Jay Michaelson is an innovative writer and teacher whose work focuses on spirituality, Judaism, sexuality, and law. His articles, classes, essays, and fiction bring the erudition of the academy and the devotion of the contemplative path to audiences around the country. God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness, and Embodied Spiritual Practice is his first book. He is also the editor of Az Yashir Moshe: A Book of Songs and Blessings and the founder and chief editor of Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture, recognized as a leading institution of the "New Jewish Culture."

In addition to his writing, Jay has taught Kabbalah and spiritual practice, especially embodied spiritual practice, at a wide range of institutions, including Yale University, City College, Elat Chayyim, the Skirball Center, the Wexner Summer Institute, Limmud UK, Limmud NY, Wesleyan University, Drew University, the New York University Hillel, the Burning Man festival, Easton Mountain, the Park Avenue Synagogue, the Trinity School, the Dorot Fellowship, and a number of synagogues and community centers, as well as online at www.learnkabbalah.com. He taught for four years the Jewish Theological Seminary's Ivry Prozdor school, and for five years at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires. He has created and taught over twenty curricula for formal and informal Jewish education, ranging from "How Not to Believe in God" to "The Philosophy of Halacha." A frequent speaker, panelist, and scholar in residence at synagogues and community centers, Jay brings Kabbalah down to earth, and brings the most mundane of earthly subjects to a higher spiritual plane. His classes range from textual studies of the Zohar to lighter workshops such as Eat Your Way to Enlightenment: The Art of Eating Meditation.

A recent finalist for the Koret Young Writer on Jewish Themes Award, Jay is a columnist for the Forward newspaper, where he writes the "Fringes" column on emerging Jewish spiritualities, as well as a contributor to the Jerusalem Post, Slate, Shma, and other publications. Jay also writes and lectures widely on issues of law and religion, and was a recent presenter on "Anti-legalism and anti-Judaism" at Cardozo School of Law's conference on Jews in the Legal Profession.

Jay's background combines both rigorous academic and serious contemplative work. He is presently a Ph.D. candidate in Jewish Thought at Hebrew University, where he is writing his dissertation on the antinomian mystical heretic Jacob Frank. He holds an M.A. in Religious Studies from Hebrew University, as well as a J.D. from Yale and a B.A. Magna Cum Laude from Columbia. He completed the Elat Chayyim Jewish Meditation Advanced Training program, sat a six-week silent meditation retreat in 2004, and has learned with spiritual teachers including Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Sharon Salzberg, Rabbi David Cooper, Avraham Leader, Joseph Kramer, and Sylvia Boorstein.

As he has long combined his religious and literary pursuits with the pursuit of Right Livelihood, Jay is also a successful software entrepreneur, having founded Wasabi Systems, now a multimillion dollar software company. A noted authority on issues of law and religion, and a published expert on environmental law and intellectual property law, Jay is a former clerk to Judge Merrick Garland on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and a recipient of numerous prizes and awards for his legal writing and scholarship. He resides in Putnam County, New York.


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Photo: Clint Steib