Between morning prayers, lectures and classes, supervised bet midrash study and reading assignments, Hebrew College Rabbinical School students often begin their day at 7:30 a.m. and end late in the evening. That doesn't leave much time for meals, let alone personal reflection. To help balance that schedule, Hadracha Ruchanit, the Rabbinical School's optional Spiritual Direction program, offers some needed breathing room.

Once a month, students meet individually with their spiritual directors in meditation and conversation to focus on moments of holiness in the students' lives. With practice, students learn to recognize and direct their lives toward these holy moments. Rabbi Carol Glass, the program's director and originator, describes spiritual direction as a practice: "It's an opportunity for a person to develop consistently in a way that enhances his or her spiritual life."

Glass received funding for the program from the Carpenter Foundation last year while serving as dean of students at the Rabbinical School. She wanted to provide the option for interested Rabbinical School students, as well as to train a cohort of Boston-area Jewish professionals to become the students' spiritual directors.

"Students have approached me and shared that spiritual direction is the only opportunity they have to explore certain topics of conversation," Glass says. "It's entirely confidential, so it gives students a freedom to say anything and discover new things about themselves in the process."

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