Sidesteps

What does Leonardo da Vinci have in common with the Israelites wandering through the wilderness? More than you might think. Leonardo imagined flying machines centuries before the technology existed. Every visionary artist knows that feeling: seeing possibilities long before the world is ready. But living in the creative vanguard can also be lonely, exhausting, and discouraging. Drawing on Numbers...

What makes a house become a home? Inspired by a midrash on Numbers 33:2, this meditation reflects on the Israelites' journey through the wilderness. The rabbis compare God to a parent walking home with a child who has recovered from illness, gently recalling each stop along the way: "Here we rested. Here you caught cold. Here your head hurt." The memories include both suffering and care, revealing...

"When we become empty of ourselves, that's when creation, inspiration, and beauty arrive." — Mayra Clay Episode Summary: What happens when spirituality stops being something you search for outside yourself and becomes something you discover within? In this deeply moving conversation, Rabbi Alon Ferency sits down with children's author and meditation teacher Mayra Clay to explore her journey from a...

What can dance, qigong, trauma release, and the changing seasons teach us about creativity, healing, and spiritual life? In this episode of Sidesteps, Rabbi Alon Ferency speaks with movement teacher, qigong practitioner, and author Lara J. Day about embodiment, nervous system regulation, creativity, and reconnecting with nature as a spiritual practice. Together they explore neurogenic tremoring an...

This guided imagery is inspired by Numbers 4 - 7 (Parashat Naso) and the ancient teaching of the three camps surrounding the wilderness sanctuary. In this journey, you move inward through three sacred circles of belonging. First, the camp of Israel: the place of family, friendship, memory, and human connection. Here, you reflect on the people who hold and shape your life. Then, the camp of the Lev...

A gentle nighttime meditation inspired by the ancient Jewish practice of preparing the soul for sleep. This ritual invites you to close the day with softness, honesty, and gratitude — releasing tension, reviewing the moments that shaped you, and returning to yourself with compassion. Through calming breath, reflection, and quiet awareness, you’ll create space to let go of unfinished thoughts and s...

Roughly a week ago, Veronica Moya contacted me to appear on my podcast. I had never interviewed anyone here before, and I'm glad I took her up on it. Veronica is multi-faceted with a spetacular personal, professional, and spiritual history: artist, performer, educator, mindfulness teacher.  Our wonderful talk touched upon the soul, creative Sidesteps, the transcendent power of song and other perfo...

A guided meditation inspired by the Book of Numbers and the great encampment in the wilderness. In the Bible, every tribe gathered in its place — close enough for connection, with enough space for dignity, difference, and belonging. In this meditation, you’ll enter a wide open landscape and slowly create your own sacred camp: inviting family, friends, teachers, ancestors, estranged loved ones, and...

A Jewish-inspired bedtime ritual rooted in the ancient practice of the nighttime Shema. This meditation invites you to gently review the day, release what’s unfinished, and soften into rest. With simple breath awareness and a quiet letting go, you set aside worries, offer forgiveness to yourself and others, and entrust your spirit to the care of the night. No striving, no fixing—just being held. A...

A grounding meditation on pride as a steady, honest recognition of what is good in you. Often dismissed or distorted, pride here is reclaimed as clarity—the ability to see your efforts, your growth, your character, and to name them without apology. Through gentle reflection, you’ll be guided to notice specific qualities you respect in yourself: moments of courage, persistence, creativity, care. Th...

A short, playful meditation designed to gently unlock laughter from within. Through simple breath, subtle sound, and a relaxed smile, you’ll ease the body out of tension and into lightness. This practice doesn’t force joy—it creates the conditions for it, inviting a natural sense of humor to emerge. The line between breath and laughter begins to blur, awakening the body’s innate rhythm of release....

A meditation on loving your neighbor as yourself begins, quietly, with how you hold your own life. Sit and call to mind three things: something you’re grateful for, something you worked hard to earn or become, and something you love simply because it lights you up. Let each one land fully—no deflection, no minimizing. This is what it means to “ought” to love yourself: not indulgence, but honest re...

This soft bedtime practice is inspired by Kriat Sh'ma al haMitah — the Jewish tradition of reciting the Sh'ma before sleep. As the day ends, you'll be gently guided to set down whatever the day held — finished or unfinished — and settle into stillness. Through simple breath, a moment of reflection, and words from an ancient, beloved prayer, the practice cultivates forgiveness, protection, and a qu...

From Leviticus, the rabbis notice that the biblical “leprosy” afflicting a person may arise from harmful speech. The cure, then, begins with silence. This meditation invites us to step away from the noise of our own words and enter a quiet chamber within. Leviticus speaks also of childbirth, recalling an ancient teaching: that in the womb a child knows the whole Torah, a deep and wordless wisdom,...

This soft bedtime practice is inspired by Kriat Sh'ma al haMitah — the Jewish tradition of reciting the Sh'ma before sleep. As the day ends, you'll be gently guided to set down whatever the day held — finished or unfinished — and settle into stillness. Through simple breath, a moment of reflection, and words from an ancient, beloved prayer, the practice cultivates forgiveness, protection, and a qu...

Before Passover, we search for hametz—leaven, the agent that makes dough swell and rise. In meditation, hametz can be understood in several dimensions. In the body, it resembles inflammation: places that feel swollen, tender, or sore, where irritation lingers in the tissues. In the heart, it mirrors fermentation: emotions quietly bubbling and expanding beneath the surface—old frustrations, excitem...

Fire and Blood: a meditation from Tzav Sit and sense the altar within you—the place where offering becomes transformation. Notice first the blood: the quiet pulse beneath your skin, the steady river of life-force, motive, survival, memory. Feel it move without your command. This is what animates you, what carries your why through the body. Now turn to the fire. Not the destructive blaze, but the e...

In Leviticus, error is not erased—it is named, held, and softened. Shogeg marks the places we missed the mark without knowing: speaking sharply to a friend, forgetting a promise, drifting from what matters. Meizid names what we knew and did anyway: the harsh email, the indulgence, the small betrayals of our own values. A grounded meditation does not blur these distinctions—it speaks them clearly....

Creation is a weaving. Many strands—distinct, fragile on their own—are twisted together until they gain strength and beauty. The work of the sanctuary reminds us that sacred things are rarely made alone. Vision may begin in solitude, but it comes alive in collaboration, where each person offers their thread. The rabbis imagined the cherubs above the ark turning toward one another when love flowed...

This soft bedtime practice is inspired by Kriat Sh'ma al haMitah — the Jewish tradition of reciting the Sh'ma before sleep. As the day ends, you'll be gently guided to set down whatever the day held — finished or unfinished — and settle into stillness. Through simple breath, a moment of reflection, and words from an ancient, beloved prayer, the practice cultivates forgiveness, protection, and a qu...