Group Spiritual Direction  

Spiritual Direction Overview

In general, the process of spiritual direction involves sitting with a spiritual director and together exploring the spiritual meaning in our daily lives. Sitting with at least one other person, it is time set aside to contemplate the wholeness of the world and our part in it. One can explore the indescribable, the ineffable, the mystery, the sense of longing or wonder that one feels at times of birth and death, the grief that seems to have no end, and the joy that springs from nowhere.

So many of us spend so little time with these feelings. They are often uncomfortable, and sometimes scary, because we don't know where they come from and we sense an energy beyond our control. But the feelings can also be comforting and settling as we welcome the unknown and the mysterious into our conscious lives.

Jewish Group Spiritual Direction

Group spiritual direction is a group of people sitting together to discern the movement within themselves that is longing for closer contact with Spirit.  Each meeting is an opportunity to listen for the still small voice that emerges from our own depths.  It has elements in common with support groups, though unlike support groups, there is no worldly purpose to pursue. We pursue only our path to the Divine, by centering and quieting ourselves, by listening, by sharing.

The group becomes a community engaged in holy listening by using contemplative and creative practices, Jewish texts, niggunim, short periods of silence, and sharing.  Jewish group spiritual direction has elements in common with Jewish prayer.  However, unlike liturgical prayer, in spiritual direction we share our experience with each other. As a community, the sharing of our experiences and the offering of intercessory prayer (silent or aloud) establishes a sense of connection with one another and with the Divine as we begin each meeting.

Please note that it is important to understand that the spiritual direction groups are CONFIDENTIAL.  It is important to understand that a spiritual direction group is not a therapy group, nor is it a support group.  Issues that individuals bring up in the group will be dealt with from a spiritual point of view only.  However, there may be therapeutic benefits, as well as group support, for individual members within the spiritual direction groups.

Kehilla’s Chevra L’Ruach

Chevrah L'Ruach, Friends of the Spirit, is Kehilla's group spiritual direction program. Each year groups are offered, by our four Kehilla  spiritual directors, that explore different ways of reaching for the ineffable, of opening ourselves to the spirit that surrounds us all, of paying attention to G-d in our busy lives.  Each group is crafted, by the spiritual director offering it, with the purpose of joining  together five to  seven individuals who are seeking a deeper connection with spirit.  Methods used are too many to list here but some of them are prayer, art, singing, meditation, sharing, and silently holding each other in blessing.

The groups are usually from six to eight weeks and are announced in Kehilla's monthly newsletter, Kol Kehilla, well in advance of the starting dates.  In addition to these groups, Kehilla's spiritual directors all do individual spiritual direction  with those who wish to explore their spiritual paths in a one-on-one setting.

For more information about Kehilla's Spiritual Direction Program, or to contact one of our Spiritual Directors, please email info@KehillaSynagogue.org.

Kehilla Spiritual Directors

Rabbi Burt Jacobson

Rabbi Burt Jacobson was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1966. He was involved in the creation of both the Havurah and Jewish Renewal movements. In 1984 he founded Kehilla Community Synagogue in Berkeley (now in Piedmont).

Rabbi Burt currently serves as Founding Rabbi of Kehilla. He has been a student of the teachings of the Ba’al Shem Tov for twenty-five years, and is engaged in writing a book that reconstructs the life and spiritual philosophy of the Ba'al Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism. Rabbi Burt celebrated the 40th anniversary of his ordination as a rabbi in 2006. He has been greatly influenced by the work of Martin Buber, the Baal Shem Tov, and Abraham Joshua Heschel.

Rabbi Chaya Gusfield

After several years of lay leadership at Kehilla, Rabbi Chaya Gusfield was called to the rabbinate and was ordained by Jewish Renewal’s Aleph Rabbinic Program in 2006.  She completed her training as a Spiritual Director from the Mercy Center in 2001 and has also been serving individuals and groups as a Spiritual Director since that time.  She is employed at Beth Chaim Congregation in Danville but continues to teach and lead, when she can, throughout California, including Kehilla, her home community.  In addition to her passion to teach and lead adults and youth, she has a strong passion for serving the ill and grieving.

Laine Barbanell Schipper

Laine Barbanell Schipper left a career as a dentist to become a weaver.  Weaving tallitot (Jewish Prayer Shawls) provided her with the opportunity for quiet reflection in which to explore her unique and intuitive relationship to the Spiritual.  She wove the torah covers for Kehilla’s “new” torah.  She has been deeply involved in Kehilla as a Co-chair of the Board, and a member of the Strategic Planning Committee as well as the Spiritual Life Practices Committee.  She attended Lev Shomea, the first Jewish Spiritual Direction training program.  She also contributed a chapter to the anthology, Jewish Spiritual Direction, on the subject of integrating spiritual direction and visual creativity.

Her creative journey, both visual and written, offers her a sense of connection to the Divine.  She grounds her spiritual practice through her weekly celebration of Shabbat, and the flow of the seasons through the Jewish holidays.  Spiritual direction offers the sacred space and an invitation to explore one’s personal spiritual understandings through avenues that reflect their own journey.

Susan Schulman

In 1992 Susan took a class from Rabbi Burt and he asked for volunteers on whom he could practice his spiritual direction skills. She had never heard of spiritual direction but she was immediately excited about being both a directee and a director.  At the time she was attending the Graduate Theological Union working toward a master's degree in divinity (her mother said she was becoming divine but that is another story), so she added the Mercy Centers Spiritual direction program to her course of studies.  And she has been following Rabbi Burt's lead ever since.

Susan considers it an honor to sit with people who are exploring their spiritual paths, going where they have not been before, looking and learning and opening themselves to the infinite.  Doing this work helps her to keep exploring her own paths, opening and opening.

Susan lives with her partner, Fay, and their dog Parker (by far the most wonderful animal ever).  She loves swimming, writing poetry, singing, sitting with the spirit of God.