SOULIFT

SOULIFT: Love at the Center
January 20 – 26, 2025
Tampa, Florida

Registration is now OPEN!

Just Imagine
A week-long dive into our Sacred story of Love!
An exploration of The Holy of Holies!
Through chant, study, meditation and sacred conversation

Putting Love at the Center

It is time to put Love at the Center.

One way to do that is to reclaim The Song of Songs as a central text that can inform, remind and intrigue us daily. When it came time to decide which of our holy texts to retain in our canon and which to discard, Rabbi Akiva spoke for The Song of Songs (Shir HaShirim). “The whole Torah is Holy,” says Rabbi Akiva,” but The Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies.” He also said that “had the Torah not been given, we could live our lives by The Song of Songs.”

It is time for us to “live” it, to place Love at the center of our religious/spiritual practice and let the force of that love radiate out to penetrate every other aspect of our lives. Shir HaShirim is a hidden treasure that longs to be known. The Love of Shir HaShirim goes beyond the sentimental or romantic. This love is a force that connects the finite with the infinite, the known with the unknown mystery that lures us beyond our small lives. This love reveals the beauty that is everywhere hidden in Nature, in relationships and in the depths of our hearts.

Cornel West said, “Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.”

Finding and Cultivating Love

First we must find and cultivate that love, and then we can source every action, every expression from that infinite precious well. And through our loving expression and action, the Divine will flow through us, and the world will transform..

It’s time to put love at the center.

Immersing in The Song of Songs

We’ll spend a week immersing in The Song of Songs, exploring its subtleties, receiving her mysterious gifts, embodying her music, living her questions.

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About the Retreat

LOCATION

We’ll gather together on the beautiful property of the Franciscan Center in Tampa, Florida. A sacred space for spiritual connection, the Franciscan Center is the perfect location for our gathering. Both single and double rooms are available; but our capacity is limited, so be sure to register early!
If you need a handicapped accessible room, please be sure to let us know via email following your registration.

MEALS

We’ll receive three nourishing meals a day, prepared fresh daily by the wonderful staff at the Franciscan Center.
Please be sure to inform us of any dietary restrictions during your registration.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE

We’ll plan to arrive between 3 and 5 pm on Monday, January 20, and our first meal together will begin with dinner. We’ll conclude our beautiful week on with departure at 11 am (following breakfast, check out, and a closing program) on Sunday, January 26.

MORE QUESTIONS

Have more questions? Not a problem! Feel free to reach out to Events and Retreats Manager, Stephanie, at stephanie@aleph.org with any other questions.

About this Program

These times of tumult and change hold great potential for inner growth and connection to our Soul Perspective. SOULIFT offers week-long retreats, immersions in spiritual practice that help us to remain anchored to an awareness of the Divine flow of blessing, no matter what is happening in the world

Each stand-alone intensive is an opportunity to immerse ourselves in practices that incorporate the magic of sound, silence, movement, stillness, sacred text, shamanic journey, creative arts and nature mysticism.

Program Instructor

Rabbi Shefa Gold

Rabbi Shefa Gold is a leader in ALEPH: the Alliance for Jewish Renewal and received her ordination both from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (z”l). She is the director of C-DEEP, The Center for Devotional, Energy and Ecstatic Practice in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. She teaches workshops and retreats on the theory and art of Chanting, Devotional Healing, Spiritual Community-Building and Meditation.

C-DEEP: The Center for Devotional, Energy and Ecstatic Practice launched a new project called SOULIFT, with individually themed regional retreats in the summer of 2018.

America's Most Inspiring Rabbis

Feedback From Participants in Shefa Gold’s Trainings…

SOULIFT was an amazing retreat and unlike anything I have ever done before.

The retreat more than lived up to its name and was indeed soul lifting. Rabbi Shefa is a deep spiritualist and inspiring teacher. The opportunity to be led by her in chant and then sit in silence is unique and uplifting. I’d sign up for another one in a heartbeat!

– David Dreifus

SOULIFT truly lifted my soul; it was nourishing, intense, fun.

I felt welcomed from the first moment, and each of us was able to do our own internal work in a way that also felt universal and shared. It was like a spiritual bath for my soul – I highly recommend a week with Shefa. In addition to beautiful chanting, spiritual journeys and healing moments, the group solidified immediately and became an amazing nurturing container for all of us. I left feeling renewed, and reconnected to God and my highest self.

– Ruth E.

My soul was nourished, embraced and and supported and I was able to feel healed by being in a loving community striving for wholeness.

My soul was nourished, embraced and and supported and I was able to feel healed by being in a loving community striving for wholeness. We chanted, learned, exercised and learned, and I felt renewed and restored. As always Reb Shefa provided kindness, wisdom and warmth to help us engage in tough self examination and find the path to healing. Reb Shefa has a unique vision and it is a blessing to learn with her and other striving souls. Finally, there were just endless “wow” moments as we felt safe to be vulnerable and travel together into the unknown.

– David Balto

Dear Rabbi Shefa, Rachmiel, Yaffah and Judith,

I am writing to thank you for creating an absolutely wonderful week of chanting, art, movement and healing during your SOULIFT program in Santa Fe this August. I loved every minute of your outstanding program from the outdoor morning services chanting Shacharit until the evening personal blessing ceremonies, conducted as the sun set under beautiful New Mexican skies. Each moment of music was marvelous, with the beautiful melodies by Shefa and the lovely voices singing in harmony. And the whole experience was greatly enhanced by the fascinating neurological and psychological insights presented by Shefa daily. This work is transformative, and was very important for me in a time of personal challenge! I learned so much from the exquisite and joyful chanting to the deeply spiritual insights. Dear Rabbi Shefa, you are a true Jewish shaman and spiritual leader and your approach is extremely powerful!
Other delightful aspects of your program include the inspirational mandala making instructed by Judith, learning the ten minute tune up from Rachmiel, and the excellent organizational kills of Yaffah that brought everything together so smoothly! I should also mention the absolutely outstanding food and the lovely rooms of the retreat center, both of which made it hard to leave on Sunday! Last but not least, you had gathered a warm and interesting group of participants, and created a fine community out of all of us. Truly, this is one of the best experiences of my life.

