Wellness Center

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Wellness Center of Temple Sinai

Many congregants at Temple Sinai are looking for new and meaningful ways to connect with congregational life so we are pleased to present the Wellness Center of Temple Sinai. The mission of the Wellness Center is to promote Wellness and Mind/Body Health by embracing Jewish traditions, values, and practices. The goal of the Wellness Center is to nourish the mind, body, and spirit. We offer workshops and classes on Mussar, Mindfulness Meditation, Chanting and Yoga, Pilates, Wise Aging, and a Parent/Baby Community group. All these programs strive to connect with Jewish thought and practice while at the same time endeavor to provide innovative approaches to build community, comfort, and belonging.

Please contact us at wellnesscenter@oaklandsinai.org for any questions about the Wellness Center of Temple Sinai or join one or all of our programs below!

Upcoming Wellness Classes and Events

The Sandwich Generation Juggling Act
Wednesdays, January 15, February 12, and March 5, 7:00pm, Temple Sinai Classroom

Feeling caught in the squeeze?

Do you find yourself juggling the needs of your kids, home, work, and parents all at once?

Are conversations with your parents often fraught, repetitive, or stressful?

Does it feel like everyone is asking more of you than you can give? If so, you’re not alone!

Join a supportive three-part conversation series (75 minutes each, in person) designed to help you lighten your load.

Together, we’ll create a safe space to:

Define and establish healthy boundaries
Make time for reflection and self-compassion
Share resources, strategies, and wisdom for managing it all

You’re encouraged to come for all three sessions. Register for all three, but if you can only make one or two, that’s fine.

Invite your friends to register! TS members and non-members invited.

Led by Aviva Black, congregant and founder of Family Love Letters. Aviva works with individuals to capture their personal stories and regularly facilitates workshops focused on fostering meaningful family connections across generations. Take a breath and let’s tackle this together!

For more information contact wellnesscenter@oaklandsinai.org.

Register

Jewish Mindfulness Meditation
Saturday, January 25, 9:00am, Albers Chapel
Come explore the Jewish practice of “grounding,” a practice that facilitates the ability to find strength and stability amid chaos, crisis, and internal/external strife.

“Groundedness” leads to the Jewish attribute of Equanimity, Hishtavoot. Hishtavoot allows you to be present, to be able to respond mindfully to situations and not react with extremes of emotion. This promotes a sense of stability.

Join Steve Goldstein as he leads a monthly Jewish Guided Meditation session in cultivating middot (attributes) such as gratitude, loving kindness, joy, forgiveness/self-forgiveness, and compassion. All are welcome, both experienced meditators and those who are new to meditation.

You are welcome to come to one or all the sessions. Each class is a stand-alone session.

Register Here

Mussar for a Better You
Wednesdays, starting February 12, 7:00pm, Temple Sinai

Explore Mussar — the ancient/modern Jewish system for personal growth, in the supportive environment of your peers. Are you interested in becoming a better person? Perhaps more patient? Or more compassionate? Or having more gratitude? The list could go on…Each of us has a “spiritual curriculum” – areas we need to work on. The Mussar tradition offers a Jewish path and methodology for identifying and working on that personal curriculum. This work is best done by working with a partner — your chevruta — in the context of a group, called a va’ad. It entails courage, openness, and discipline. But mostly, it requires awareness or mindfulness and clear intention. Be prepared to change.

This group will meet roughly every two weeks for eight 90-minute sessions (dates below). Between sessions, you will be expected to do reading (usually 10-15 pages), some journaling (to be specified), and work with a “focus phrase.” You will also be expected to meet at least once between sessions with your chevruta (by phone or online is fine). Chevruta partners will be arranged by the end of the first session.

In reviewing applications, we will attempt to create a gender balance as well as an age spread. Dan Fendel will be the instructor for this group. He will use Everyday Holiness, by Alan Morinis for the textbook.

Dates: 2nd and 4th Wednesdays from February through April, first Wednesday of May, and second Wednesday of June. Specific dates are 2/12, 2/26, 3/12, 3/26. 4/9, 4/23, 5/7, 6/11

Apply

Why Call it a Wellness "Center"?

So why a “Center”? This is a virtual Center existing on the Temple’s website and social media sites. We want our congregants and the Jewish community at large to be able to go to one central location to find our wellness offerings. By offering these opportunities all under the umbrella of a Center, it demonstrates our goal of being intentional in our programs to promote Wellness. The Wellness Center’s Kavanah (the Hebrew word for intention) is to offer an innovative and comprehensive approach to our Jewish spirituality and wellness focusing on the following areas:

Mussar is a Jewish spiritual practice that helps us in leading meaningful and ethical lives.
Meditation techniques cultivate a deeper sense of Jewish values such as gratitude.
Yoga practices connect our bodies and minds to our breath and soul through Jewish musical chant and motion.
Embodied Prayer explores a series of exercises, based on Pilates principles, linked to the Jewish Blessings for Daily Miracles.
Parents and their newborns attend in-person sessions to support their adjustment to life with their newborn and explore Jewish themes that relate to starting a young family.
Wise Aging explores the experiences, challenges, and opportunities as an older adult through a Jewish lens.

Previous Classes and Events

Over 90 attendees enjoyed a wonderful day of activities on Jewish Wellness and Spirituality at the September 30th Wellness Center Open House. The day’s offerings included Baby and Me Parent Group, Torah Study, Music in Motion Shabbat Morning Service, The Art of Mindful Eating, Introduction to Mussar, Embodied Prayer, Wise Aging, and Sukkot Guided Meditation.

Other Ways to Get Involved

Wise Aging

The Wise Aging program explores the experiences, challenges, and opportunities of older adults through a Jewish lens. We offer ongoing Wise Aging groups as well as public presentations, roughly once a month, by experts on topics related to aging. For more information on both, please go to oaklandsinai.org/comm-wise-aging.

Wise Aging Groups explore topics such as cultivating nourishing relationships, living with loss, forgiveness, accepting our aging bodies, legacy and stewardship, and more. Participants have opportunities for personal sharing, mindfulness practice, and text study. Following an initial set of eight sessions, led by trained facilitators, our past groups have all continued in self-facilitated form. A new group will be forming in the Fall of 2023, and is expected to meet in person. Groups are ongoing and member-only. Targeted group: 55+ adults, must apply.

Wise Aging Presentations are free, on Zoom, and usually open to the general public upon registration. Program announcements are made through a Google group list (write to wiseaging@oaklandsinai.org to be added to the list), and on the Temple Sinai website.