Rabbi Fern Feldman

Rabbi Fern Feldman is a singer, thinker, spiritual counselor, service leader, and ritual facilitator, with experience in a wide range of Jewish communities, including Conservative, Renewal, Reconstructionist, Reform, and unaffiliated. They also co-facilitate a Trans/Queer COVID-conscious carport minyan in Seattle, WA.

They received rabbinic ordination in 2003 from Aleph: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, and Spiritual Direction certification in 2007 from the Morei Derekh program of Yedidya.

Their current work involves exploring the sacred dark in Jewish text, and developing non-dual paradigms for the mysteries of creation.

In addition, they are a health care worker in the harm reduction field, and are a hypnotherapist and life coach.

Spiritual Direction

Spiritual Direction is a relationship in which we dedicate a regular period of time to the exploration of the presence of the Holy in our lives, seeking to discern glimmers of holiness, the awe at the depth of the soul. Here we bring our attention to our experiences of mystery, the sacred dimensions that are present in every moment of our lives.  This is a time to look beneath the surface of things, to discover the presence of something beyond our individual awareness; experiences of connection, or a sense of being guided or accompanied along our life journeys.

On Prayer

Ark in a Synagogue in Corfu

…No matter how much we develop scientifically plausible theories, we come back to the basic question of human consciousness, which boils down to “can we trust our experience?” If not, then we have no reason to believe there is anything beyond the individual self. We have no reason, even, to believe that logic correlates with reality. If, however, we choose to trust our experience, everything else follows. In Jewish tradition, we are not asked to believe anything we haven’t experienced. We said “na’aseh v’nishmah—we will do and we will hear” when we received the Torah, partly because of this recognition that Judaism is about experience, and embodiment, not just theory. As a friend of mine says, “I don’t believe in G-d, I experience G-d”. As with any spiritual practice, Judaism, and prayer, look ridiculous from the outside. It is only on the inside that they make sense. So with davenning (prayer), there is no point in deciding if we “believe’ in it or not until we do it.