Av 5785: Get Ready
We are not ready for the brokenness of Jewish consciousness. Not just the historical wounds we revisit every year in the month of Av, but the raw, contemporary rupture we are living through right now. We are not ready for the unbearable complexity of a world where Jews have been stalked and killed on American streets, while a war rages in Israel and Gaza with no end in sight, where hostages remain in captivity and entire neighborhoods are turned to ash. We are not ready for the moral disorientation—where grief and guilt, rage and helplessness, love and complicity all live side by side. We are not ready for the rising tide of antisemitism, or for the ways in which our pain is politicized, dismissed, or used to justify more violence. We are not ready for the silence of those we thought were allies, nor for the weaponization of our own story. Meanwhile, in America, a sweeping new bill is quietly reshaping the landscape: gutting clean energy initiatives, expanding fossil fuel infrastructure, and pouring billions into ICE, making it the sixteenth largest military force on the planet—larger than the militaries of Canada or Italy. We are not ready for the scale of injustice being codified in law, or for the spiritual numbness that sets in when cruelty becomes routine. The month of Av does not offer us comfort. It confronts us with collapse—personal, political, planetary—and dares us to look straight at it without turning away.
For medicine Jews living through a destruction, it’s critical to embrace an old-new model of working holistically toward the healing of ourselves, our relationships, the world surrounding us, and Reality as we know it. We have to get ready.
NaranChai: A Model for Holistic Integration
NaranChai—an acronym for Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah, Chayah—emerges from centuries of Jewish mystical thought as a map of the soul’s layered structure. Early Kabbalists spoke of three core aspects: Nefesh (bodily life force), Ruach (emotional and moral self), and Neshamah (intellectual and spiritual awareness). In the 16th century, the teachings of Rabbi Isaac Luria (the Ari) expanded this into five levels, adding Chayah, the soul’s intuitive vitality, and Yechidah, the point of absolute unity with the One. Later, Hasidic masters drew on this model to describe prayer, transformation, and the soul’s journey toward devekut—intimate connection with God. Today, NaranChai offers us a spiritually grounded, tradition-rich framework for integration: one that honors the complexity of human experience across body, heart, mind, spirit, and essence.
In a moment this fractured—where moral clarity feels elusive, where grief and rage live side by side, where Jewish identity is pulled in every direction—we need more than analysis or action. We need a way to come back to center. A way to tend to the shattered parts of ourselves without collapsing into despair or disconnection. The NaranChai model matters now because it helps us do exactly that: hold the full spectrum of what it means to be alive in a time of rupture.
It reminds us that the soul is not a single thing. It is layered—physical and emotional, intellectual and intuitive, communal and Divine. And each layer requires attention. Each layer has its own wisdom, and its own path to healing. This isn’t just mystical theory—it’s a call to integration, to wholeness, to staying awake and connected as Jews in the midst of personal, political, and planetary unraveling.
NaranChai also offers practical support. When someone has a powerful psychedelic or spiritual experience—whether it's somatic release, emotional bypass, intellectual revelation, a transpersonal vision, or a glimpse of radical unity—it can be overwhelming. Without a framework, it’s hard to know where to begin the work of integration.
The NaranChai model helps identify where in the soul the experience landed, and therefore what kind of response is needed. A trembling in the Nefesh calls for rest, ritual, or embodied practice. A storm in the Ruach may need dialogue, relational repair, or ethical accountability. Insight in the Neshamah might want study, prayer, or new commitments. Encounters in Chayah or Yechidah may open the door to awe, humility, or radical reorientation—but only if grounded with humility.
In this way, NaranChai becomes a guide for next steps—a way to move from rupture to reweaving, from peak to practice, from soul encounter to sustainable change.
How Does This Work
The NaranChai Model of Holistic Integration is a practical guide for navigating transformation. Whether through a medicine journey, personal upheaval, or relational rupture, the soul speaks across many layers. This model helps us learn to listen and respond.
To bring this into lived experience, we’ve developed a set of cheshbonot hanefesh—soul reckonings—each aligned with one of the five levels of the self. These cheshbonot offer thoughtful reflection, helping us recognize where an experience is asking for attention, and how we might meet it with care.
Each cheshbon is a doorway into relationship—with the body, the heart, the intellect, the spirit, or the essence. Taken together, they form a holistic path of integration grounded in Jewish wisdom.
Cheshbon HaNefesh attends to the body: food, rest, breath, movement, sensuality, and physical health. This is where we explore how the body holds experience, and what it needs to feel safe, nourished, and awake.
Cheshbon HaRuach centers on the emotional and relational self. It asks how we process grief, anger, joy, or fear; how we express vulnerability; and how we navigate our relationships and moral integrity.
Cheshbon HaNeshamah explores our inner world of belief, values, and understanding. It supports clarity around what we know, what we long for, and how we align our lives with our deepest insights.
Cheshbon HaChayah opens us to the visionary and intuitive: moments of awe, ancestral presence, spiritual encounter, and deep connection with the more-than-human world. This is the soul’s movement toward expanded consciousness.
Cheshbon HaYechidah brings us into contact with the silent, unchanging center of being—the part of the soul that is already whole. It is felt in moments of stillness, surrender, and union. Sometimes, it’s less about answering questions and more about allowing presence to deepen.
These cheshbonot aren’t exercises in self-improvement. They’re invitations to relationship. They help us stay connected to the movement of the soul through time—before, during, and after the peak moment. Integration doesn’t ask us to return to who we were. It asks us to become more fully who we are.
The NaranChai model offers a language for this process. It allows us to orient without rushing, to reflect without judgment, and to respond with compassion across the full spectrum of human experience. It gives shape to the sacred work of healing—within ourselves, within our communities, and within the unfolding destiny of the Jewish people.
A Practice to Begin
If you're curious where your own soul is asking for attention, try this:
Set aside 10–15 minutes. Find a quiet place. Bring a journal or just sit with the questions.
Choose one level of soul—Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah, Chayah, or Yechidah—and ask:
What part of me has been most alive lately?
Where do I feel constriction or longing?
What kind of support am I actually needing right now?
If you’re unsure where to start, begin with the Nefesh body. Ask yourself: How am I breathing? Am I sleeping well? What does my body need that I’ve been ignoring? Trust what arises. Integration begins with attention.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing more of these guided cheshbonot—ways to bring the NaranChai model into daily practice, rooted in Jewish time and tradition.
As we approach Tisha B’Av and Shefa’s sixth anniversary since our founding, may this be a season of deep listening, courageous reckoning, and soul-aligned return as we get ready for whatever wants to be known.
Hodesh tov,
Z
