Events for July 19 - May 25

The central invitation of the Jewish month of Elul preceding Rosh Hashanah, is to engage in cheshbon nefesh, a soul inventory or soul-searching process. This requires a willingness to open our hearts to teshuvah - a joyful return to our most authentic selves. We gather on Shabbat to engage in this sacred work together. We will enter into a state of enhanced consciousness with sacred chant, teachings, prayer and silence to open the inner gates and embark on an exhilarating soul journey.

Topics Include: Yom Kippur as a rehearsal for our own deaths; Defining “Sacred”; The Spiritual Concept of Healing (versus Curing); Dying as a Sacred Process; Our Personal Relationship to Death and Dying; Concept of Doulas/Midwives; “Us Vs. Them” (We Are All Going To Die); Talking to Patients and Their Families about Death;What Can We Do When Our Own Grief Gets Triggered by Their Struggles?

Rabbi Dan officiates a Jewish wedding for a young couple in Santa Clara County. By invitation only.

Reb Zalman discovered that he could tune into a felt and visual sense of the states of consciousness that his Chasidic ancestors had described as the ascent of the soul - climbing Jacob’s ladder up the sephirot. We will discuss his teachings.

In this workshop, which is a teaser for our weekend retreat offering, Rabbi Dan and Zoë cover the concepts of Yichud, Keruv, the uses of Prayer and Blessings for intimacy, and they give working definitions for "sacred" and "intimacy" in a Jewish context. This workshop is being offered only to attendees of the 2025 Aravah Sukkot Festival in Hopland, CA.