Indigenous memory
Chief Joseph AmaHura RiverWind & Dr. Laralyn RiverWind
Cherokee and Taíno history, sacred songs, spirituality, solidarity, and universal human concern.
The Bridge Conversations
Many traditions. One serious question.
What helps human beings listen, create, remember, and recognize one another without erasing difference?
Beit Abulafia conversations
A conversation can be a bridge too.
Music is only one way The Bridge Institute explores human connection.
The sixteen Beit Abulafia conversations bring together scholars, rabbis, musicians, spiritual teachers, artists, Indigenous culture-bearers, interfaith leaders, and inventors. They include voices such as Rabbi Dr. Yaakov Nagen, Rabbi Dr. Alan Brill, Professor Elliot Wolfson, Dave Liebman, Kenny Werner, Howard Levy, Andy Statman, LaDonna Brown, Professor Sarabjit Singh, David Packouz, and others.
The subjects move through Kabbalah and Judaism, Sikhism, Indigenous tradition, improvisation, meditation, interfaith encounter, creativity, music, and the search for what human beings may share without asking them to become the same.
Many traditions. One serious question.
Human traditions & shared dignity
These conversations explore memory, community, spiritual identity, and the responsibility to recognize the humanity of people beyond one’s own group.
Indigenous memory
LaDonna Brown
Chickasaw history, music, prayer, cultural memory, and hope for the future.
Human unity
Sarabjit Singh
Meditation on the Divine Name, the unity of humankind, and community healing circles.
Interfaith encounter
Yaakov Nagen
Kabbalah and relationships among Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and Bahá’í communities.
Religion & universalism
Alan Brill
Interreligious dialogue, spiritual intention, music, and universalism.
Music, attention & creative life
Musicians and inventors consider how discipline, surrender, pattern, risk, and inner attention shape creative work.
Jazz & mentorship
Dave Liebman
Miles Davis, improvisation, mentorship, creative projects, and international jazz education.
Music & spirit
Kenny Werner
Effortless Mastery, spirituality, and freedom in creative practice.
Music & mathematics
Howard Levy
John Coltrane, mathematics, musical possibility, and story through song.
Music & tradition
Andy Statman
Bluegrass, klezmer, mentorship, and spiritual discovery.
Invention & creativity
David Packouz
BeatBuddy, invention, entrepreneurship, music, and spiritual creativity.
Texts, philosophy & contemplative practice
This part of the archive preserves the historical and scholarly roots of the Institute’s inquiry without making them the entrance requirement for the public program.
Translation
David Samson
Translating Abraham Abulafia’s Chayei Olam Ha Ba and widening access to the text.
Philosophy
Lenn E. Goodman
Maimonides, The Guide for the Perplexed, translation, and interpretation.
Contemplative history
Avraham Leader
A spiritual journey and decades spent studying and teaching Abulafia.
Meditation & film
Daniel Bortz
Traveling Abulafia’s path, a film in progress, and contemplative practice.
Mysticism scholarship
Elliot Wolfson
A scholarly life devoted to Kabbalah, language, mysticism, and Abulafia.
Living tradition
Yehezkel Yosef Abulafia
Ancestral connection, contemplative practice, spiritual teaching, and a path to the Divine.
Continue the inquiry