Sheila Peltz Weinberg - Let Us All Breathe Together

Advance Praise for Let Us All Breathe Together

Sheila Weinbergs most immediately recognizable and endearing skill, her startling candor that enables her to say what she feels as well as what she thinks, shines all through Let Us All Breathe Together. She slides fluently and fluidly between classical liturgy, her passion for peace through the loving transcendence of divisive boundaries, the trials and the glories of grandmotherhood and the relative menus of Dunkin Donuts and health food cafes. As you read it, you will feel as if you are sitting across from her in a comfortable room and youve just asked, What are you thinking about these days?

Sylvia Boorstein, Co-founding teacher, Spirit Rock Meditation Center

Artfully weaving the timeless wisdom of the Jewish tradition with the compassionate insight she has gained as a practitioner and teacher of mindfulness, Rabbi Sheila Weinberg takes us into the heart of our human longing for wholenessfor ourselves and for our world. In this profound and poetic book, Weinberg dismantles the wall between the inner and the outer, the personal and the collective. Her words seep into the soul and stir into wakefulness our deeper knowing about who we are, about what this world might be, about the power of love itself.

Patricia Pearce, M.Div., Author of Beyond Jesus: My Spiritual Odyssey

Rabbi Weinberg says that wonderful teachers can make others love what they love. And that is what she accomplishes in this book. Her transparency, as a deeply prayerful Jew, to Gods unconditional love for all humanity, crosses all apparent boundaries between traditions, cultures and communities, to give readers from every background great hope for the future of this world.

Lama John Makransky, author of Awakening Through Love

In this volume, readers can receive the blessing of Weinbergs sensitivity, compassion, and commitment to equanimityher attention to what matters even amid the complexities of daily life in the 21st century. Weinbergs writings explore her life journey as well as the Jewish roots of her practices, from prayer to social justice, from Torah study to breathwork. Make your heart a bowl, she writes, large enough to hold it all. These collected writings will be cherished by her students and beyond.

Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD, author of Return to the Place: The Magic, Meditation, and Mystery of Sefer Yetzirah

In her first book, Surprisingly Happy, Sheila Peltz Weinberg tells of her experience in Alaska, paddling in a kayak with her colleague and friend Nancy Flam, chanting rhythmically: No inside, no outside. This consciousness has only deepened in the intervening years: more deeply felt, more precisely internalized, more consciously experienced. In this collection of teachingspoetry/prayer, reflections, and meditation practicesSheila calls us to join her in knowingdeeply, precisely, consciouslythat there is only one flesh to wound, and that we can only breathe when we all breathe together.

Rabbi Jonathan Slater, author of Mindful Jewish Living: Compassionate Practice and A Partner in Holiness: the Wisdom of R. Levi Yitzhak of Berdichevs Kedushat LeviA Two-Volume Set

This is a book unlike anything I have read before, inclusive of spirit, social justice, biblical teachings, personal memoir, poetry and prayer. It is a book of yes to life. It is a teaching. It is an inspiration. It is a holy call. Gratitude to Sheila for her willingness to open to the abundance of this life/dance. All that is sorrowful, suffering and pain, and all that is beautiful, true and clear. This book opens new portals for our hearts and minds. It is a spiritual attunement. It is a gift.

Teya Sepinuck, Founder and Artistic Director, Theater of Witness

Through poetry, prose, prayer and meditation exercises, Sheila Weinbergs capacious mind reveals and embraces lifes mysteries and contradictions. Joy and suffering, emptiness and fullness, wisdom and ignorance, confidence and vulnerability, all intertwined, each demanding attention. A deep commitment to service in the world and care for the self likewise arise, informing and shaping her unique and passionate life of faith, so beautifully articulated in this volume.

Paula Green, Founder of the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding and Professor Emerita, School for International Training

This deeply personal book reveals the many layers of Sheilaas rabbi, mother, activist, grandmother, wise elder and more. But from every one of the roles through which she speaks, we gain insight into how we can lead deeper, more meaningful and more socially conscious lives.

Rabbi Sid Schwarz, Senior Fellow, Hazon; Director, Clergy Leadership Incubator (CLI) Rabbinic Fellowship; author of Judaism and Justice: The Jewish Passion to Repair the World.

Rabbi Sheila Weinberg has probed deeply into Jewish tradition and her own mindfulness practice, harvesting the fruits of a lifetime of prayer and study. In this book she offers her readers singular wisdom for living a purposeful and peaceable life. Her writing is both luminous and humorous, inspired and intimate. A book to re-read and savor.

Ellen Frankel is the author of The Five Books of Miriam and The Deadly Scrolls, Book 1 of the Jerusalem Mysteries.

The Torah of the Corona, as you walk through the years cycle of readings, was perhaps my favorite. What profound readings are offered, week after week, doubly rooted in Torah and those unforgettable stories, on one hand, and the confusions and sufferings of a full Covid year. Dissonance, resonance, mirroring, images linked together in remarkable and brilliant ways.... Oh such perfect balance as a teacher and interpreter.

Penny Gill, Mary Lyon Professor of Humanities, emerita, Mount Holyoke College, author of What in the World Is Going On? Wisdom Teachings for Our Time and The Radiant Heart of the Universe: Compassion Teachings for Our Time

Like a silent meditation retreat guided by a gifted teacher, Sheila Weinbergs Let Us All Breathe Together, inspires us to breathe with her and transform our own human limitations into possibilities for Wholeness/Holiness through herand our ownvulnerability, compassion, and love.

Rabbi Phyllis Berman, co-author with Rabbi Arthur Waskow of Tales of Tikkun, A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven and Freedom Journey: The Tale of Exodus and Wilderness Across Millenia

This book is a gift. With poetry, Torah insights, and meditations, Rabbi Sheila Weinberg brings us back again and again to the steady rhythm of breath that connects us all. In her inimitable voice of conscience and presence, she helps us to come hometo ourselves, to our tradition, to one another.

Rabbi Rachel Timoner, Senior Rabbi, Congregation Beth Elohim, Brooklyn

This book is an opportunity to share in the heart and soul meditations of a respected and beloved teacher. Let Us All Breathe Together brought me into closer relationship to my own breath, and to my own yearning for wholeness, peace and widespread wellbeing. I especially appreciated the connections the author made between her inner life and her commitments to equity and justice.

Rabbi Nahum Ward-Lev, author of The Liberating Path of the Hebrew Prophets: Then and Now

Sheila Weinberg does not preach her wisdom, gleaned from deep spiritual practice and study. Instead, she offers her gleanings so that you, dear reader, can find your own deep wisdom within. Like a friend accompanying you on a long walk, Weinbergs words ebb and flow as gentle suggestions for contemplating where you are, where we are in this vast universe of pain, suffering, joy and love. After two years of lonely, isolated pandemic, these are the words I needed to begin reaching again for hope.

Rabbi Elyse Wechterman, Executive Director of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association