Booking Information

Jay Michaelson gives lectures, classes, and workshops as a scholar in residence at universities, synagogues, retreat centers, and conferences.  His classes combine a high level of scholarship with a contemporary sensibility.  Samples of Jay’s teaching are available on the downloads page.

Below are some of the topics which Jay has taught, together with short explanations of the classes’ contents. All of the topics and titles below are actual workshops, seminars, and classes which Jay has taught in the last ten years.

Topics: 

Meditation/Spiritual Practice

Religion and Sexuality/GLBT

Nondual Judaism

Kabbalah | Judaism-Other Topics | Jewish Ritual| Environmentalism/Nature

Embodied Spiritual Practice/God in Your Body | Law |

Institutions where Jay has taught

Nondual Judaism / Everything is God

Everything is God: An Introduction to Nondual Judaism
Nonduality — the view that “All is One” — is often thought of as an “Eastern” religious idea.  But it is also a natively Jewish one, and it transforms how we understand the very nature of religion itself.  This session, including study of never-before-translated Hasidic texts, explores the way nonduality transforms Jewish practice, and what it means for “you” if God is reading and writing this sentence right now — and if God does not exist, but is Existence itself.
Class taught at: Limmud UK, New York Open Center, JCC Atlanta, JCC Palm Beach

Everything is God: Texts and Practices of Nondual Judaism
If you spend time in the spiritual world today, you’ve probably heard people say that “everything is God,” or that God is Ein Sof, without end even filling the atoms of your computer screen. For many of us, this offers a promise of liberation, but, after the thrill wears off, confusion as well. Was God in the gas chambers too? And if God is everything, what’s the point of doing anything?
In this unique class, we will explore Jewish texts on Nonduality, from Maimonides’ Guide to the Perplexed to the Zohar, Moses Cordovero to the little-known teachings of Rabbi Aaron of Staroselse. We will compare these teachings with those of Tibetan Buddhism and Advaita. And we will balance the study with practices of contemplation, inquiry, prayer, meditation, and a nondual approach to the mitzvot to cultivate a boundless awareness, omnipresent, always available, and, in a sense, the most obvious thing in the world even though it’s really hard to say anything about it. If you’ve had some exposure to Kabbalah, Hasidism, or nondual Buddhism, come deepen your understanding, practice, and realization. Be prepared for surprise: enlightenment is not what you think and neither is God.
Taught at Elat Chayyim

Kabbalah

Introduction to Jewish Mysticism/Kabbalah 101
So, you’re curious about Kabbalah. Why does Madonna wear a string around her wrist? What is the Zohar about? And can you get the answer to these questions without checking your healthy skepticism at the door? Learn the answers to these questions at this short introduction to Kabbalah led by Jay Michaelson, who has been learning and teaching Kabbalah for ten years. We will focus on the core symbols of the “theosophical” Kabbalah, including the Zohar; the meditative practices of Rabbi Abraham Abulafia; the popularization of Kabbalah through Hasidism; and folk beliefs including golems, angels, demons, reincarnation, even the red string. Most importantly, no questions are off the table; no beliefs are assumed; and no products will be for sale. This is the ideal opportunity to learn about the core teachings of Jewish mysticism with no strings attached — magical or otherwise. Whether you find it inspiring or merely diverting is up to you.
Class taught at: The 14th Street Y, Makor, The Dorot Foundation, the Skirball Center, and many synagogues. This course has been taught in 3, 4, and 8 sessions. An enlarged an academic version of the course was taught at Yale University and City College of New York.

Exploring the Zohar: Real Kabbalah, No Red Strings Attached
If you’ve learned the basics of kabbalah and are thirsty for more, turn to the Zohar, the masterpiece of the kabbalah. In this class, well work directly with the text (in translation but with the original handy) to explore the themes and symbols of Jewish mysticism as theyre expressed in the kabbalah itself. This class is the perfect ‘next step’ for someone who’s taken an introductory workshop, or read a couple of books, and now wants to learn more. It’s the way the Kabbalah is meant to be taught: straight from the source.
Class/workshop taught at: The Open Center, The National Havurah Institute, The Manhattan JCC

