CREATIVE SOUL JOURNEYS

The Washington Jewish Week

Journey for the soul
Meditation workshop brings out the artist
by Molly Golubcow

November 24, 2006

Where can one go on a personal journey without having to call a travel agent or pack a suitcase? What spa can claim to relax one's mind and soul? What trip is experienced and then captured on a canvas rather than digital images? The answer is the Jewish Meditation and Painting Workshop.

As part of its monthly program to bring women together to "rejuvenate mind, body, and soul," Chabad of Potomac's Women's Circle on Sunday hosted the Jewish Meditation and Painting Workshop for more than 30 Jewish women of all ages and backgrounds.

Blending meditation, Kabbalah and creativity, this workshop takes the participant on a meditative journey, provides materials to paint the emotions experienced there and ends with participants discussing their journeys and paintings.

Workshop creator Neria Cohen, who has a degree in drama, film and English and studied in Machon Alte in Sfat, Israel, said, "The combination of meditation and painting facilitates interactive learning and enables participants to process ideas in their right brain, which is intuitive and nonjudgmental."

The workshop, she explained, is geared toward a different feel for each month of the Jewish year since each month embodies a spiritual and psychological energy that enables participants to tune into a particular dimension of the soul. Since the current month, Cheshvan, has no holidays, Cohen said we should "internalize the light" from last month's holidays.

Although Cohen has been guiding women on these spiritual workshops worldwide for the past several years, every workshop experience is different. Since every journey is a personal one, the paintings and the feelings are always new, touching on the emotions and stirring the subconscious mind of each participant.

As Cohen begins the program's meditative portion, she takes participants on a verbal journey of the inner chambers of "the sanctuary" - Beit Hamikdash (Temple in Jerusalem) - telling spiritual travelers what they can expect to see, feel, smell and hear.

Although each person travels on an individual journey, everyone enters "the sanctuary" together as Cohen guides all up the Temple stairs, past the incense altar, sacrificial altar, the golden table with the 12 loaves of bread (signifying the tribes and love of all the Jewish people), the seven-lamp menorah (representing emotional life) and, finally, entering into the Holy of Holies.

On the journey, Cohen encourages each participant to identify a negative physical/animal trait (such as fear and anger) and "sacrifice" it before entering the Holy of Holies.

Once participants emerge from their spiritual journey, they are encouraged to use the paint and craft materials provided to paint the story of their journey.

The canvases, like the women who paint them, symbolize a mix of emotions - black and tumultuous colors representing the grief of losing a child, red fragments the anger of being contained or driven away, yellow flames of hope and compassion, purple lines and forms the endurance to counter fear.

Some paintings were completely abstract in form; others incorporated multicolored birds, swirls of gray incense smoke, menorahs and Star of David motifs.

Since artistic talent is not a requirement to participate in the workshop, many participants said they were pleasantly surprised to see their creations.

Participant Rina Dubensky, who never painted before, felt an "urge" or "yearning" to put her feelings on canvas once she came out of her meditative journey.

During the painting phase of the workshop, the room was very quiet and intense as the women transposed their inner thoughts onto canvas. Then, as the emotions and feelings moved from mind to canvas, people became more animated as if they were awakening to a new perspective. Many participants commented to each other about how "relaxed" and fresh they felt after the journey and the painting process.

After all journeys were transposed onto canvas, Cohen displayed several of the paintings and the group commented not only on the colors and designs, but the emotions that were conveyed.

Many remarks seemed to zero in on what the artist was painting. In other cases, the group helped the artist to see and feel emotions that she was not even aware of.

In a twist, literally, Cohen turns some of the canvases upside down to show the artist and the group another perspective on the picture and the journey.

One participant said she could not wait to recommend the workshop to other friends because she enjoyed the process as "a type of Jewish art therapy."