Planting Seeds of the Divine

June 2025 Save 40% with code 6AS25. Save 50% on orders of 10 or more copies of this title with code 6SEEDS50. Experiencing deep personal fulfillment, happiness, and sustenance comes from feeling connected to our authentic selves, which involves building an ongoing relationship with the Divine Presence within us, says author Yiscah Smith. Quite organically, then, we may begin sensing the Divine in our interactions with other people. This is because, for each of us, “our essence, as a creation by God, is God.” Planting Seeds of the Divine elucidates how Judaism’s sacred texts can provide the foundation for the “end destination” of experiencing intimate encounters with the Divine Presence within—the God-consciousness that so many of us find elusive. Imagining ourselves as spiritual gardeners, we can cultivate our unique gardens with seeds centered on middot (emotional dispositions, character traits, spiritual sensitivities). Each seed corresponds to an aspirational Torah commentary, consisting of a selected Torah verse linked to one of the middot, a summary of the biblical text preceding the verse, classical commentaries, teachings of Hasidic and Neo-Hasidic masters and the author, and step-by-step experiential practices to help us internalize the middot and encounter the Divine. Each seed contributes to the garden’s beauty—the beauty of the self in God-consciousness—which hopefully blossoms into a magnificent garden of the soul. Praise “Yiscah Smith has done a remarkable job of painting a wonderfully textured method of reading the Torah as a guide for spiritual development.”—Ariel Evan Mayse, assistant professor of religious studies at Stanford University and co-editor of A New Hasidism: Roots and A New Hasidism: Branches “An important contribution to this emerging school of Torah commentary that is smart and intellectually sophisticated while also embodied and psychologically and spiritually informed.”—Rabbi Josh Feigelson, president and CEO of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality “…[T]ake this book as a guidebook, as it is a companion for anyone seeking to live with greater intention and depth. Smith invites readers to recognize the divine spark within themselves, not as a distant ideal but as a real, living presence to be nurtured.”–Jewish Book World “In Planting Seeds of the Divine, Yiscah Smith has demonstrated her creative capacity to take abstract complex ideas from the world of Jewish mysticism and translate them into a living and practical guide for our life journeys.”–Melila Hellner-Eshed, Senior Fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute, author of A River Flows from Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar “Planting Seeds of the Divine overflows with Yiscah Smith’s warmth, wisdom and dedication to many years of scholarship and spiritual practice. It is an inviting, enjoyable book that will provide any spiritual seeker with depth, inspiration and invaluable practice guidance.”–Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein, founder and director of Applied Jewish Spirituality “This beautiful book grows from Yiscah’s garden in Jerusalem, from that beginning caring for us all, breathing into us weekly Love of Torah, gentle awareness to The presence of Hashem, gardening the internal with quietude, Middot and deep practice of light. In a trembling world today, this is a book for those who seek to breathe and become gardeners in the Garden of Life.”–Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum, Director, Rabbanut Yisraelit Network, Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem and Founder, Kehilat Zion congregation, Jerusalem “Smith’s book comes at just the right time. Since Octo­ber 7, many Jews around the world have felt a strong desire to con­nect — or recon­nect — to their cul­tur­al and spir­i­tu­al roots and, in turn, to their authen­tic selves. Plant­i­ng Seeds of the Divine is the per­fect guide for that jour­ney.”–Diane Gottlieb of the Jewish Book Council