Cultivating the Spiritual Practice of Self-Confidence / Bitachon Atzmi

Class Title – Cultivating the Spiritual Practice of Self-Confidence / Bitachon Atzmi

Class taught by Yiscah Smith

Class description: This session explores the high value that Jewish tradition places on bitachon atzmi – self-confidence and being able to trust in one’s self and one’s judgment. Based on the episode with Calev and the spies when the verse in Numbers 14:24 refers to Calev as possessing a ruach acheret – a different spirit. We all have a spark of Calev within us, a unique spirit, the source for cultivating courage and resilience.

Yiscah Smith

Yiscah Smith is an adjunct faculty member at Pardes, where she teaches Hasidism and spiritual texts. A spiritual activist, educator, mentor, and meditation guide, Yiscah approaches Judaism as a spiritual practice rooted in the encounter with the Divine spark within and beyond oneself. Yiscah holds a Master’s Degree in Jewish Education from The Jewish Theological Seminary.

Yiscah’s passion is encouraging and empowering others to carve their own paths. Her work takes many forms: faculty at Pardes, Applied Jewish Spirituality, and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality; founder and director of Conscious Community Nachlaot in Jerusalem; international lecturer; and author of Planting Seeds of the Divine: Torah Commentaries to Cultivate Your Spiritual Practice. As an avid gardener, Yiscah also enables her passion for growth to find expression in the natural world.