Jay Michaelson is one of his generation's leading writers and teachers on spirituality, Judaism, sexuality, and law. His voice is fresh, honest, and intelligent, bringing both the erudition of the academy and the devotion of the contemplative path to audiences around the country. Jay has taught Kabbalah and spiritual practice, especially embodied spiritual practice, at a wide range of institutions, including Yale University, City College, Elat Chayyim, the Skirball Center, the Wexner Summer Institute, Limmud UK, Limmud NY, Wesleyan University, Drew University, the New York University Hillel, the Burning Man festival, Easton Mountain, the Park Avenue Synagogue, the Trinity School, the Dorot Fellowship, and a number of synagogues and community centers, as well as online at www.learnkabbalah.com. He taught for four years the Jewish Theological Seminary's Ivry Prozdor school, and for five years at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires. He has created and taught over twenty curricula for formal and informal Jewish education, ranging from "How Not to Believe in God" to "The Philosophy of Halacha." A frequent speaker, panelist, and scholar in residence at synagogues and community centers, Jay brings Kabbalah down to earth, and brings the most mundane of earthly subjects to a higher spiritual plane.

Jay offers a wide range of educational opportunities to institutions of higher learning, synagogues, and community centers, including experiential workshops utilizing the techniques in God in Your Body, text study and discussion seminars, weekend retreats, meditation workshops, prayer services (traditional and non-traditional), lectures, poetry readings and performances, and lighter workshops such as Eat Your Way to Enlightenment: The Art of Eating Meditation and "Meditation on the Run."

Subjects about which Jay has taught and lectured include:

Embodied Judaism / God in Your Body
Click here to learn about "Embodied Judaism" classes and retreats
The Jewish path of Blessing: An Introduction
Movement, Mindfulness, and Balance
Embodied Judaism: Experiencing God in the Body and in Nature (lecture/workshop)
Dynamic Meditation (Osho)
Eat Your Way to Enlightenment
Toward a Contemporary Jewish Sexual Ethic
Embodied, Ecstatic, Earth-Based, Energetic: An Introduction to Holistic Jewish Ritual
Meditation: It's a Walk in the Park (walking meditation)
God is in the Deltoids: Hike, Climb, and Cave Your Way to Wisdom
The Face Behind the Mask: Encountering God in Nature
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)
Autumn Leaves and Blessings: A Jewish Path of Embracing Nature's Beauty

Kabbalah and Mysticism

Introduction to Jewish Mysticism (for adults and teenagers)
Kabbalah for Skeptics
Kabbalah 101
Evil, pantheism, and antinomianism in Kabbalah
The Meditation Practices of Abraham Abulafia
Does the World Exist?
Experiencing and Embodying the Sefirot
Kabbalah: What is Madonna Thinking?
The History and Phenomenology of Jewish Mysticism
Kabbalah and the Erotics of the Infinite
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.)
Kabbalah and Popular Culture
 

Contemplative Judaism and Meditation

Meditation on the Run
Eat Your Way to Enlightenment
Meditative davening Services
YHVH Means 'What Is': Integrating Buddhism and Judaism
The High Holidays: Breaking our Shells, Calling us to the Now
The Place of Sadness in Contemplative Jewish Practice
Sitting with God: Using the Ashrei in Guided Meditation
Meditation Exercises in Psalm 145
An Introduction to Buddhism (and Bu-Jus) for Jews
The Four Worlds in our Davening Practice
Closeness and Distance in Jewish Liturgy
A Day Spa for the Soul: A One-Day Mindfulness Retreat
Introduction to Meditation for college and high school students

GLBT Spirituality and Jewish Issues

The status of homosexuality in Halacha
The status of gays and lesbians in the movements of Judaism
Personal stories of 'the closet' and 'coming out'
Queer Here Now: The Theory and Practice of Queer Spirituality
Queer Spiritual Valentines: Poetry from the GLBT Mystical Tradition
Lesbianism in Halacha
Toward a queer Jewish theology
Queer imagery in the Kabbalah
Judaism and Sexuality (for teenagers)
Sacred Sexuality and Emotional Healing
What does the Bible really say about Homosexuality?
Religious Activism in a Time of Dissent
Homosexuality and Social Change

Jewish Philosophy and Theology

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 Concept of Nothing
Motherland, Mother Earth, and the Divine Mother: Dreaming of the Land of Israel
Nondual Judaism

Law and Religion

Antilawyerism and Antisemitism: Why Americans Hate Lawyers Like they Used to Hate Jews
Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Pricing of Human Lives
Anti-legalism and Anti-Judaism
Antinomianism in Jewish history

Jewish culture and politics

What is the New Jewish Culture?
Alternative Judaisms of the 20th Century
Understanding the International Court of Justice opinion about the Israeli "separation wall".
On Being a Leftist and Zionist
The History and Phenomenology of Antisemitism
Contemporary Jewish Subcultures
 
 
Institutions
City College of New York (adjunct professor)
Yale University (visiting lecturer)
Cardozo Law School
Yale University Hillel
Wesleyan University Hillel
Elat Chayyim Jewish Retreat Center
Wexner Foundation Summer Institute
The Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning
The Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Congregation Kol Ami, Tampa
Congregation Bet Haverim, Atlanta
Temple Beth Shalom, Rockland County, NY
Riverside Church
JTS Prozdor High School
The Trinity School
Drew University
NYU Bronfman Center
Makor/92nd Street Y
The Manhattan JCC
The Sol Goldman 14th Street Y
The Dorot Foundation
Berkshire Hills Emanuel - Adult Vacation Center
Burning Man
The New York LGBT Center
Limmud UK (invited lecturer)
Limmud NY
Camp Ramah
USY Metny Summer Encampment
The Teva Institute
J-High Queens
Makom Hebrew High School in Connecticut
Easton Mountain
New York GLBT Center
Empire State Pride Agenda
National Union of Jewish LGBT Students Conference
Gay Spirit Culture Summit
Ken Page Spring Retreat



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Photo: Clint Steib