Kabbalah and Sexuality
Unlike those religious systems which see spirit as separate from the body and sexuality as a necessary evil, the Jewish mystical and esoteric traditions known as Kabbalah hold that the body is a place of sanctity, and sexuality is a key to unlocking the greatest of Divine secrets. And centuries before “The Da Vinci Code,” Kabbalah sought the return of the Divine Feminine from Her exile and concealment. In fact, with both human beings and the Godhead possessing male and female energies, the permutations of gender and consciousness challenge simplistic notions of normative sexual expression. Indeed, it is fair to say that the entire world as we experience it, in space and in time, is an expression of the Divine lovemaking. Together we will explore some of these provocative notions, including how “God” and the world are mutually dependent, how the Infinite comes to know Itself through the union of the linear and the cyclical, and how these mysteries are reflected in the diverse experiences of our lives.
Lecture given as  the Pincus Lecture at Drew University in 2005.  Workshop version taught at One Taste San Francisco

Four Worlds, Four Elements, Four Souls: Integral Kabbalah
Rabbi Jill Hammer writes, “One of the building blocks of Jewish time, space, and soul is ‘fourness.’ There are four letters of God’s name, four matriarchs, four promises of liberation, four mystical worlds of being, four guardian angels, and four layers of the spirit. On a more physical level, there are four elements, four winds, four seasons, four phases of the moon, and four directions and the four souls are contained within the body’s flesh, circulation, respiration, and life-force. There are four ways of interpreting Torah: pshat, drash, remez, and sod (the plain meaning, the allegorical meaning, the interpretive meaning, and the mystical meaning), and four rivers in the garden of Eden.” In this class, which can be taught either as a lecture, discussion, or four-day experiential workshop, we will come to know this “fourness” on multiple levels.

Other Kabbalah classes:
Evil, pantheism, and antinomianism in Kabbalah
The Meditation Practices of Abraham Abulafia
Experiencing and Embodying the Sefirot
The History and Phenomenology of Jewish Mysticism
God and Human, or, the Real Da Vinci Code
The Number 2 (Existence/non-existence, illusion/reality, Hasidism/Mitnagdism, pure/impure, permitted/forbidden, female/male, spirit/letter, spirit/body, finite/infinite, etc.)
Madonna, Kabbalah and Popular Culture

Judaism – Other topics

YHVH Means ‘What Is’: Integrating Buddhism and Judaism
It’s an open secret that many of America’s leading Buddhist teachers come from Jewish backgrounds, and many of America’s leading teachers of Jewish spirituality have spent time on Buddhist retreat. What do these two seemingly disparate traditions have in common? How are they influencing one another? And what, really, is Buddhist about Buddhist meditation anyway? This evening’s program will be a combination of theory and practice — we’ll talk a little about some of these questions, and, because map is not territory, we’ll learn some basic Buddhist meditation practices that can help cultivate stillness and mindfulness even in a life filled with stress, reading, and midterms.
Taught at Wesleyan University, Limmud UK

Is the Torah a Basis for Liberal values?
Today, it’s common in some circles to hear claims that the Bible aligns with modern liberal ideas such as taking care of the less fortunate, pursuing peace and justice, and ending baseless hatred. So does that mean that far-right Jewish ideologues, and Jewish neo-conservatives, are just plain wrong? Join Jay Michaelson for a frank look at Biblical texts on such issues as poverty, the death penalty, slavery, and multiculturalism. This text workshop and discussion is sure to provoke.
Taught at: Skirball Center

Why Jews Under 30 can’t stand Judaism, and what to do about it
Many in the institutional Jewish community have begun sounding the alarm about dangerous demographic trends among Jews under 30: high intermarriage, low affiliation, and a generally negative view of Jewish life. What can be done to reverse these trends? Jay Michaelson, a leading figure in the so-called “New Jewish Culture” and an educator for fifteen years, for an honest discussion about the failure of 20th century Judaism to connect in the 21st. We’ll talk about why the ‘sacred trinity’ of American Judaism — Israel, the holocaust, and the survival of the Jewish people — just don’t matter to younger Jews, and why no amount of slick advertising is going to dress up a boring, stifling synagogue service. What’s needed is a serious look at what needs and desires Judaism still meets today: not tribe but spirit, not history but art and culture, not conventional values but emotional and intellectual seriousness.

