"This is Judaism: following a religious practice to open our hearts and minds toward others and to God." — Rabbi Jonathan Slater

Our programs are based on three premises: that spiritual growth is a lifelong process which requires commitment, practice and guidance; that leaders best serve and inspire their communities when they cultivate and refine their own inner lives; and that Jewish leaders concerned with the life of the spirit need one another for companionship, study and growth. To that end we offer programs specifically geared to rabbis, cantors, educators, and laypeople. Participants live and learn together for four five-day retreats over eighteen months. Retreats combine text study, meditation, prayer, group discussion, spiritual exercises and one-on-one guidance with faculty members. During the period between retreats, participants continue to learn and grow through a guided program of weekly hevruta study, E-conversations with other participants, and optional monthly spiritual direction. Lay groups meet one day a month for study, prayer and meditation.

"Spirituality is a view of religion that sees its primary task as cultivating and nourishing the human soul or spirit. Each person, according to this view, has an inner life that he or she may choose to develop; this 'inwardness' goes deeper than the usual object of psychological investigation and cannot fairly be explained in Freudian or other psychological terms. Ultimately, it is 'transpersonal,' reaching beyond the individual and linking him/her to all other selves and to the single Spirit or Self of the universe we call God. God is experientially accessible through the cultivation of this inner life."
—Arthur Green, Restoring the Aleph: Judaism for the Contemporary Seeker