presented by Twin Cities Jewish Renewal Community

Sunday, April 25th, 2021 1:00pm to 5:00pm CDT

Please join us for a day of community building, learning, and inspiration as we welcome Spring and a new season of living with three powerful, uplifting voices in modern Judaism!

 

Sponsorship: Twin Cities Jewish Renewal Community (TCJRC) wishes to thank both ALEPH and NCEJ for their sponsorship of this event.

              

Program Overview:

Planting Seeds with scholar & musician Shoshana Jedweb and Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD

Our afternoon journey begins with music, singing, and setting intention. We’ll encounter prayers that celebrate creation and honor the Shekinah, the Divine Presence.

Sefer Yetzirah: Dwelling in the Temple of the Cosmos with Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD

Sefer Yetzirah, the Book of Creation, tells the story of how God created the world, and imagines God as an artist whose creative intention breathes life into the vast multiplicity of phenomena in our world. This brief, poetic, cryptic book invites us to view the cosmos as a temple of divine presence and can be viewed as an important resource for theology and practice focused on healing the earth as well as ourselves. In this session, we’ll consider passages from Sefer Yetzirah, and explore its powerful images as tools for connection to the sacred cosmos. We’ll experience the book’s meditative practices as a means to clear our minds and inspire our lives.  

Weaving Spiritual Practice for a More Just World with Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife

Pirke Avot (the Ethics of our Sages) teaches that justice is a Jewish imperative. Join in an exploration into how we can integrate spiritual practices across the Four Worlds so that we’re fortified as we move, love and ultimately carry out the work of tikkun olam.

Harvesting Seeds with Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife and Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD

We’ll gather our insights from the day and close our time together with healing chant and song and with setting intentions for the future. These reflections, like a rich harvest, will nourish us in the days ahead. 

 

 

Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD

Author, scholar, ritualist, poet, priestess, midrashist and dreamworker, is the Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion (www.ajrsem.org), and co-founder of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute (www.kohenet.org). Her most recent book is titled Return to the Place: The Magic, Meditation, and Mystery of Sefer Yetzirah.  Rabbi Hammer is also the author of other books including The Hebrew Priestess: Ancient and New Visions of Jewish Women’s Spiritual Leadership (with Taya Shere), The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for all Seasons, Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women, and The Book of Earth and Other Mysteries.  Her forthcoming book is titled Undertorah: An Earth-Based Kabbalah of Dreams.

Shoshana Jedwab

As a child, Shoshana Jedwab would drum on parked cars, plates, tables, books and other people's bodies. Shoshana Jedwab is a percussionist, singer-songwriter, worship leader and prize-winning Jewish educator.

Shoshana brings depth, humor, voice, feminism and sizzling rhythm to her grateful audiences.  Shoshana Jedwab’s original sacred music grounds body and spirit and brings the ancestral past into joyous contemporary practice. The original songs of Shoshana’s 2016 debut album, “I Remember,” and her 2018 zipper song single, “Where You Go,” emerged from ceremonies Shoshana was leading, and are now being sung, and danced to, in synagogues, churches, mosques, weddings and protest marches. Shoshana Jedwab was one of Jewish Rock Radio's Jewish Women Who Rock the Worship World. Shoshana Jedwab gives concerts, leads worship and drum circles, and has performed in Germany, the UK, and the USA. www.shoshanajedwab.com

Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife

Keshira haLev Fife (she/they pronouns) is a Kohenet (Hebrew Priestess) and a queer Jew of Colour who delights in serving as davennatrix (shlichat tzibbur), lifespiral ceremony/ritual creatrix, liturgist, songstress, teacher and public speaker.  She is Oreget Kehilah (Executive Director) of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, founder/co-leader of Kesher Pittsburgh, Program Director of the ALEPH Kesher Fellowship, and Lead Facilitator for Keshet’s GLBTQ+ Jewish Youth of Colour programming.

 

Twin Cities Jewish Renewal Community (TCJRC)

We welcome you to the Twin Cities Jewish Renewal Community to experience the joy, beauty, aliveness, inspiration, creativity and deep spirituality of Jewish Renewal!

We are a vibrant, egalitarian community embracing spiritual connection, heartfelt prayer, contemplative practices, lively study, musical and artistic expression, movement, Tikkun Olam, social justice, Eco-Kosher, Kabbalah, Mussar and other evolving and creative approaches to connection to Judaism and The Source of Life.

In addition to Jewish Renewal Shabbat and holiday gatherings, events and teleconferences, we share and promote a wide variety of renewal-inspired events, classes, retreats, and tefillah offered by local synagogues and other Jewish organizations.

We are affiliated with ALEPH: The Alliance for Jewish Renewal (www.aleph.org), which is a trans-denominational, inclusive approach to revitalizing Judaism.  For more information, please contact tcjewishrenewal@gmail.com.