On this week’s episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, Rabbi Yiscah Smith discusses her forthcoming (June 1) book, Planting Seeds of the Divine: Torah Commentaries to Cultivate Your Spiritual Practice, a book that helps readers understand how Judaism’s sacred texts can provide the foundation for the “end destination” of experiencing intimate encounters with the Divine Presence within.

Experiencing deep personal fulfillment, happiness, and sustenance comes from feeling connected to our authentic selves, which involves building an ongoing relationship with the Divine Presence within us, says author Yiscah Smith. Quite organically, then, we may begin sensing the Divine in our interactions with other people. This is because, for each of us, “our essence, as a creation by God, is God.”

Planting Seeds of the Divine elucidates how Judaism’s sacred texts can provide the foundation for the “end destination” of experiencing intimate encounters with the Divine Presence within — the God-consciousness that so many of us find elusive. Imagining ourselves as spiritual gardeners, we can cultivate our unique gardens with seeds centered on middot (emotional dispositions, character traits, spiritual sensitivities). Each seed corresponds to an aspirational Torah commentary, consisting of a selected Torah verse linked to one of the middot, a summary of the biblical text preceding the verse, classical commentaries, teachings of Hasidic and Neo-Hasidic masters and the author, and step-by-step experiential practices to help us internalize the middot and encounter the Divine.

Each seed contributes to the garden’s beauty — the beauty of the self in God-consciousness — which hopefully blossoms into a magnificent garden of the soul.

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About the Guest

Rabbi Yiscah Smith

Yiscah Smith is a thought leader, spiritual activist and agent of change who addresses the spiritual practice of encountering the Divine spark within and beyond.

She relies on Jewish spiritual teachings to inspire her students, acting as a compass, gently guiding them to their unique inner selves. She encourages, empowers and ennobles others to remain faithful to their individual spiritual paths.

Yiscah teaches at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, Applied Jewish Spirituality (AJS) and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS). She founded Conscious Community Nachlaot, an organization in Jerusalem that hosts Shabbat spiritual gatherings. Her forthcoming book Planting Seeds of the Divine: Torah Commentaries to Cultivate Your Spiritual Practice, jointly published by the University of Nebraska Press (UNP) and the Jewish Publication Society (JPS), will be released this coming 01 June. To pre-order please click here.

The post Seekers of Meaning 5/9/2025: Planting Seeds of the Divine, with Rabbi Yiscah Smith appeared first on Jewish Sacred Aging.