Thank you one and all!

With love and gratitude to all of you,
Linda Fries

PS. I love listening to the four exquisite CD’s that I purchased and reading the profound insights in Shefa Gold’s “Torah Journeys”.

To anyone considering embarking on this journey: do not hesitate!

Do whatever it takes! This is the finest training offering you will find anywhere. This program is a treasure and studying intensively with visionary Rabbi Shefa Gold is an opportunity that should not be missed.

– Danya Underwood

The perspective Rabbi Shefa offers elicits a powerful way to be in deep relationship to G!d and one’s own truth, Jewishly.

Using chant in this way will remain with me for the rest of my life. The the ability to grow in this, share, and teach it with others is a blessing. Shefa is a blessing.

– Donna Chava Friedman

Never could I have imagined the healing, presence, peace and transformation that would come from my 18 months in Kol Zimra 3.

The chanting allowed so many places in my heart to open.

– Shira Orit

I cannot say enough good things about Rabbi Shefa Gold’s Kol Zimra program.

I’ve known Shefa a long time, and I thought I was already familiar with her work. But intermittent exposure to Shefa’s Jewish Chant doesn’t begin to compare to four week-long intensives, each more powerful than the next. There is no question that I received far more than I bargained for in each installment of Kol Zimra. To anyone who has been searching for an experience of genuine spiritual depth in a Jewish context, I would say: your search ends (and begins) with Kol Zimra. In Kol Zimra, Shefa has succeeded in creating an entirely new phenomenon within Judaism – a simple, practical technology, based on Hebrew scripture, that anyone can utilize to their great spiritual and psychological benefit. In keeping with the tradition of all great spiritual revivals, it’s no exaggeration to say that Shefa has thrown wide open the gates of Jewish prayer. All who sincerely wish to enter them, can naturally, effortlessly enter them here.

– Rabbi Alan Green

… the KZ experience has changed my life.

It gave me the tools with which to share the richness of our heritage through the depth and beauty of chant. Not only did it help me to get in touch with the multiple levels of my own being, but it helped me to share the spiraling possibilities of spirituality with others. KZ taught me leadership skills based on acceptance, connectedness, support, and ingathering. I loved the total experience.

– Eva Friedner

Our training helped me to focus on something that was really important to me even with what “little” I had already been doing.

It opened me up to the range of possibility that exists in the medium of chant to the point where it seems limitless, boundless and infinitely exciting. And I am continually “surprised” by how well it is received, how it really reaches people in a deep place and fosters their connection with divine energy. My life’s purpose has been more clearly defined by what we have done.

– Linda Zahavi

… Shefa Gold’s 18-month Kol Zimra Chant Leader Training… has been one of the most valuable and transformative trainings in my rabbinic career

… Shefa is a master teacher, retreat leader, ritual facilitator, and community builder. She brings a spirit of joy, generosity, and integrity to this work, which is deeply rooted in Torah. One of the significant gifts I received through this training is a softening of the quality of my presence, and I find that the services I lead take participants to deeper places, the meetings I participate in go much smoother, and my interactions with family, friends are more nourishing.

– Malkah Binah

Shefa teaches chant and leadership, giving us a balanced and original model, and practical elements to form loving containers for groups of our own.

… the most important thing I received in this training was the sense of connection with the people who are today my spiritual family. Kol Zimra gave of herself to us in a personalized way, and from the first module the group had attained an aura of togetherness which Shefa, Rachmiel and Phyllis wove together through their unique style of teaching. A sense of wonder, moments of magic, attunement on a different level, ritual to encapsulate our lives and create sacred vessels of our instruments. Four weeks in eighteen months, through summers and winters, we were witnesses to the blossoming of each other. Everyone told us there was something special about the group: it was the chant, and the enchantress, which brought us together.

I highly recommend this training for anyone who wants to learn about their own leadership style, and about attaining a profound spiritual connection through sacred chant.

My experience with the Kol Zimra training program was much more than I could have even hoped for. The caliber of leadership, the strength of group connections and the depth of learning all contributed to an incredible 18 month journey, a journey which was more joyful and profound than words can express, a journey which continues still. This program changed my relationship to leadership, my relationship to my home community and my relationship with The Great Mystery itself.

– Jessica Kreimerman-Lew

Kol Zimra [was] my first experience with Jewish renewal.

As Education Director at a Conservative synagogue, I was looking for a program that would awaken my sense of wonder in my spiritual practice and revitalize my work. This training exceeded my expectations in every way. Kol Zimra has enriched both my personal practice and my professional life. The impact of this work has powerfully affected my teaching and, the energy and support I have been given, has made it possible for me to lift the level of learning at our school from the ordinary to new heights of spiritual excitement and academic eagerness. Rabbi Shefa Gold along with her colleagues Rabbi Phyllis Ocean and Rachmiel O’Regan have the ability to create a community of Jewish learners that has intellectual integrity and spiritual authenticity. I recommend this training to all those who have the privilege of teaching and leading Jewish young people in their communities. It will renew your commitment to Jewish service and invigorate your work and your heart.

– Carolyn Silver-Alford