Book Launch - Planting Seeds of the Divine
Join Long Island's very own Yiscah Smith as she returns to Congregation Beth Ohr to launch her brand-new book. Yiscah previously joined us to share her wisdom on Spirituality in a Time of Crisis and was featured on the front page of the Herald. She also gave a sermon on Parshat Zachor, 2023.

Yiscah will begin with a traditional "Seudah Shlishit" or "Shalosh Seudos", the third-meal of Shabbat known for its time of connecting deeply with one another and with G-d. We will sing soulful songs and chants, practice some light meditation (no experience necessary!), and learn about her book. We will end with Havdalah and a book signing.

We invite all to contribute an $18 donation to the costs of the event.
If you would like to pre-purchase a book for signing, we are offering them at the discounted rate of $18 instead of $24.95, for a total of $36. 
All are welcome to attend - nobody is turned away for lack of funds!

About the Book:
“Experiencing deep personal fulfillment, happiness, and sustenance comes from
feeling connected to our authentic selves, which involves building an ongoing
relationship with the Divine Presence within us”, says author Yiscah Smith.
Quite organically, then, we may begin sensing the Divine in our interactions
with other people. This is because for each of us, “our essence, as a creation by
God, is God.”
Planting Seeds of the Divine elucidates how Judaism’s sacred texts can provide
the foundation for the “end destination” of experiencing intimate encounters
with the Divine Presence within—the God-consciousness that so many of us
seek and find elusive.
Imagining ourselves as spiritual gardeners, we can cultivate our unique gardens
with seeds, centered on middot (emotional dispositions, character traits, spiritual
sensitivities). Each seed corresponds to an aspirational Torah commentary,
consisting of a selected Torah verse linked to one of the middot, with classical
commentaries, teachings of Hasidic and Neo-Hasidic masters and the author’s
own interpretation, concluding with a step-by-step spiritual practice to help us
internalize that Torah portion’s middah.
Smith’s holistic approach engages the intellectual emotional, spiritual,
psychological, and embodied dimensions on a journey of self-discovery through
Torah - reclaiming a contemplative, experiential-theological language to the
heart of religious discourse.

About Yiscah: 
Yiscah Smith is a thought leader and spiritual activist committed to empowering and
ennobling others in the spiritual practice of encountering the Divine spark within and
beyond. She teaches Jewish contemplative practice and spiritual texts at the Pardes
Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem and for the online platform Applied Jewish
Spirituality. She is the author of Forty Years in the Wilderness: My Journey to
Authentic Living and founder of Conscious Community Nachlaot, an alternative prayer
space in Jerusalem. As a lifetime learner, Yiscah presents a diverse palette of
scholarship which includes the Chabad institutions of Torah, as well as The Jewish
Theological Seminary and with independent scholars in Jerusalem. Her Authentic
Jewish Living with Yiscah podcast episodes are available on platforms such as Spotify
and Apple Podcasts.
 

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