The best way to experience the teachings of Embodied Kabbalah is on retreat. Whether on its own, or incorporated into a larger program, Embodied Judaism and Embodied Kabbalah benefit from the concentrated and quiet environment of a retreat context. In the past, Embodied Judaism has been taught at retreat centers such as Elat Chayyim and as part of conferences such as the Wexner Heritage Foundation and others.
Participants in an Embodied Judaism retreat gain experiential knowledge of one of Biblical and Rabbinic Judaism's core ideas: that our bodies and nature are points of contact with the ayin, the mystical nothingness that underlies all Being. The format can vary widely. Some retreats incorporate outdoor activities such as caving and hiking. Others focus on text study. Others, on eating and walking meditation. To find out more about booking an Embodied Judaism or Embodied Kabbalah retreat for your group or retreat center, simply send us an email by clicking this link.
Below is a sample course schedule, drawn from a 2004 retreat:
Day 1. Nefesh: The Soul in the Body
We begin with Jewish Integrative Movement Conditioning, joining together the disciplines of pilates and gyrotonic with Jewish kavvanot (intentions) and teachings from the Kabbalah and the liturgy. These practices teach how the body can be made to be a "vessel for the Divine," and will be accompanied with kavvanot (intentions) drawn from Jewish mysticism, literature, and scripture. We will learn about the sefirot not as a chart of abstractions but as modalities we experience in our bodies, focusing on the first of the four levels of the soul, that of nefesh, or life-force, which is not some mysterious "energy" but is directly connected to the earth of which our bodies are formed.
Day 2. Ruach: The Spirit in Circulation
Deepening our practice of Integrative Movement Conditioning, we turn to focus on Ruach, which is connected to the principle of water and circulation. In addition to focused movement pracices, we will experience walking meditation and mindfulness practice, quieting the spirit by quieting the body, and learn about the meditative walks of Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav "Walking in Nature," a Jewish Thich Nhat Hanh. By exercising, walking, and grounding our experience in traditional Jewish text, we deepen our intentions to integrate body, mind, heart, and spirit.
Day 3. Neshamah: Life-breath
Our third session of Integrative Movement Conditioning focuses on breathwork. Neshamah, the third level of the soul, connected to air, is closely related to neshimah, which means breath. We will add in advanced breath techniques, moving through the sefirotic map, and preparing for our fourth and final day together. We will complement our Kabbalistic learning with more traditional Jewish texts thanking God for the proper functioning of the body.
Day 4. Yechidah: Places of Spirit
On our last session together, we experience two critical contexts in Jewish encounters with God: the cave (Zohar, Elijah) and the Mountain (Moses, Sinai). We will learn by doing: spelunking and rock scrambling. We will put our netzach and hod practices to the test as we squeeze through the crevices of the cave, will have an introduction to the Zohar and other texts of Jewish “cave-mysticism," and will practice silent meditation in the cave to experience a physical shadow of the mystical Nothingness. Then we will learn about Jewish ecological consciousness, aspigin to gain a real sense of being-with nature, of integration with the environment in which they find themselves, and a contextualization of Jewish teachings about the body and nature in the real world.
Teachings....