Matot-Massei: Refuge

Welcome to Shabbat Moment, a text study series with Yael Shy, from our friends at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. Every week we share Yael’s Torah text study, mindfulness practice tips, and discussion questions for you to reflect + share with others at your Shabbat table. Subscribe here to get the Shabbat Moment delivered straight to your inbox!

This week’s Torah portion is Matot-Massei: Refuge.

What is your City of Refuge? What are your places – internally or externally – where you can find a little space and some safety from the heat of anger, the weight of self-recrimination, the burden of guilt?

This week’s Torah portion recognizes our urge to flee when we are in trouble, but gives us another approach to the problem: creating refuges of integration rather than avoidance.

Find Your Friday

About the Author

Special thanks to Yael Shy and our friends at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality for joining us in creating weekly Shabbat moments for your Friday nights.

Yael Shy is the CEO of Mindfulness Consulting, LLC, where she teaches and consults on mindfulness for universities, corporations, and private clients around the world. She is the author of the award-winning book, What Now? Meditation for Your Twenties and Beyond (Parallax, 2017), and the founder of Mindful NYU, the largest campus-based mindfulness initiative in the US. Yael is a graduate of the IJS Jewish Mindfulness Teacher Training Certification.