Jewish Spiritual Searches: A View from the Path
What are the new forms of Jewish spirituality? How are young people today seeking, finding, and then re-seeking new ways of connecting to spirit and to tribe? Blending personal story, intimate anecdotes, and reports from the cutting edge of Jewish spirituality, this workshop will inform and challenge our preconceptions about authentic spiritual search today.

Alternative Judaisms of the 20th Century
In the 20th century, many new alternative forms of Judaism were created. In this class, or series of classes, we’ll learn about them first-hand. Topics covered include: Jewish Socialism and Labor Unions, The American Jewish Left & the American Jewish Right, Radical Zionism & Canaanism, Radical Jewish Nationalism, the 60s Radicals, the Chavurah Movement, Jewish Renewal/ New Age and 20th Century Kabbalah, Chabad, Reconstructionism, BuJus, Jewish Feminism, and Queer Judaism.

Integral Judaism: An Introduction to Ken Wilber, Spiral Dynamics, and The Torah of Everything
How does Torah fit into the evolution of the world & consciousness? How does the evolution of the world & consciousness fit into Torah? In this workshop, we’ll look at one non-Jewish “theory of everything,” philosopher Ken Wilber’s adaptation of Spiral Dynamics, to see how the universe has unfolded from inanimate matter to spiritual enlightenment, and what redemption and mashiach might mean in an actual, this-world context. Charts, maps, and memes will be provided.

Other classes in Judaism-Other Topics:
Radical Amazement: An Introduction to Abraham Joshua Heschel
The Philosophy of Halacha
Halachic Man and trans-subjective religiosity
The Meaning of Life
Buber, Rosenzweig, Levinas, Derrida: Toward the Other
How Not to Believe in God
The Religious Romanticism of Friedrich Schleiermacher
Classical Arguments for the Existence of God: What are they, and do they work?
The Concept of Nothing
Motherland, Mother Earth, and the Divine Mother: Dreaming of the Land of Israel

Meditation and Spiritual Practice

Insight Meditation Retreats
Meditation is the practice of slowing down thought enough to observe the mind more clearly. It is a non-dogmatic and non-sectarian practice that shows demonstrable results: more calm, less selfishness; more clarity of mind, less confusion; more awareness, less suffering. The only way to truly experience the benefits of meditation is on extended retreat; daily practice is valuable, but everyday life is too busy and noisy for the deeper benefits of meditation to take hold.   Jay Michaelson’s meditation teaching attempts to make serious meditation practice accessible to all. He teaches the basic practice of insight meditation (vipassana), which is derived from Theravada Buddhism.  If desired, Jay can also combine insight meditation with Jewish religious practice, in new, sophisticated, and self-aware ways.

A Day Spa for the Soul: An Interfaith Day of Mindfulness
This daylong retreat of meditation and spiritual practice will include sitting, eating and walking meditation; body-centered spiritual practices including yoga and movement; and time to connect with one another. It’s like a day-spa for the soul!
Taught at the JCC of Manhattan and Easton Mountain

Meditation on the Run
You don’t have to set aside 45 minutes a day to meditate in peace and quiet. Even if you have kids or a crazy business schedule, you can easily relax, be present and gain the benefits of meditationwith zero minutes of spare time. Learn several simple and effective meditation practices that you can integrate into your busy, stressed-out life.
Taught as a one-session workshop at Makor, Limmud, and the 14th Street Y. Available also as a multi-session class.

Eat Your Way to Enlightenment: The Art of Eating Meditation
Meditation offers many rewards — relaxation, healing, and perhaps insight into the meaning of life. But how are you supposed to do it when you don’t have 45 minutes to sit quietly every day? Or even 5? Eating meditation, combining the wisdom of the Buddha with the brilliance of the bagel, is one simple practice that really can give your mind the spaciousness it needs. And, nu, a little nosh. This class will teach you all you need to know to make this practice part of your daily life, including sacred intentions, mindfulness practice, and the basic framework of meditation. Come hungry!
Taught at National Havurah Institute, Congregation Kol Ami, Congregation Dorshei Emet, and many other institutions

