A Spiritual Life: Exploring the Heart and Jewish Tradition, Revised Edition

12. Readers’ and Writers’ Guide

12 h Readers’ and Writers’ Guide 298 A SPIRITUAL LIFE 299 READERS’ AND WRITERS’ GUIDE As I remark in the preface to this revised edition, I have observed that encountering the poetry and prose in this book has given readers across the country and around the world the opportunity to explore, articulate and better understand truths about their own lives and stories. I have relished the many opportunities I’ve had to personally use poems or prose selections from the book as a teaching resource—sometimes offered as a springboard for discussions in which participants felt free to share more deeply and soulfully than common social etiquette permits, sometimes offered as prompts to writing , inspiring individuals to journal about their own joys, challenges , tragedies and the small daily events in their lives that might otherwise go unnoticed. It is now with great delight that I share the benefits of those teaching encounters with you, the reader, putting in your hands the means by which you can similarly further enrich your own reading experience, unlocking the mysteries and surprises of your own spiritual journey. For some of you that will mean using the materials in the book as a framework or spark for discussion, for others it may mean journaling in conversation with the themes highlighted in this chapter. I hope that the seven sessions I have developed for this Guide, sessions which bear the fruit of so many cherished evenings, mornings, and afternoons spent with women and men in living rooms, in synagogues, in college classrooms, at retreat centers, will now offer you possibilities for opening and for new spiritual vitality. Using A Spiritual Life for group study: format and techniques Let me begin by saying that whether you are using this resource for your ongoing book group, as the curriculum for an adult ed course, for some special gathering of your synagogue community, for an interesting evening with friends and family, for an academic course you’re teaching, or in an informal learning environment, this guide is meant to be suggestive. My recommendation is that you select from among the sessions—and 300 A SPIRITUAL LIFE within each session, from among the questions—that which calls to you, that which seems applicable or relevant for your particular purposes. And by all means, feel free to adapt, improvise! If your group is small (eight or under) then it’s probably best to have your discussion altogether. But if the group is larger than that, and certainly if it is much larger than that, I have found that a greatly enriched experience is provided when for some of the session time participants study in pairs (when used for traditional Jewish text study this is called a chevrusa). Here’s how it works: the group begins all together, then breaks into pairs to explore and share the texts one-on-one, then all the pairs come back together for further plenary conversation. In this way, everyone gets lots of time to talk and express ideas, gregarious participants don’t wind up dominating while shy folks remain quiet and underinvolved, and people paired together generally experience one another in a much deepened way. You will find that there is an intimacy created through this format that can be profound since it’s only natural that we feel “safer” and are more willing to share one-onone than in a large plenary where personal remarks may perhaps feel too risky or inappropriate. Also consider as an alternative or an addition to chevrusa study, structuring your session so that participants can talk together in small groups of threes or fours for some part of the total time and then reconstitute as a whole group. Mixing and matching in this way offers an added layer for thoughtful creativity in preparing a satisfying conversation. These techniques of chevrusa study or small group conversations may be implemented for perhaps forty-five minutes to an hour out of a one-and-one-half-hour session. Begin with everyone all together and briefly introduce an overview of A Spiritual Life, the specific theme(s) under discussion, and provide some simple prep about process. Then break into subgroups or pairs, asking people to take turns reading the poems or prose pieces under discussion and then suggesting that they focus on the questions 301 READERS’ AND WRITERS’ GUIDE provided. For the next part of the program, gather all the pairs...