the process. Yet even here - avoiding getting bogged-down in lots of dry, background material - there is a sense that the author had to work very hard to "puff" this to make a 170ish page book, when it would have been just as effective as a tightly-edited 20-page article. The lure and prestige of a book credit is obviously great. Nonetheless, I recommend it as an excellent way to learn and cope with our crazy, imperfect, in-need-of-repair world.

Rating:
Summary: Save your money
Review: The author does not seem to have a good grasp of Judaism. She seems to think of Jews as either being Orthodox and observant or simply non observant. She does not seem to understand that the beauty of the religion is in finding what will work for you. She must have discovered her religion late in life because she continually describes how she "discovered" the Shabbot or how she "discovered" Orthodox services. This book is written more for the Jew who has no knowledge of Judaism rather than for those Jews who do.

This book has kabbalistic themes running through it. It would have been more interesting to see how mainstream Judaism handles meditation. The author feels that by using Hebrew words Jews will feel more comfortable meditating. To some extent that may be true but I didn't need to buy the book to find Hebrew words to meditate on. Save your money!

Rating:
Summary: Save your money
Review: The author does not seem to have a good grasp of Judaism. She seems to think of Jews as either being Orthodox and observant or simply non observant. She does not seem to understand that the beauty of the religion is in finding what will work for you. She must have discovered her religion late in life because she continually describes how she "discovered" the Shabbot or how she "discovered" Orthodox services. This book is written more for the Jew who has no knowledge of Judaism rather than for those Jews who do.

This book has kabbalistic themes running through it. It would have been more interesting to see how mainstream Judaism handles meditation. The author feels that by using Hebrew words Jews will feel more comfortable meditating. To some extent that may be true but I didn't need to buy the book to find Hebrew words to meditate on. Save your money!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction to the meditation in a Jewish context
Review: This is a great summary of and introduction to the practice of meditation directed at the jewish reader!! It points out, in several places, the areas where the Jewish approach to meditation differs from other practices of meditation, which are particularly helpful to someone who is familiar to meditation, but not familiar with how to incorporate meditation into an observant Jewish lifestyle.

It is not an exhaustive study of the topic, but it doesn't purport to be such. Very helpful to beginning meditators.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction to the meditation in a Jewish context
Review: This is a great summary of and introduction to the practice of meditation directed at the jewish reader!! It points out, in several places, the areas where the Jewish approach to meditation differs from other practices of meditation, which are particularly helpful to someone who is familiar to meditation, but not familiar with how to incorporate meditation into an observant Jewish lifestyle.

It is not an exhaustive study of the topic, but it doesn't purport to be such. Very helpful to beginning meditators.