Hashpa’ah: Jewish Spiritual Direction Training
Awakening the Sacred Path of Jewish Spiritual Direction
Applications for Cohort 8, starting in January 2027 will be open in January 2026.
The ALEPH Hashpa’ah Training Program (HTP) invites you to join a transformative journey of becoming a mashpia/h (spiritual director), equipped to guide others in discerning the sacred dimensions of their lives while deepening your own spiritual development and understanding of Jewish wisdom traditions. The practice of Hashpa’ah offers a sacred counterbalance—a space where spiritual seekers can pause, listen deeply, and reconnect with the Divine presence that flows through all of life.
What is Hashpa’ah?
Hashpa’ah (Hebrew for “being in the Divine Flow” or “consciousness of God’s Presence”) is a traditional Jewish term for the relationship with a Jewish spiritual director/companion or mashpia/h. The mashpia/h offers guidance and support on matters of faith and practice, relationship with the Divine or Source, and the meaning, calling, and purpose of life itself. Read a deeper introduction by Rabbi Shawn Zevit, our program director.
ALEPH HTP Then and Now
The ALEPH HTP was designed in the early 2000s by Rabbi Shohama Wiener and colleagues, with the guidance and blessing of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the visionary founder of Jewish Renewal. In 2014, long-time faculty and assistant director, Rabbi Nadya Gross, became the program’s Director, joined by Rabbi Shawn Zevit, another senior faculty member in the training, as Associate Director, aided by Reb Sandra Wortzel as Assistant Faculty, Reb Sarah Cohen and other training faculty.
2024 marked another evolution, as Rabbi Shawn Zevit stepped into the Director role, supported by Assistant Director Rabbi David Curiel and Mashpiah Hannah Salander, both graduates of the program. Additional Mashpi’ah Faculty and spiritual direction teachers continue to support the program in various capacities.
HTP Cohort 8 will launch in January 2027 under the same leadership with a new and revised 2-year curriculum.
Please review the bios of the Spiritual Direction Training Program Faculty.
Upon completion, participants receive a certificate as Mashpia/Spiritual Director, and can join Spiritual Directors International, a professional organization. The Program is open to Jewish clergy and clergy students as well as those not on a clergy path, who feel a Divine calling to this work.
Hashpa’ah is multi-disciplinary, integrating diverse spiritual guidance approaches and skills from classic and contemporary schools of training and practice, while emphasizing the legacy of hashpa’ah found in the literature and praxis of Hasidism and the Jewish mystical tradition.
Read about one of our recent graduates in the Baltimore Jewish Times:
With Hashpa’ah Experience, Kol HaLev Provides Unique Approach to Spiritual Counseling
Cohort 7 Participants
January 2024
Cohort 6 Graduation Ceremony
January 7, 2023
Cohort 5 Graduation Ceremony
January 11, 2020
Curriculum
The curriculum integrates:
- Spiritual and pastoral counseling
- Personal, intercessory, and communal prayer and ritual
- The art of the maggid (storyteller)
- Spiritual approaches to Torah
- Personal and communal ethical development/mussar
- Gender, multiracial, and multifaith identities
- Somatic/Body and Trauma-informed awareness
- Spirituality across the lifecycle
Program Requirements
The requirements of the training program include:
- Four Intensives across the two-year program
- Video-conference coursework spread over the program’s duration
- Four semesters of monthly supervised practice with individuals and groups
- Supplemental learning in related areas
Participants train individually and in group settings with mashpi’otim (gender expansive plural form) who support their spiritual growth in relationship to the Source of All Life, and sacred service, and model diverse modalities of spiritual direction.
Faculty members present and demonstrate various models of spiritual guidance as they engage participants in prayer, meditation, and probing dialogues, intended to explore new possibilities of receiving guidance in the Divine presence.
