Penimah — Turning Inward A Monthly Online Session in Jewish Contemplative Learning
Each month, Penimah brings together a small community online for one hour of study and practice drawn from the great masters of Jewish spiritual thought. The word penimah — פְּנִימָה — means inward. That is the direction of every session.
The format is simple and consistent. We open with a short settling practice — a niggun, a few conscious breaths, a shared phrase that marks the transition from ordinary time into something quieter. We then study together: one text, one idea, explored with depth rather than breadth. And we close with a guided meditation that grows from the teaching — not as an addition to it, but as its natural continuation.
The Teachers
This year’s sessions draw from three figures whose work lends itself directly to contemplative practice:
The Piaseczner Rebbe (R. Kalonymus Kalman Shapira) taught that imagination — dimyon — is not decoration but a sacred faculty through which the soul makes contact with higher realities. His Chovas HaTalmidim and Derech HaMelech contain specific inner practices: visualising the neshamah, cultivating inner speech, addressing the Divine from within. His material translates into guided meditation with almost no adaptation needed. We begin here.
Bachya ibn Paquda, writing in eleventh-century Andalusia, drew a sharp distinction between external religious duties and the duties of the heart — Chovot HaLevavot. His chapters on bitachon (trust in God) and hitbodedut (solitude of the soul) offer a practice of open-awareness sitting: releasing the need to control outcomes, resting in what is already present.
The Ramchal (R. Moshe Chaim Luzzatto) built his Mesilat Yesharim around a structured ladder of character refinement. Each rung — zehirut (watchfulness), zerizut (inner aliveness), nekiyut (cleanliness of motivation) — becomes both an ethical examination and a contemplative anchor. Slow, honest, and exacting in the best sense.
The Sessions — June to December 2026
All sessions are held online on the second Tuesday of each month at 7pm BST. No prior knowledge is required. Each session stands alone; you do not need to have attended previous ones.
9 June — The Soul’s Obligation Chovas HaTalmidim, The Piaseczner Rebbe We open the series with the Rebbe’s central claim: that learning has not fulfilled its purpose unless it touches and transforms the inner life. The guided practice introduces the Rebbe’s own technique — sensing the neshamah as a living presence within.
14 July — The Duties of the Heart Chovot HaLevavot, Bachya ibn Paquda What does it mean to serve God inwardly rather than only outwardly? Bachya’s opening argument — that the inner life carries obligations just as serious as ritual observance — anchors an open-awareness meditation practice.
11 August — Bitachon: Releasing Control Sha’ar HaBitachon, Bachya ibn Paquda Trust in God is not passive resignation. Bachya describes it as an active inner stance — a felt release of the compulsion to control outcomes. The meditation this session works with that release directly.
8 September — Waking Up: Zehirut Mesilat Yesharim, The Ramchal The first rung of the Ramchal’s ladder is zehirut — watchfulness, attention, waking up to the life you are actually living. A slow body-scan awareness practice follows the teaching.
13 October — Inner Aliveness: Zerizut Mesilat Yesharim, The Ramchal Zerizut is often translated as diligence, but the Ramchal means something closer to inner aliveness — the opposite of heaviness and drift. A breath-based energising practice accompanies this session.
10 November — The Inner Voice Derech HaMelech, The Piaseczner Rebbe We return to the Piaseczner with his teaching on inner speech — the practice of speaking to one’s own soul and learning to listen for what responds. A guided inner dialogue forms the contemplative practice.
8 December — Imagination and the Neshamah Chovas HaTalmidim, The Piaseczner Rebbe We close the year with the Rebbe’s most distinctive teaching: that the imagination, rightly used, is the faculty through which the soul encounters the Divine. A visualization of divine light within forms the closing meditation of the series.
Sessions are one hour. All are welcome. To register or for further information: cantor@synagogue.org.uk
Penimah is presented by Spirit of Wellness in partnership with Belsize Square Synagogue. spiritofwellness.blog — synagogue.org.uk
Spirit of Wellness 