For a weekend, Jewish people from up and down the East Coast silenced their phones and embarked on a meditation retreat in Shenandoah. Others spent an afternoon immersed in Jewish wellness practices. Yet others heard from a local author who writes about grief and loss and found solace herself at a Bethesda synagogue.

There are many avenues to pursue self-care and wellness in the Jewish tradition, especially at a time that can feel chaotic.

‘Deepen Our Rest’

Shabbat ties in seamlessly with meditative practices and vice versa, according to Noam Levenson, the director of programming at Lech-Lecha Journeys, a group that organizes wilderness experiences for Jewish adventurers.

“We live in a world where we’re constantly striving and doing and imagining ourselves being better, being different,” Levenson said. “Shabbat’s this time where we’re basically saying, ‘Everything is complete. Everything is as it is.’ Because everything is … how it’s supposed to be, we can really fully relax.”

From July 24 to 26, a cohort of Jews spent a weekend at Shenandoah, where they hiked the Appalachian Trail, engaged in conversation and guided meditation, and enjoyed a communal Shabbat dinner.

“Judaism is really trying to bring forward … [this idea that] we need this time for rest,” Levenson said. “It’s a cool opportunity to go into a Shabbat setting and combine it with meditation because we really get to deepen our rest and make it very intentional.”

The cabin retreat is also a time to make new friends. For Levenson, who leads some Lech-Lecha retreats, seeing participants bond through these trips is “magical.”

“You can take a group of strangers and … put them in the woods, and they have song and cook dinner together and meditate together, have intentional talks together, it just really opens up such a space of intimacy and comfortability,” he said.

Members of the cohorts stay in touch through group chats even after their retreats.

“I think they really often find that real sense of unity and togetherness, and people feel a lot more calm and embodied,” Levenson said. “I think they often feel like they’re able to go back — whether back to their work or families or friends or their lives — with a lot of vigor and perspective.”

Similarly, Adas Israel Congregation is hosting an Elul retreat on Aug. 30 ahead of the High Holidays, featuring Torah study, poetry, meditation, the arts and music.

‘A Space to Come as You Are’

Participants twisted their bodies into Hebrew letters with a yoga instructor at Am Kolel’s OLAMOT: A Jewish Wellness Festival on May 31. The other shiurim — classes — included kosher ayurveda, a session on healthy, mindful eating, moving meditation, ecstatic dance, mindful prayer dance and other workshops.

“[The goal is] to understand Judaism in a new lens, not just through the classic prayer that you’re going to get in a synagogue, but through movement, through dance, through song,” said Gabi Silver, Am Kolel’s festival coordinator.

Silver said he was inspired by the Big Jewish Gathering in Brooklyn, a two-day spiritual convening that took place in January. Spiritual Jewish leaders, teachers and artists gathered to combine “immersive ritual, embodied learning and creative renewal.”

Jewish Renewal aims to revitalize Judaism through joy, meditation and environmental consciousness, according to ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal.

“Our idea was that people would experience some new modalities for what spirituality could be, what prayer looks like, what chanting looks like, and that’s kind of how the festival came to be,” Silver said.

At the end of the afternoon, a healing circle allowed participants to share their thoughts and reflections on the day.

“I felt a lot more connected to the attendees myself than other synagogue spaces where it’s very much a classic davening with shulgoers and the rabbi,” Silver said. “We really tried to make [the festival] a space where you come as you are.”

‘Let Other People In’

After her infant son died at 5 days old, Takoma Park resident Karen Paul spent a lot of that year learning about grief and loss, then began writing about her experiences.

As she grieved, fellow members of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation showed up “in droves” to visit her.

“I learned that there was community for me in a way that I had never understood or thought about,” Paul said, noting that this was long before the advent of cell phones.

She also found it cathartic to share her story with the Adat Shalom community during the High Holidays and help others break through the stigma of infant loss.

She spoke at a July 24 Shabbat service at Am Kolel titled “Loss, Grief, and a Path Forward.”

Her advice to others? “Let other people in to help you,” Paul said.

“This is really hard for a lot of people,” she added. “I know it was hard for me when my husband was sick. He didn’t want anyone taking care of him except me.”

Paul was his sole caretaker for six months before her friends intervened.

“To allow yourself to accept help is a really important thing when you’re in the process of caregiving,” Paul said. “That is self-care because you can’t keep functioning without support.”

She compared American individualistic culture with that of other countries.

“In other cultures, including in Israel, there’s much more family close by,” Paul said. “There’s a more robust support network than we find ourselves in a lot of the times in this country. That, to me, is the number one thing: to allow yourself help from the outside and to not feel guilty about it.”

zbell@midatlanticmedia.com