Program Details
(1) Four Intensives and Four Semesters Hashpa’ah Supervision
- Two Winter Intensives (Tuesday afternoon through Friday afternoon before the OHALAH conference in early January)
- January 2027
- January 2028
- Two Summer Intensives (five-day training in late June or early July held during the ALEPH Ordination Program Intensive Study Week, aka Smicha Week)
- Summer 2027
- Summer 2028
- Four Semesters Hashpa’ah Supervision (with individuals and groups from Fall 2027 through Spring 2029)
Topics for Intensives have included:
- Styles of Hashpa’ah and Holy Listening
- Personal Theology and Prayer
- The arc of Spiritual Formation (inc. lineage, internalized Jewish, gender, cultural, and other identities)
- Transpersonal Guidance: God, guides, ancestors, and malachim/messengers
- Hashpa’ah and Rituals (for blessing, healing, and transformation)
- Group Spiritual Direction
- Multi-faith/Interfaith Spiritual Direction
(ALEPH rabbinic students earn one unit of credit in Kli Kodesh for each of the 4 intensives)
(2) Hashpa’ah Training Program Courses
These are thirteen-week live video classes open to students in the current HTP cohort only, offered at these times:
- Topics in Hashpa’ah I (January-May 2027)
- Sacred Text and Hashpa’ah (Fall 2027)
- Topics in Hashpa’ah II (January-May 2028)
(For ALEPH rabbinic students, courses 1 and 2 count as units in Kli Kodesh, and course 3 may count either as Kli Kodesh or as Tanach.)
(3) Required Courses offered during the Summer intensives
Requirement determined based on prior experience, in consultation with the Program Director
- Storytelling for Spiritual Transformation
- MYSTIC 418 Spiritual Practices of Hasidut
(4) Thirteen-week courses offered during the Fall and Spring semesters
These courses should be completed by the end of the Hashpa’ah Training Program, and may be open before the official cohort start date to students who apply ahead of time with the approval of the Director and Faculty teacher. Requirement determined based on prior experience, in consultation with Program Director:
- JTHT 501 Deep Ecumenism (interfaith studies and new cosmology) (offered Fall 2025, Spring 2026, Spring 2028)
- RABTXT 401 Foundations of Jewish Practice (Fall 2025, Spring 2027)
- LITURGY 403 Exploring the Siddur (Fall 2025, Fall 2027, Fall 2029)
- JTHT 505 Transformative Themes in Reb Zalman’s Writings (Fall 2026, Fall 2028)
(5) These Courses are required for AOP Clergy Students only
Best if taken prior to or during the Hashpa’ah Training Program
- PASTOR 541 Clinical Pastoral Education, 1 Unit
- PASTOR 505 and 506 Pastoral Counseling 1 and 2
- Davvenen Leaders Training Institute [optional for non-clergy] www.DLTITraining.org
(6) Two reflection papers required per year.
(7) Revised Spiritual Autobiography required in the final year.
Application Process – Next Cohort will begin January 2027.
We will start taking applications in January 2026. Inquiries welcome anytime!
Application to the ALEPH Ordination Program in HASHPA’AH consists of:
- Filling out an online Application Form
- Submitting a Spiritual Autobiography – via the application form
- Providing two Letters of Recommendation – via the application form
If you are presently an ALEPH student, one of your letters of recommendation must be from your DOS.
Information on the estimated cost of the Hashpa’ah Training Program can be found here.
For more information about the Hashpa’ah Training Program, click here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The AOP Hashpa'ah Program only open to ordained Jewish clergy or students?
When our training program first began, our policy stressed limiting enrollment to Jewish clergy as we felt that this ensured a high level of Jewish learning, permitting more advanced text study as well as a commonality of interests and needs. However, beginning with cohort 4, we began to accept a limited enrollment of non-clergy students whose applications and interviews reveal a strong Jewish background and show exceptional promise for this work. We fully affirm that therapists, chaplains, and others may be gifted in the arena of spiritual counseling and accept applications from prospective students who are not clergy or students in a clergy track. A variety of pastoral and Jewish practice and spirituality courses are part of the training program for those who are not ordained clergy, clergy students who have not yet taken certain courses, and non-clergy as per the information listed on the Hashpa’ah homepage and in dialogue with the Director.
Why did HTP change from a three-year to a two-year program?
This new time frame is a response to the needs, discernment, and review of the program by our program and larger AOP leadership, our applicants and current AOP students. The two-year structure allows for deep spiritual formation while creating a cohesive community journey. It offers sufficient time for personal development and supervised practice in working with mushpaim (directees), while being accessible to busy professionals who are seeking to integrate this sacred work into their existing practices and lives.
What credential will I receive upon completion of the program?
Certificate of Completion: All students who successfully complete the 2-year training program receive a Certificate of Completion as a Jewish Spiritual Director.
“Certification” is not given as Spiritual Directors International and the field of Spiritual Direction does not offer certification per se. However, to practice hashpa’ah, mashpi’imot must engage in ongoing supervision and continue to meet with a mashpia/h.