Know Thyself Jewish Meditation for Everyone

This episode of our podcast features a teaching and meditation by Rabbi Sam Feinsmith of the IJS Core Faculty. It's the first in a series of four meditations on the theme of "From Constriction to Expanse," a series intended to help us prepare inwardly for Passover. The Jewish mystical tradition teaches that beyond the tyranny and constriction of the ego lies our true nature: a spiritual core or essence that is innately compassionate, wise, connected, and spacious. In Hasidic teachings in particular, the journey of discovering or recognizing this inner essence is understood as a kind of internal Exodus that transports us from servitude to freedom. In this meditation, Rabbi Feinsmith draws on Hasidic wisdom to remind us that we can experience freedom in any moment, simply by noticing that we are not synonymous with or bound by our thoughts and feelings. We can taste freedom simply by remembering our essence as human beings created in the Divine Image.