Rabbi Dr. Jay Michaelson is a columnist for The Daily Beast and The Jewish Daily Forward newspapers, and a meditation teacher in Buddhist, Jewish, and secular mindfulness contexts. He is the author of six books, most recently The Gate of Tears: Sadness and the Spiritual Path, and is a frequent commentator on NPR, CNN, and MSNBC. Currently an affiliated assistant professor at Chicago Theological Seminary, Jay holds a Ph.D in Jewish Thought from Hebrew University, a JD from Yale Law School, and nondenominational rabbinic ordination. A former serial entrepreneur, having founded and transitioned an embedded systems software company and three nonprofit organizations, Jay now divides his time evenly between writing and teaching.