Rabbi Josh Feigelson is president and CEO of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality since February 2020, and over the course of his rabbinate has written extensively about Jewish spiritual practices and current events. With a belief that Judaism and its gifts should be more easily accessible, his work touches everything from de Tocqueville to Darth Vader.
“He can actually teach us about mindfulness practice and about the importance of the ability to let go,” Feigelson told the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle in advance of several days of programs in partnership between Temple Sinai, Rodef Shalom Congregation, just this past weekend.
The “Star Wars” villain’s journey of learning to process, rather than be consumed by, his fear, Feigelson said, is “actually a pretty deep lesson.”
Feigelson will speak at 2 p.m. today in the Hall of Philosophy, part of Week Seven’s Interfaith Lecture Series and its theme of “Wonder and Awe — Reverence as a Response to the World.”
“I’m a huge believer in the idea that Judaism has to contribute to our flourishing as human beings. It’s not something that we do out of guilt or just out of a sense of responsibility,” he told the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. “We have this amazing gift in our tradition that can really help us respond to life’s biggest challenges.”
Ordained from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School in 2005, Feigelson served for six years as the Hillel Rabbi at Northwestern University, where he also earned a doctorate in Religious Studies. Most recently, he was dean of Students at the University of Chicago Divinity School. A Wexner Graduate Fellow, he was the founding co-chair of the Wener Fellowship Alumni Committee.
Feigelson is the author of Eternal Questions: Reflections, Conversations, and Jewish Mindfulness Practices for the Weekly Torah Portion, and host of the podcast “Soulful Jewish Living: Mindful Practices for Every Day.” In 2011, he helped found and served as executive director of Ask Big Questions, an initiative of Hillel International, which won the inaugural Lippman-Kanfer Prize for Applied Jewish Wisdom. Through that initiative, aimed to bring together college students to reflect and better understand themselves and others, some lessons emerged. One, students are hungry for reflective conversation. Two, to build relationships, it’s important to ask big questions. Finally, three, “We need a larger vocabulary.”
Writing with Ask Big Questions associate director Sheila Katz in an essay for the Berman Archive, Feigelson noted that “if we want students to understand others and themselves, we must change the way we ask them questions and we must allow the complexity of their identities to enter the space. … Through this work, we are not only creating new pathways for Jewish students, but also offering a model for our universities to build richer communities for all students. Can we change the world through better conversations? We believe we can.”