Introduction to meditation for college students
Learn the basics of meditation at this specially-priced program for college students. Led by Jay Michaelson, who teaches Kabbalah and meditation to people of all ages, we will learn practices that can work well with a low-sleep, high-energy student lifestyle, and find out practical ways to integrate these techniques in our own lives for more calm, concentration, and focus. If youre curious about meditation, this is the perfect introduction for you
Taught at NYU, the JCC of Manhattan, and Wesleyan University

Other meditation classes:
Sitting with God: Using the Ashrei as a Guided Meditation
Osho’s Dynamic Meditation
Meditation: It’s a Walk in the Park (walking meditation, outside)

Jewish Ritual

A Four Worlds Friday Night: Integrating Body, Mind, Heart, and Spirit to “Receive” Shabbat
Kabbalah means “receiving,” implying that an experience of God is not about adding to our experience, but subtracting something so that we can receive it more fully. That something — the “yetzer hara” in Jewish texts, the sense of self in others — can be quieted down, using the technologies of meditation, prayer, song, and movement. Jay’s unique Kabbalat Shabbat (“receiving of the Sabbath”) services follow the form of the traditional service, but not the content, as we explore ways to expand our capacity to receive YHVH — What Is.

Meditative davening services
Jay’s services usually follow the structure of the traditional liturgy, but do not include all of its substance, instead allowing those who wish to daven traditionally to do so alongside our own creative interpretation and improvisation.   Jay is fully fluent in all Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform nusach, and can read Torah, Haftarah, High Holidays, and Megillah trope.  the services are a mindful and heartful way to bring in a Sabbath of tranquility and alertness, regardless of your level of religious observance or Hebrew knowledge.

Deep Rest: A Shabbat Mini-Retreat
This Shabbat, we will experience a miniature silent retreat, combining insight meditation, chanting, movement, and eating meditation. Blending mindfulness techniques from the Buddhist world and heart-opening ones from the Jewish tradition, we will cultivate a deep restfulness and awaken an awareness of the Divine Presence. Participants are asked to come on time, and observe “social silence,” not speaking except for designated moments in the program. Please note that we will not be following the liturgy or conducting a Torah service; this is an experiment with a different mode of spiritual practice.

Embodied Spiritual Practice/ God in Your Body

God in Your Body: Body-centered spiritual practice in the Jewish tradition
What’s the best place to start experiencing God, freeing yourself from stress, and practicing the vast majority of Jewish commandments? Your body. Join Jay Michaelson, author of the book God in Your Body to  learn how the mystical and the mundane, the Jewish and the Buddhist, the traditional and the transformative can be unified in an integral embrace — beginning and ending with the body. This will be a week you will not forget. Over the course of our week together, we will study text, walk in the woods, meditate with potato chips, and even learn how to use the bathroom according to Kabbalah.
Taught as a weeklong retreat at Elat Chayyim, and as one- and three- session workshops at several synagogues.

It’s Not All In Your Head: Food, Sex, and the Enlightenment of the Body in Jewish Tradition
Today, most of us think that religion is about the spirit, and the “spirit” is distinct from the body. Surprisingly, this is not at all how it’s seen either in Jewish tradition or in contemporary meditation practices. In this one-session class we’ll learn the theory and practice of embodied spirituality: how to wake up to God (whatever that means) not by leaving the body behind, but in simple, embodied acts like eating, washing, walking, having sex, and staying healthy. We’ll gain practical skills and a mind-opening look at Jewish enlightenment.
Lecture given at Cong. Kol Ami, Cong. Dorshei Emet, Academy of Jewish Religion

Embodied Judaism: Experiencing God in the Body and in Nature
How do you learn Kabbalah? By reading a book, which gives you a map of the body and soul, or by experiencing the body and soul themselves? In an Embodied Judaism class, we experience Kabbalistic concepts such as the four souls — nefesh (earth, life force, flexibility, core balance), ruach (uniting air and water, circulation, chi/chai), neshamah (air, breath), and yechidah (spirit) — by actually learning to perceive them. True Kabbalah is not about blind faith; it is about experience: enabling the self to receive and express its true nature. Imagine moving your body in gentle undulations, movements drawn from the modalities of pilates and gyrotonic, synchronized with the breath — this is the place of ruach. Then imagine a shift to breath-meditation based on the three “mother letters” of the Book of Creation: this is a way to experience neshamah. Embodied Judaism is drawn directly from core teachings of the Kabbalah — it isn’t yoga in a yarmulke. But it also is experiential, real, and vital.
Experiential workshops taught at the Wexner Summer Institute (weeklong seminar), Elat Chayyim (weeklong retreat), the 14th Street Y, and numerous synagogues.

