This workshop invites us to explore our hopes and fears around dying; explore our relationship with death; increase self-knowledge; learn how to break down barriers between ourselves and others when we most need comfort, communion, trust and safety. When we explore our feelings and thoughts about death, we learn more about our own lives now. We come in direct contact with our own spiritual beliefs, our life purpose, our unfinished business, and how we influence and are influenced by our environment and our relationships.
Format: Half-day or day-long workshop, in-person or on Zoom
Facilitators: Rabbi Dan Goldblatt and Zoë Goldblatt, MFA
The month of Elul leading up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is one in which we contemplate the state of our personal relationships. We seek to ask or give forgiveness for perceived hurts or wrongdoings that may have caused distance between ourselves and our beloved friends, family, neighbors and colleagues. Shame, resentment or overwhelm can easily cause us to hesitate to engage in this healing process of renewing our souls and soul relationships. In this class we will introduce, teach and practice a useful and effective model for a relationship repair conversation.
Format: Two separate ninety-minute sessions, in-person or on Zoom
Facilitators: Zoë Goldblatt, MFA and Bethany Schwartz
Rather than hardening and contracting in the midbar, the wilderness of grief, Shechinah guides us to open, to allow one’s heart to soften, to surrender, to release. PLEASURE is one way to do this, a tool for empowering open-heartedness. We live in a culture that diminishes the power of pleasure and often considers it inappropriate or irrelevant during times of transition. We will explore a radical approach to accessing pleasure in a time when we are challenged to innovate new tools for life. Participants will find more life-affirming ways to respond to various types of loss and grief in this workshop.
Format: Ninety-minute workshop, in-person or on Zoom
Facilitators: Rabbi Dan Goldblatt and Zoë Goldblatt, MFA
Adults who either never had a Bar or Bat Mitzvah experience, or who had one that was less than meaningful to them at the time, can experience a spiritual renewal and recommitment to Judaism as an Adult Bar or Bat Mitzvah. This workshop gives tools to clergy and lay leaders of any chavurah, congregation or spiritual community for creating a vibrant Adult B’nei Mitzvah experience. The Adult B’nei Mitzavh experience is team-building, community building and a joyful occasion for each individual involved. In this session we provide an outline for how to help the Adult B’nei Mitvah co-create and personalize a Shabbat morning service that fits their current skill sets, sets goals for adding new skills, and allows them to come away feeling empowered and spiritually renewed.
Format: Two-hour session, In-person or on Zoom
Facilitators: Rabbi Dan Goldblatt
In this dynamic workshop we explore sacred stories of the Jewish people by inhabiting the characters, improvising scenes and adding our own perspectives. Playful encounter with these stories deepens our appreciation of Jewish values and tradition.
Format: Two-hour session, in-person or on Zoom
Facilitators: Rabbi Dan Goldblatt
What better way to celebrate love and commitment with a partner than through a renewal of vows during a group recommitment ceremony! In this workshop we conduct four sessions during which we explore and plan this beautiful simcha together. We will access some of the deep teachings of the Jewish wedding ceremony to honor our intimacy: Who holds up your Chuppah today – who are the essential support people in your relationship? We will invite you to update your Ketubah, your wedding covenant and perhaps write a recommitment intention. We will teach you how to offer and receive blessings and hopefully integrate this practice into your relationship.
Format: Four ninety-minute sessions, in-person or on Zoom, plus one ninety-minute in-person ceremony.
Facilitators: Rabbi Dan Goldblatt
It has been said that the greatest gift of committed relationship is intimacy. And yet, once an intimacy is created through love and trust, how can it be properly maintained? During this Shabbaton weekend retreat we discover how exploring the sacred aspects of intimacy can enable people to both sustain and deepen their connection. Activities include: Kabbalat Shabbat with a focus on sacred intimacy, sacred storytelling to remember who we are as couples and reconnect to our love stories, a brief Shabbat Morning service of Love, and an immersion in the sensuality of Shabbat – rediscovering the joy of couples play, music, food, and pleasurable gentle touch between partners. Participants will have time to repair to the privacy of their own rooms to practice whatever they are drawn to explore and play with. Saturday Evening includes play: games and a time of relaxation and joy. Sunday morning focused on integration and takeaways from the weekend. A closing circle completes the retreat.
Format: Weekend-long, in-person retreat
Facilitators: Rabbi Dan Goldblatt and Zoë Goldblatt, MFA
Deeply revered religious leaders including Reb Zalman Schachter Shalomi z”l believed that psychedelics, if carefully curated for well-screened individuals, could be used to support spiritual encounter and spiritual practice. In this workshop we discuss the developing use of consciousness-expanding substances to expose the dualistic illusions that create separations between oneself, one another and the Divine. In transcendence beyond the ego, one can experience: Echad – Oneness; Ahavah – Unconditional Love; Shlemut – Wholeness; and Yichud – Unity with the Divine. We delve into these insights and what they can mean for the contemporary power and practice of Judaism. We look at Jewish healing practices that can better enable people to walk paths of grieving, deepening of intimacy, prayer and ritual, and a host of sacred transitions including end of life work.
Format: Different formats available. One-time or several-session options available, in-person or on Zoom.
Facilitators: Rabbi Dan Goldblatt and Zoë Goldblatt, MFA
A spiritual lab designed to enrich your life and provide more comfort in practicing Judaism at home and in the synagogue on Shabbat! For much of Jewish history, the essential directive related to Shabbat was to be Shomer Shabbat – an emphasis on prohibitions. In this workshop we emphasize a new ethos – Chogeg Shabbat – a joyful celebration of Shabbat that lifts us up as individuals and families. Participants are invited into a safe space in which there are no wrong questions and we can discuss any aspect of being Jewish that they wish was more comfortable for them. We explore ways to sweeten the experience of Shabbat at home and consider innovative ideas to make Shabbat a more meaningful experience in participants lives and perhaps in the lives of their family/other loved ones. The final session is guided by written questions participants submit, and any other questions that members of the group wish to discuss.
Format: Four 90-minute sessions, in-person or on Zoom.
Facilitators: Rabbi Dan Goldblatt
Most adults know about the importance of creating an estate plan for their finances. But there is another kind of legacy that is also important to consider: the legacy of one’s unique life wisdom and spiritual values. In this workshop we help participants to craft an Ethical Will document that records and preserves their most precious life stories, personal beliefs and heartfelt blessings for future generations to benefit from and cherish.
Format: Four-part series of three ninety-minute sessions, in-person or on Zoom.
Facilitators: Rabbi Dan Goldblatt and/or Zoë Goldblatt, MFA
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