Medicine of the Jewish Holidays
Cultivating Wholeness in Sacred Cycles
Elul: Prepare for the Jewish New Year
Sept. 5 – Music of Return: A Journey through Selichot Prayers
Sept. 12 – Forgiveness & Compassion: Essential Teachings of Reb Zalman
Sept. 19 – Teshuvah as Spell for Liberation
Sept. 26 – Exploring Unetaneh Tokef
About
The Hebrew calendar is a profound cultural operating system. Guided by the cycles of the moon and attuned to the sun and its seasons, the calendar provides a mythic map for Jewish life that deeply connects us to the natural world and the cycles of our lives.
The Jewish holidays, taken together, are a veritable medicine chest for the soul and for cohesive community life. Join Rabbi Zelig to discover how the Hebrew calendar guides our individual and collective journey toward wholeness.
Elul: Prepare for the Jewish New Year
Every Thursday of September from 4:00-5:00 pm PT | September 5, 12, 19, 26
In the Hebrew month of Elul, we spiritually prepare for the Jewish New Year. Elul invites us to return into right relationship with ourselves, friends and family, the earth and the Divine. Join Wilderness Torah community leaders in Elul to hear the shofar, and engage in spiritual topics to prepare us for renewal and repair. Your teachers and topics are listed below.
Registration is Now Open
Class Fee:
This class is available at a sliding scale fee of $18 (financial-accessibility rate), $54.00 (low-income rate), $125 (medium-income rate), and $180 (higher-income rate). Please give generously, as this program is part of our High Holidays fundraising efforts. If you can afford to pay more, your contribution supports the next stage of growth for Wilderness Torah. Read more about Wilderness Torah’s sliding scale policy here.
Sukkot
Tuesday, October 8, 2024 | 4:00–5:30 pm PT
Sukkot is called Ha Chag, “The Festival.” It’s the ultimate Jewish holiday, culminating the agriculture cycle that began at Passover. Sukkot Instructs us to dwell outside, wave medicine plants in six directions and to dwell with our ancestors and our neighbors. Ultimately Sukkot teaches us to pray for rain as caretakers of our previous planet. We explore the layers of Sukkot’s history and embodied ritual opportunity to remember the centrality of Sukkot as the crescendo of the Jewish year and of Jewish communal life.
Registration Opens Soon
Class Fee:
This class is available at a sliding scale fee of $18 (lower-income rate), $36 (medium-income rate), and $54 (higher-income rate). If you can afford to pay more, your contribution will support the viability of these programs and make them financially accessible for other people. Read more about Wilderness Torah’s sliding scale guidelines here.
Hanukkah
4-day series
December 23, 24, 26 & 27, 2024 | 12:00–1:00 pm PT
Hanukkah instructs us to cultivate light when it’s darkest, remember miracles when that seems impossible, and to rededicate ourselves to a sacred life. Hanukkah means “dedication” and invokes the hidden light of Creation. We explore the historical, cultural, and mystical dimensions of this beloved winter holiday to more deeply understand how Jewish tradition helps us balance the energies of Creation and become agents of change in difficult times.
Registration Opens Soon
Class Fee:
This class is available at a sliding scale fee of $54 (lower-income rate), $100 (medium-incomerate), and $180 (higher-income rate). If you can afford to pay more, your contribution will support the viability of these programs and make them financially accessible for other people. Read more about Wilderness Torah’s sliding scale policy here.
Meet Your Teacher
Rabbi Zelig Golden, Wilderness Torah Director of Spirituality & Education
Rabbi Zelig Golden expresses his vision for awakening earth-based Judaism by integrating thought leadership, ritual facilitation, and village-based mentorship to support multi-generational community, youth rites of passage, and training for emerging leaders. Zelig earned a Masters in Jewish Studies from the Graduate Theological Union, rabbinic ordination from ALEPH supported by the Wexner Fellowship, and Maggidic ordination by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi ztz”l. He lives with his wife Rachel and three kids in rural Occidental, CA near the Bay Area.
Guest teachers for some of the classes, such as Elul or Hanukkah, will be announced as the holiday approaches.
Registration is Now Closed for These Classes
You can still access the replays of these classes by registering for our year-round Medicine of the Jewish Holidays series. Get access to all live holiday classes and class archives when you register for the full series.
Purim
On the cusp of spring, we tell and retell Esther’s spiritual story – you know, the one that does not mention God once! In this class, we explore Purim themes like revealing the hidden, transcending notions of good and bad, and why we party when we should be indignant, and their relationship to the season’s turning.
Passover
Spring has sprung and a people is born – every year at Passover we are reborn. In this two part series, we explore the fractilic mythos of Passover’s liberation theology that works on the personal, communal, and ecological levels; apply Passover’s ritual trajectory (including sacred fire!) to enact our own freedom journey; embody the mystical pathways that Passover sets in motion with the first barley harvest and the counting of the Omer.
Lag Ba’Omer
Tuesday, May 21, 2024 | 4:00–5:30 pm PT
What do Bonfires, bows and arrows, agricultural angst, the plague, and mystical holy fire have in common? Come find out as we explore the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer – known in Hebrew as Lag Ba’Omer. We examine the relationship between cultural history and the seasonal cycle, how the rabbis made it relevant for their time, and how we can make it relevant for ours.
Shavuot
June 4, 2024 | 4:00–5:30 pm PT
Shavuot is our annual, early summer B’Mitzvah! We explore the intertwining themes of honoring First Fruits, receiving Torah, and coming of age in the wilderness. Come ready for revelation and the ultimate rite of passage!
Ben HaMetzarim (17 Tammuz to Tisha B’Av)
Tuesday, July 16, 2024 | 4:00–5:30 pm PT
In late summer the Hebrew calendar places grief in our path with two commemorations – 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av – and three weeks of deep reflection, Ben HaMetzarim, the 3 weeks ‘between the straits.’ We explore the layered history of ancient Sumerian ceremony, destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, the Holocaust, and how this season calls us to consciously encounter grief and trauma.
