How might ancient texts speak to us afresh today? Can pre–modern practices be revitalized and re-imagined to address modern concerns?

Rabbi Leila Gal Berner and Sheri D. Kling strongly believe that there is still something life-giving in both ancient texts and pre-modern practices, and that both can be explored in dynamic ways while still being grounded in timeless wisdom.

Once Rabbi Berner was introduced to the Christian contemplative practice of lectio divina—a Latin phrase meaning “sacred reading”—she immediately fell in love with its ability to drop her into a living experience of biblical text. She wanted other Jews to have that same experience, and created a uniquely Jewish expression of lectio divina that she has named Kriat Hakodesh (Reading the Holy) reflected in her book, Listening to the Heart of Genesis: A Contemplative Path. 

Sheri Kling has had similar experiences with Christian contemplative practices, and has refashioned three of them—lectio divina, praying with icons, and praying with the imagination—into a transreligious practice she calls Dream Divina. While the target of contemplation in her practice is one’s individual dream and its images, the underlying spiritual “technologies” of the Christian practices still carry the same power to reveal the presence of the Sacred.

In this event, Rabbi Berner and Dr. Kling will share their own experiences with reshaping traditional practices to reawaken modern sensibilities to potentially transforming encounters with texts and with God.

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