Earth and Fire

An earth-based Jewish teaching to ignite the soul each day of Hanukkah

Thank you to all who joined us! Stay tuned for our 2024 Hanukkah online program.

About

Bring new and thought-provoking Jewish wisdom teachings into your Hanukkah celebrations this year.  In this daily online learning series, we will uncover the deeper and lesser known wisdom of Hanukkah through an earth-based Jewish lens.

We’ll cover topics like:

  • Hanukkah and the Tree of Life
  • The nature of a miracle
  • Hidden light

Throughout the week of Hanukkah, this journey of learning, reflection, and activation is meant to offer hope, spirit, and transformation into this dark time. From the first day of Hanukkah to the last, we will share a 30-minute online teaching, drawing from the wellspring of Torah that this season of miracles brings.  Learn from well-esteemed community teachers and leaders, kicking off the series with Rabbi Zelig Golden. 

When Friday, December 8 – Friday, December 15, 2023 (excluding Sat/Sun).
12:00–12:30 pm PST

Where: Join us from anywhere in the world. We will meet over Zoom. Receive the link to join after you register. Recordings will be provided up-to a week after the program ends.

Who: This course is open to adults of all ages, identities, abilities, and experience levels. We actively invite all interested people across the spectrum of faith and spiritual practices to learn with us. Wilderness Torah strives to create a pluralistic community for participants across the spectrum of religious observance.

Bonus Gift! 

When you sign up for this program, you’ll also receive Earth and Fire: An Earth-Based Guide to Celebrating Hanukkah. The guide will include the Hanukkah prayers, beautiful translations and commentary, as well as an earth-based practices, crafts, and songs for Hanukkah. You’ll be able to download the PDF on the first day of class.

This program is being offered as part of our year-end giving campaign.

Wilderness Torah has a goal to raise $150,000 by the end of 2023! By registering for this program, you directly contribute to helping us reach our fundraising goal.

Sliding Scale Donations:

  • $36 – Candle
  • $54 – Oil
  • $72 – Flame
  • $108 – Dreidel 
  • $500 – Latke
  • $1000 – Shamash

These amounts are suggested. We encourage you to give at the highest level you can. Thank you for your generosity!

Class Schedule & Topics

Hanukkah brings light in the darkest time of year, playing a unique role in the seasonal Hebrew calendar cycle. Come explore how we bring the light at this darkest moment each year.

In these darkest days, we seek balance by kindling light. Come explore a teaching of the Baal Shem Tov about how the Chanukah flames connect us directly to the original Light of Creation. Dive into the healing power of connecting to Divine Source through the profound ritual of lighting the Chanukiah.

Hanukkah is birthed in the face of how Greek culture, urbanization, and assimilation changed Jewish culture. Come explore how Hanukkah celebrates our struggle to retain our profound Jewish relationship to the earth. 

Come explore the mystical relationship between the candle and your soul. Jewish practice guides us to kindle our souls, become the conduit between heaven and earth, unify the four worlds, and manifest the transformative energy of fire for ourselves and our world.  

What do Genesis and Hanukkah have in common? We’ll explore the connection between Jacob’s struggle with the angel to a little jar of oil that started the Chanukah story.  Come consider this and your own stories of hidden light. 

Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Temple after its desecration. The miracles that accompany this rebirth contain insight and instructions for our own rededication to life here on earth. 

About Your Teachers

Rabbi
Zelig Golden

Erev Rabbi
Paige Lincenberg

Rabbi
Dan Goldblatt

Rabbi
SaraLeya Schley

Rabbi
Jill Hammer

FAQ

Yes. We will send out recordings after each session, and they will be available for one week after the event ends.

Yes, we will send out a recording each day.  You will have access to all the recordings a week following the close of the program.

The meetings will take place over Zoom. We will send the link to you after you register. You can join us from your web browser, the Zoom app, or dial in from any phone.

This course is open to adults of all ages, identities, abilities, and experience levels. We actively invite all interested people across the spectrum of faith and spiritual practices to learn with us. Wilderness Torah strives to create a pluralistic community for participants across the spectrum of religious observance.

Yes. Shortly after you register, you will receive a receipt for your donation.