ALEPH Ordination Program in Jewish Spiritual Direction Training

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photo © Marcia Prager 2007  

Encounters with the divine occur often in my life now... I am convinced, through my own journey in the HASHPA'AH Program, that the more spiritual intimacy we can bring into ourselves and into the world, the better. Hashpa'ah is one reason to keep hope. It's the best learning I've done since I was ordained.

Rabbi Malka Drucker, New Mexico

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ALEPH Ordination Program in Spiritual Direction/Guidance

          Participants  photo © Marcia Prager 2007 

Hashpa’ah is the traditional term for the relationship with a spiritual director or mashpia who offers guidance and teaching on matters of Jewish faith and practice, and on a personal relationship with the Divine. The ALEPH HASHPA’AH path was designed with the guidance and blessing of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, founder of Jewish Renewal.

In January 2011, the ALEPH Ordination Programs will begin its third cohort, unique in Jewish history, leading to Certification as Spiritual Director and Ordination (Smicha) as Mashpia Ruchani. This program, called HASHPA’AH, offers a three-year concentration in Jewish Spiritual Counseling and Guidance which warmly welcomes graduates and students of all Jewish seminaries approved by OHALAH: Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal. [Learn more about OHALAH at www.OHALAH.org. Membership in OHALAH brings you into a circle of spirit-filled creativity and does not conflict with membership in any denominational rabbinic or cantorial association.]

Registration will be open in three stages:

in December, 2009 to ALEPH students;

in February, 2010 to OHALAH members; and

in March to clergy ordained by and students enrolled in qualified seminaries, as above.

Anyone interested may put his/her name on our waiting list at any time, and will be given preference in order of signing up. ALEPH ordination students may take and earn credits for HASHPA’AH as part of their Rabbinic, Cantorial or Rabbinic Pastor Program.

The requirements of the training program include four Intensives, three semesters of teleconference coursework, four semesters of supervised practice with individuals and groups, and supplemental learning in related areas. Participants train individually and in group settings with mashpi'im who support their spiritual growth in relationship to G*d and sacred service, and model for them diverse modalities of spiritual counseling and spiritual direction.

HASHPA’AH is multi-disciplinary, integrating diverse spiritual guidance approaches and skills, while emphasizing the legacy of hashpa’ah that can be found in the literature and praxis of Hasidism and the Jewish mystical tradition.

The curriculum integrates the sacred arts of spiritual and pastoral counseling; personal, intercessory and communal prayer and ritual; the art of the maggid (story teller); spiritual approaches to Torah and mitzvot; personal and communal ethical development/mussar; exposure to contemporary issues of bio-ethics, and other areas of learning.

HASHPA’AH III will hold its first learning intensive January 4-7, 2011, immediately preceding the Annual OHALAH conference. Faculty members will present and demonstrate various models of spiritual guidance as they engage the participants in prayer, meditation, and probing dialogues, intended to explore new possibilities of receiving guidance in the presence of the Divine.

Those interested in entering this next training group should contact oneneshama@puaa.net, or phone Rabbi Nadya Gross at 303 434-5583. It is important to be working with a Mashpia for at least six months prior to entering the training. Additional related requirements can be fulfilled before formally entering the program.

Participants

photo © Marcia Prager 2007