Embodied, Ecstatic, Energetic, Earth-Based: An Introduction to Holistic Jewish Ritual
Let’s get our groove on! Ancient Jewish ritual was celebratory, Earth-based, and, often, an embodied, ecstatic experience. This is an introduction to the “Four E’s” of ritual — embodied, ecstatic, Earth-based, and energetic — as we usher in a fifth “E,” the introspective month of Elul. Through meditation, contemplation, and ecstatic practice, we will meet the four worlds and the four elements out in nature and deep within the self. We will explore traditional and innovative Jewish sources that unify heaven and earth, wind and water, fire and spirit.
Taught as a weekend retreat at Elat Chayyim, Fall 2005.

Religion and Sexuality / GLBT Issues

Sexuality and Scripture: What does the Bible really say about homosexuality?
Jay leads this introductory seminar exploring Biblical sources relating to homosexuality. This multi-faith workshop will teach attendees the scripture-based arguments often made against homosexuality — and the truth about what the Bible really says.
Taught as a one-session workshop for the Empire State Pride Agenda, at Easton Mountain, and for several interfaith groups.

Does Homosexuality Matter?
At least in the United States, much of the brouhaha over homosexuality has subsided.  There are gay Jewish weddings, gay conservative rabbis — and the sky has not fallen.  So now, new questions are being asked, more interesting than simply whether it’s okay to be gay.  Is homosexuality more like gender — which is very important, and which has shifted how Jews conceive of liturgy, theology, and community — or more like, say, eye color, which is not so important?  Will the inclusion of GLBT people transform the Jewish community and Jewish religion as did the full participation of women in (non-Orthodox) Jewish life?  In this session, featuring queer midrash and theology, we’ll explore how sexual diversity transforms how we understand God, Torah, and Israel.

Creating a Queer-Positive Jewishness: Resources and Challenges.
This is a broad lecture combining some ‘reports from the field’ of what’s happening (same-sex marriage, new ritual, halacha) and some ‘resources’ (medieval homoerotic Jewish poetry, theology, the gay spirituality movement, readings of Bible and Kabbalah) to present the big picture of how GLBT people are creating their own forms of Jewish identities and practices. The focus is not “whether it’s ok to be gay and Jewish” but go from there to ask what’s special about being that way.

Queer Spirit Heroes
There is no gay bar mitzvah, yet, and so GLBT people have no formal way to learn about their heritage. Yet from David and Jonathan to Allen Ginsberg and his many loves, there are ample heroes in the past for thoughtful and spiritual GLBT people today. In this workshop, we’ll learn about some of them and explore what they can mean to us today.

Turning It Around and Taking It Back: Religious Activism in a Time of Dissent
What role will progressive activism play in the national discourse on values? How can liberal people of faith reclaim what it means to be “moral” in America? How can a united progressive movement influence political dialogue today? Learn about current visions for religion in America in line with progressive activism.

Same-sex marriage in the Jewish Tradition
What are the options for same-sex marriage in the Jewish tradition?  In this workshop, we’ll explore some of the different textual, ritual, and practical approaches that Jews have taken in recent years, from “same as straight” wedding ceremonies, to radical alternatives to marriage for queer people.

