Believing in God: What does that mean to us?  

How do a trained Rebbe (Judith) and a Jewish Buddhist approach this subject?  

As Judith and Basha have their ongoing discussions and  - quite friendly - arguments  on various spiritual questions, your own insights and questions may arise.

It is the power of an open question that brings insight and of course more questions. Join us in conversation.

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 ordained 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.