You are invited to witness and join a conversation between Reb Judith Goleman and Basha Hirschfeld.

December 13th: Suffering and Death

As Jewish people we have experienced a lot of suffering in our history, not to mention the suffering life brings to all. How do we work with suffering and death from a Jewish and a Buddhist perspective.

January 23rd: The Self and Impermanence

What does Judaism teach about the 'self' and how have we dealt with impermanence? Buddhists claim there is no self and everything is impermanent. What do the Jews think?

Rabbinic Pastor Judith Goleman, MFT, is a chaplain and also has a private practice in individual and couple counseling. As teenager she fell in love with the joyous tales of the Hasidic Rabbis of the 18th century, who saw God as the deep nature of everything in Creation (including us in our true potential). As an adult she encountered this spirit in the Jewish Renewal movement, and was lucky to study for her ordination as a Rabbinic Pastor in this spiritual approach. It also informs her psychotherapy practice.

Barbara (Basha) Hirschfeld has been a student of Buddhism for over 25 years, and of Judaism all her life. She is one of a few lucky students of Ani Pema Chodron and through her of the Shambhala lineage, as first taught by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. She teaches meditation in the North Bay at various venues and owns and runs a retreat space in west Sonoma County called “Open Sky Retreat Space.” Her favorite thing is to bring together the two wisdom traditions, and to explore how her Buddhist training can inform her Jewish faith.