Planting Seeds of the Divine

Planting Seeds of the Divine elucidates how Judaism’s sacred texts can provide the foundation for the “end destination” of experiencing intimate encounters with the Divine Presence within—the God-consciousness that so many of us seek and find elusive. Imagining ourselves as spiritual gardeners, we can cultivate our unique gardens with seeds, centered on middot (emotional dispositions, character traits, spiritual sensitivities). Each seed corresponds to an aspirational Torah commentary, consisting of a selected Torah verse linked to one of the middot, with classical commentaries, teachings of Hasidic and Neo-Hasidic masters and the author’s own interpretation, concluding with a step-by-step spiritual practice to help us internalize that Torah portion’s middah. Smith’s holistic approach engages the intellectual emotional, spiritual, psychological, and embodied dimensions on a journey of self-discovery through Torah – reclaiming a contemplative, experiential-theological language to the heart of religious discourse.