Hitbodedut: Practice of solitary praying from the heart in a great outpouring, often done in nature.

This is a practice for allowing everything that needs to come up to arise and be released, so that you empty your vessel completely, making space for a renewed spirit to flow in. It requires no Hebrew; it is something every human can do.

  • This can be done on a mountaintop, in a desert, in your closet, an empty house, a car, or silently inside yourself anywhere.
  • The process is to just start: speak, shout, sing, snap sticks, safely toss stones, do all it takes to empty yourself completely.
  • When one wave of stuff you have to express comes to an end, make nonsense sounds until the next wave hits.
  • When you are empty, listen, look, stay present and open to interpreting what comes into your range of awareness.

Hitbodedut, “making yourself alone with G*d,” is at least as old as Moses. He was always climbing a mountain to get away from it all, seeking and attaining new vision and wisdom. The Torah stories of his vision quests hold ideas and ideals that remain valuable to this day.

Goldie Milgram in Meaning & Mitzvah