Daniel Berlin is teaching a four-part class, open to all, focusing on spiritual learning and the Shema as a practice in communal settings and for personal meditation. Take a look below to learn more about Daniel, his class, and how he created it.
A personal journey into six ancient Hebrew words
I was 26 years old when my father died. At his funeral, I heard an inner voice that said, “Daniel, it is time to return to your Jewish Soul.”
I have never forgotten those words. They began a spiritual journey that continues to unfold more than forty years later.
I grew up Jewish and knew the Shema as one of Judaism’s most sacred prayers. Like many Jews, I had recited its six Hebrew words countless times. Yet I had never really stopped to listen to what they might mean for my own life.
Shema Yisrael YHWH Elohaynu YHWH Echad.
For thousands of years, Jews throughout the world have recited these words each morning and evening. Parents have whispered them to their children at bedtime. The Shema has accompanied our people through moments of celebration, loss, and danger. These six words connect us to Jewish memory, identity, and belonging. Yet how often do we pause to listen to the words themselves?
Twenty-five years ago, while participating in Lev Shomea (a two-year Jewish spiritual direction training program whose name means “Listening Heart”), I experienced another significant spiritual experience. I had a vision of writing a book about the Shema as a spiritual practice.
I wanted to explore how these ancient words might awaken us to the Divine Presence within ourselves, within one another, and throughout creation. That vision became the inspiration for my forthcoming book, “Come and Listen: Exploring the Shema as a Spiritual Practice” and the four-session class I will be teaching this fall.
Below are some of the themes the class will focus on.
What does it mean to listen?
The first word of the Shema means “Listen.” Listening sounds simple. Yet much of our listening takes place while our minds are busy preparing a response, making judgments, remembering the past, or anticipating the future.
The Shema calls us into a deeper kind of listening.
When I pause and listen inwardly, I become aware of feelings, memories, and inner voices that ordinarily escape my attention. I may also become aware of an inner place of calm, clarity, and wisdom.
Sacred listening opens the possibility of encountering the Divine Presence at the core of who we are. Over the years, my work as an Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapist and Jewish Spiritual Guide has deepened my understanding of this practice.
IFS recognizes that each of us has many inner parts and an innermost core Self. From Self, we can listen to our inner multiplicity with openness, curiosity, and witnessing awareness. I have come to understand the Shema as a daily practice of listening to ourselves, to one another, and to the Divine.
Discovering the Yisrael within ourselves
The second word, Yisrael, has become especially meaningful to me. Our ancestor Jacob receives the spiritual name Yisrael after a mysterious night of wrestling. His life is filled with wounded relationships, struggle, perseverance, and eventual reconciliation.
I see something of my own spiritual journey in Jacob’s story. Perhaps you will recognize something of yours.
Each of us wrestles with conflicting feelings, old wounds, and questions about who we are becoming. Like Jacob/Yisrael, each of us has the capacity to grow toward greater integrity, courage, and wholeness. When I recite Shema Yisrael, I hear a call to listen to the Yisrael within myself.
Sacred Multiplicity and Sacred Unity
The remaining words of the Shema have opened another spiritual discovery for me. YHWH, the four-letter Divine Name, evokes Being, Breath, and Presence. Elohaynu opens an exploration of Sacred Multiplicity. Echad means One or Unity.
There is also a beautiful teaching hidden in the Torah scroll itself. Two enlarged Hebrew letters, found in Shema and Echad, spell Eh’d, meaning “Witness.”
Witnessing awareness can hold both Sacred Multiplicity and Sacred Unity. The Many and the One belong together. This understanding has profoundly shaped my spiritual practice.
Come and listen with me
My hope is to share these discoveries with you. During the four sessions, we will explore the six Hebrew words of the Shema, draw upon Jewish and Hasidic wisdom, and discover how IFS can deepen sacred listening and our connection with Self.
Through conversation, reflection, and simple experiential exercises, we will explore how the Shema can become a spiritual practice in everyday life.
No knowledge of Hebrew or IFS is necessary. Whether you have recited the Shema throughout your life or are encountering these words anew, I hope you will join me.
Perhaps these six ancient words have something new to say to you.
Come and listen.
Daniel Berlin’s course description is also a document about 21st century Judaism in America. God is never directly mentioned, but words like “I, me, my, myself, self” and their plurals (“us…”) are found everywhere. This is a Judaism about fulfilling ourselves, entertaining our own felt needs, healing our spirit. It’s a Judaism about me, my desires, even my entitlements.
Judaism was once about obligations — to God, to others, to our values, and, yes, to ourselves. It saw life as gift from God — a gift that required reciprocity. Some called the ultimate goal “tikkun olam”; some called it “Days of the Messiah.” Whatever we called it, our vocation was to meet the demands of that vision, not to achieve “our connection with Self.”
Perhaps, one might argue, that is what Mr. Berlin means — ultimately.