Offerings
Wilderness Torah is building a community ecology that serves as a platform for community enrichment, education, collaboration and exchange. For example, participants voluntarily provide programs and workshops at Wilderness Torah festivals like Passover in the Desert, allowing Wilderness Torah to offer innovative educational opportunities, while providing a platform for teachers to develop and launch new ideas and expose their talents to the Wilderness Torah community.
For Passover in the Desert, we have created a limited number of formal program spaces where community members will offer their talents by offering a text study, spiritual workshop, or movement practice, for example.
2010 Program Offerings
Friday – Beginning the Journey
7:30-8:30AM:
Kait Singley: Qi Gong – Beginners practice of Qi Gong to greet the day – A movement practice intended to move chi/spirit through the body. This is a basis for many traditional martial arts.
Michael Gelbart: Somatic/Deep Ecology Walk – Join us for a practice of mindful, sensate walking and exploring of our natures deep wisdom. We will begin with a guided meditation, then open to what the desert has to teach us through our sensing and inquiring. We will share conversation after our silent walking on what the environment reflects to us and teaches us about our path.
Meditation
3-4
Sharing Circles – To make our journeys in the desert safer and more fulfilling, we are creating space to circle up based on affinity. Sample circles include Women’s Circle, Men’s Circle, GLBTQ Circle, New Jew/Non-Jews/Jews by Choice Circle, Professional Jews, Sephardi/Mizrachi/Jews of Color, and others based on your desire! You can touch in with these people formally or informally throughout the weekend. Choose whichever circle you are most drawn to.
4:30-5:30
Day Schildkret: Abraham’s Tent (aka Your Mind and the Awesomeness of Now) - God, the Divine, the Universe are all happening right now. But most of the time, we are so overwhelmed by thought that we miss It. This session will be about how to receive God in the present moment and how your mind-thoughts play into that experience.
Rabbi Laurie Matzkin: Soul Cards and Journaling – Using a deck of “Soul Cards” and our journals, we will check in with our neshama (soul) and let our eyes, hands, and hearts guide our reflection on our spiritual journeys.
Kait Singley: Taking Care in the Desert with Plant Allies – In this workshop, herbalist Kait Singley will help us understand some of the basics of how to care for our bodies and spirits here in the desert. She will emphasize simple steps we can take and teach us some exciting plant allies that will help us on our healing and spirit journey.
Baruch Schwadron: Text Study: Inviting Wilderness – Through a study of Jewish and contemporary texts we will explore our relationship with the Wild from our contemporary lives and traditions.
Saturday – B’Midbar (In the Wilderness)
7:30-8:30AM:
Julie Wolk: Yoga – This slow flow class for all levels is based on Anusara yoga principles. We’ll focus on alignment and building strength, while creating flexibility and opening the heart.
Gabe Crane: Qi Gong- Beginners practice of Qi Gong to greet the day. A movement practice intended to move chi/spirit through the body. This is a basis for many traditional martial arts.
Meditation
3:30-5
Devra Aarons: Text Study: The Well of Life – Water & Wells in Torah – a journey into Miriam’s Well and Rebecca’s Camels.
Rich Robinson: Giving and Receiving Holy Blessings – Through blessing one another we are reminded of what a gift we are as we remind others of their uniqueness.
Sarai Shapiro: The Hero’s Journey: The Israelite’s Rite of Passage – Using song, story-telling, the medicine wheel and chevrutah (small group) style learning, we will explore how the story of Exodus mirrors the archetypal “Hero’s Journey” story that spans many cultures.
Sunday – Taking it Home
7:30-8:30AM:
Day Schildkret: Tao Yin Fa (Raising Your Human Frequency) – This gentle morning practice awakens the vitality which nourishes the physical and subtle bodies, helping to unblock and purify the internal organs and allowing the chi (energy) to “breathe” you.
Rachel Kaplan: Yoga – A holistic beginner’s class incorporating breath work, meditation, and postures to harmonize and balance physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of the whole being.
Meditation
7:30-11:30
Zelig Golden: Vision Walk – In the Spirit of the vision quest, framed by the teachings of the Four Winds Medicine Wheel and tales of bringing in vision, come take a journey through the mirror of nature while calling on the power of intention, listening, witnessing and being solo b’midbar.
10-11:30
Leah Lamb: Finding Your Story – Everyone has a story to tell, just as everyone has a voice that can sing, but not everyone has been taught to walk through the door that unleashes the creative spirit. This highly participatory workshop will take you on a meditation and journey to connect with spirit and find your story. Sharing your story will be encouraged.
Rabbi Laurie Matzkin: Far from Home: A Reflection on the Roots of Jewish Wandering - Join us for an exploration of the Jewish wandering, from Charan to the Promised Land, and from the Torah through the Chasidic Masters. We will examine elements from Abraham and Jacob’s journeys as well the transition of the Israelites from Egypt to the wilderness using text study, personal reflection, and music.
Devorah Brous: From Slavery to Freedom: And Then What? We’ll explore our respective roles in pursuing personal and tribal freedom as well as perpetuating forms of enslavement as we move beyond liberation toward imagining shared stewardship, wholeness, and conscious unity.
2:30-4
Gabe Crane and Saul Schumsky: Living Sustainably in the Desert - Solar ovens, gray water systems and composting toilets. Learn how the camp was designed using sustainable systems and brainstorm ideas for future festivals.
Yari Mander and Joti - Freedom Through Poetry and Rhythm - In this play-shop, we will experience the interlacing of poetry and rhythm as we build a rhythmic foundation and then express poetry that moves to the music. Bring a drum, percussion toy, your body, poem, or just be ready to improvise, to move and connect with rhythm.
Merav Daon: 5 Senses Meditation – During this mediation each sense (Sight, Hearing, smell, taste and body sensations) will get specific attention as we explore the surrounding desert.
4:30-6
Rae Abileah and Ariel Vegosen: Just Us: Creating Liberation in Ourselves and our Communities – Using art/theater as a means for self-exploration and modeling social change while integrating personal stories with social justice struggles.
Joti and Elisheva Hurvich: Bringing it Home through Collage- Using collage and meditation to sift through the desert experience.
Renna Kunner-Haber and Avigal Hurvitz-Prince: Sefirat Haomer: Reflection, History and a Take Home Calendar – Join us as we explore the meaning of the Omer, the verbal counting between the freedom of the Exodus beginning at Passover and the granting of the Torah at Shavout. We will explore the Omer’s agricultural origins, discuss how the kabbalists understood each day’s significance using the sephirot, and get our creative juices flowing to make take-home calendars that will help us bring a new awareness into our lives with a special meditation for each day.
Day Schildkret: Abraham’s Tent (aka Your Mind and the Awesomeness of Now) - God, the Divine, the Universe are all happening right now. But most of the time, we are so overwhelmed by thought that we miss It. This session will be about how to receive God in the present moment and how your mind-thoughts play into that experience.
Monday – The Return
7:30-8:30AM:
Amy Gotliffe: Tai Ji - Join me for an organic style of Tai Ji energy flow and five elements dance.
Meditation
