Chanukah celebrates the re-dedication of the ancient Holy Temple, the physical nexus point unifying holiness in spirit and in matter. Each year we recall the "great miracle that happened there." We go in search of the Holy Temple within our own depths. We become aware of the desecration that has happened and familiarize ourselves with its textures and dimensions, much as the ancient Maccabean warriors surveyed the ruins of the Temple they sought to reclaim. We invoke the miraculous light of Chanukah inside in order to reconsecrte our lives to Holiness as we contemplate the transformations we have made.
In this retreat we'll offer a method for engaging these spiritual dimensions
of Chanukah. We'll create an intensive experience in which what we are
learning can be taken inside, absorbed, and practiced for a lifetime. We'll
use two complementary maps which give shape to the interior Holy Temple:
the map of the Chakras, helping us enter the depths through our bodies,
and the map of the sefirot, Jewish metaphysical descriptions of energy
states. On our journey, we'll use meditation, imagination, ecstatic chanting,
yogic movement, breathwork, art, ritual, prayer, text, and sacred stories
to open up the inner pathways and inspire us in the work of rededication.
Together we'll celebrate the "Great Miracle" that is happening right here
within us and between us, as we call light into our own places of darkness,
and tend the flames of the holy depths within. This retreat is one extra
day long and costs an additional $75.
Rabbi Shefa Gold is a leader in Aleph: the Alliance for Jewish Renewal and received her ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. Shefa composes and performs spiritual music and has produced seven albums. Her liturgies have been published in several new prayerbooks. Her theories of the art of Chanting and the practice of silence are grounded in the Jewish tradition, but her background in Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, and Native American spiritual traditions makes her uniquely qualified as a spiritual bridge celebrating the shared path of devotion through song and praise. Rabbi Myriam Klotz is the Rabbinic Director of the Kimmel-Spiller Jewish Healing Center of Jewish Family Service of Delaware and is a Spiritual Director on faculty at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. A certified yoga teacher, therapist, and massage therapist, Myriam has taught Torat HaGuf -- The Torah of the Body -- throughout the country, and written extensively about on topics of Jewish healing and the body. She has released an audiocassette, Each and Every Day: Yoga and Meditation for Jewish Spirituality, and is a member of a music ensemble Shabbat Unplugged. She lives in Philadelphia with her partner, two children, and caravan of pets. Shefa and Myriam have voyaged on this journey of Chanukah Retreat for several seasons, each time uncovering new dimensions to the work, they look forward to sharing these gifts with you.