Institute for Jewish Wilderness Spirituality
(currently under construction)

Founded by Rabbi Mike Comins, the IJWS (or as we like to say it, "I-JeWS") has the following goals:

• To help Jews participate in the core mission of Judaism—to engage the holy challenge of facilitating personal, communal and planetary Tikkun (transformation)—through Jewish spiritual practice in the natural world;
• To help Jews at home in the natural world find a home in the Jewish community;
• To raise awareness in the Jewish community for the Mitzvah of creating a sustainable civilization;
• To support public and private actions l’shomra u’lovda (Genesis 2:15), to guard and cultivate, our planet for future generations.

As of this writing (Spring 2010), we are establishing our organization and beginning work on three programs:

The Jewish Wilderness Spirituality Network
Our goal is to create an online community to:
—spark interest in the practice of Jewish wilderness spirituality (JWS for short);
—provide a place to share ideas, teachings, writings and best practices;
—bring together practitioners from diverse communities around the world and pool potential participants for IJWS programming;
—provide a bulletin board for public and private programs, retreats and trips into wilderness for JWS practitioners.

Advanced Leadership Training Program
—to identify and train a community of IJWS guides and educational entrepreneurs;
—to encourage joint initiatives and curricular collaboration in the IJWS community.

This program centers around three retreats (summer 2010, winter 2010 and summer 2011). Currently nine rabbis, rabbinical students and laypeople are enrolled. One additional space is available. The program begins in August, 2010.

Professional Jewish Leadership Program
—to expose rabbinical and education students in leading Jewish seminaries to the potential of wilderness for their spiritual development;
—to train rabbis and Jewish educators to unleash the power of the natural world for Jewish education;
—to raise awareness and motivate Jewish community members towards sustainable living.

Check back in the Fall of 2010 to see our progress!

Rabbi Comins can be contacted through his other web sites:

Making Prayer Real

TorahTrek Spiritual Wilderness Adventures

A Wild Faith