Queer Spiritual Valentines: Poetry from the GLBT Mystical Tradition
Experience a “higher love” at this evening of amazing, passionate, spiritual love poetry written by queer mystics from across the ages. You’ll hear ancient and contemporary voices, set to music and rhythms and staged in a way that is anything but a “reading.” Hear Judah haLevy the way you’ve never heard him before, be moved by Hafiz and James Broughton, and hear the words of new poets as they sing their queer love poems for God.
Led at Easton Mountain, the JCC of Manhattan, Tuscon Inclusion Project

Other classes and workshops on religion and sexuality:
The status of homosexuality in Halacha
The status of gays and lesbians in the different movements of Judaism
Personal stories of ‘the closet’ and ‘coming out’
Queer Here Now: The Theory and Practice of Queer Spirituality
Women who Rub: Lesbianism in Halacha
Toward a queer Jewish theology
Queer imagery in the Kabbalah
Judaism and Sexuality (for teenagers)

Environmentalism / Nature

The Face Behind the Mask: Encountering God in Nature
In Hasidic wisdom, Hateva, nature, is equivalent to Elohim, the aspect of God that both conceals and reveals the Divine. In this class, you will learn, and practice, some of the ways in which our ancestors sought Gods Face in nature. We might practice hitbodedut, Rabbi Nachmans method of soul-searing meditation, aided by the songs of the grass. Or we may practice mindful walking and learn the Jewish attention-blessings to be recited in places of natural beauty. Through meditation, study, and experience, we will together learn a Jewish path for appreciating natures beauty, and the Divine life within.
Taught as a weekend retreat at Elat Chayyim

Other workshops in Environmentalism/ Nature:
Rock scrambling, hiking, spelunking, and bike trips (for adults and young adults; taught for several years at Camp Ramah and Elat Chayyim)
Rabbi Nachman’s “Song of the Grass”
Blessings, nature, and embodiment
Jewish environmental ethics and the Four Worlds Model
Doing Real Spiritual Work with Kids on the Trail (for educators; taught at Teva Learning Center)

Law

Antilawyerism and Antisemitism
Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Pricing of Human Lives
Understanding the International Court of Justice opinion about the Israeli “separation wall”.
Geoengineering: Toward a Climate Change Manhattan Project

Institutions where Jay has taught:

Academic Appointments
Boston University Law School (Visiting Assistant Professor; Environmental Ethics, Law & Religion)
City College of New York (Adjunct Professor, Kabbalah)
Yale University (Instructor, Jewish Mysticism)

Academic Lectures/Presentations
American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Fall 2007 (Vedanta & Neo-Hasidism)
Cardozo Law School/ Jews and the Legal Profession Conference (Anti-legalism and anti-Judaism)
Lehigh University (New Jewish Culture, Queer Midrash)
Manhattan Marymount College (Judaism & Sexuality)
Drew University (Kabbalah and Eros)

Jewish Educational Programs & Centers
Yale University Hillel
Wesleyan University Hillel
NYU Bronfman Center
The Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Wexner Foundation Summer Institute
Elat Chayyim Jewish Retreat Center
The Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning
The National Havurah Institute (Summer 2007)
Makor/92nd Street Y
Hazon Food Conference
The Manhattan JCC
Limmud UK (invited lecturer)
Limmud NY
The Sol Goldman 14th Street Y
The Dorot Foundation
Nishmat Hayyim
National Union of Jewish LGBT Students Conference
Nehirim
Hazon Food Conference 2006
Berkshire Hills Emanuel – Adult Vacation Center
JCC of Metrowest, NJ
JCC of Greater New Haven
JCC in Manhattan

High Schools and Youth Programs
JTS Prozdor High School
The Trinity School
Camp JRF
Camp Ramah in the Berkshires
USY Metny Summer Encampment
USY on Wheels
The Teva Institute
J-High Queens
Makom Hebrew High School in Connecticut

Synagogues
Park Avenue Synagogue, New York
Congregation Dorshei Emet, Montreal, CA
Temple Israel, Natick, MA
Congregation Kol Ami, Tampa, FL
Congregation Bet Haverim, Atlanta, GA
Temple Beth Shalom, Rockland County
Kehilat Romemu, New York
Kehilat Hadar, Shavuot Retreat
Congregation Shaar Zahav, San Francisco

GLBT Centers and Programs
Pride in the Pulpit
The New York LGBT Center
Out and Faithful
Riverside Church/Maranatha Society
Easton Mountain Retreat Center
New York GLBT Center
Gay Spirit Culture Summit
Ken Page Spring Retreat

Other
The New York Open Center
Burning Man
Knitting Factory
CBGB
Bowery Poetry Club