Chabad hitbonenut

Domain XIII · Contemplative & religious disciplines · Schneur Zalman of Liadi, Sholom DovBer Schneersohn · 1899

What it is

Hitbonenut (Hebrew, "contemplation" or "meditation") is the Chabad Hasidic practice of dwelling on a concept from Torah and Hasidic teaching, especially in preparation for prayer (davening) and during it. It is not a technique of emptying the mind, watching the breath or repeating a word. It means…

Format

• Session counts and durations. The sources reviewed give no fixed length for contemplation and no number of sittings. None is given here.
• Therapy takes no fixed number of sessions. Use these phases and move between them by the criteria given.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Isolation from study partners, or group settings that feel shaming. Working: the client experiences peers as supportive.
• Being idealised as a spiritual guide, or devalued as an outsider. Working: clear roles and a client who uses both their teacher and therapy.
• Your own bias in either direction. Risk always comes first. Working: a shared formulation that the client and, where involved, the community accept.
• Merging the two practices in a way that changes the client's own practice. Working: the client uses both practices with clear boundaries between them.
• Being drawn into halakhic debate, or a rabbi being given more clinical information than the client agreed to share. Working: the client gets consistent messages.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.