Beloveds! Although the cohort is AT CAPACITY, you can still sign up for individual sessions with guest teachers Dori Midnight & Ayelet Hashachar!
With blessing,
Elana June
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STRAY FAR, COME CLOSE: A Mystical Queer/ Trans Anti-Zionist Journey towards & through the High Holy Days of Awe
Wednesdays 8/16 - 10/4, 7 - 9 PM ET on Zoom
$36 - $720 ($360 Suggested) NOTAFLOF
This High Holy Day Season, join a community of queer, trans & anti-Zionist seekers on an eight week journey through the month of Elul, the Yaamin Noraim (the 10 Days of Awe), Rosh ha Shana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. Weekly sessions will focus on specific ritual technologies for preparation and practice, supporting us during the High Holy Days and throughout the year(s) to come!
As late-summer melts towards autumn, we begin to feel the pull of the Ya’amin Noraim (the Days of Awe / High Holy Days) and the season of Teshuvah. Teshuvah (translated as turning/ returning) is a practice of reflection, realignment and repair. Teshuvah is said to be most potent when practiced by those who have strayed farthest. WE are the ones who, in our return, can come closest to ourselves & thus to Source/ GXD.
Through study, dialogue, meditation & somatic exercise, we will access the potent magic of the High Holy Days in a space rooted in Jewish, Queer, Trans, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist, Feminist, Sex-Positive & Access-Oriented praxis and embodied scholarship.
Our weekly sessions will include study of the Kabbalist Tree of Life and work with the sephirot, as we move our energy back towards the realm of the infinite, restoring our connection to Creation, allowing for a meaningful, beautiful and holistic experience of release and renewal in service of our personal healing towards collective liberation. This journey, which serves as a reverse mirror of the Counting of the Omer (the practice spanning the days between Pesach and Shavuot), will draw on ancient wisdom from the Zohar, as well as teachings and practices rooted in Buddhist dharma.
We hope YOU will join us on a radical departure from mainstream framing of Teshuvah, Tefilla & Tzedakah - away from concepts of repentance, prayer & charity and towards practices which return shefa (the ever-flowing, all-loving Creative Force) to the Concealed of all Concealed, the Infinite Ancient of Days, cleaving our hearts to Divinity and enabling us to participate in authentic repair in our relations with ourselves, our communities, the Earth and the Infinite.
ALL who are called to join us are welcome to attend; no particular affiliation or experience with Jewish text or tradition is required. All sessions will be recorded and shared with participants. Automated close captioning will be provided. Participants will have the option of signing up for chevruta (study buddies) to be in touch throughout the weeks. Participants are not required to attend all sessions.
Together, we who Stray Far will Come Close as we prepare to release 5783 and pass through the Yom Kipportal into 5784.
Class Schedule / Themes:
August 16th
The Map: Gxd of the Wilderness: Elul, Ya’amin Noraim, Teshuvah & The Kabbalist Tree of Life
August 23rd
Hearing the Call, Finding Our Breath
Shofar / Song with special guest teacher Jules Pashall
August 30th
Mikveh: Ritual Bathing for Release & Renewal
September 6th
Grieve & Remember: Ancestor Work & Personal Death / Rebirth Work
Grave Measuring & Soul Candles with special guest teacher Annie Gottfried Cohen
September 13th
Blessings for a Sweet New Year
Apples & Honey with special guest teacher Dori Midnight
September 20th
Cultivating Meaningful, Accessible Fasting Practices, Approaching the Yom Kipportal
September 27th
Sukkah Building, Sustainable, Local Choices for Lulav & Etrog, Beating the Ground with Willow Branches
with guest teacher Ayelet Hashachar
October 4th
Sukkot: The Sukkah as Rebirth Cradle
Closing Ritual.
Registration Information:
We are AT CAPACITY! Please do not send in registration money at this time! Feel free to sign up below to join the wait list! If a spot opens up, I will be in contact.
In case you are curious about our sliding scale....
The 8 week journey is offered on a sliding scale of $36 - $720 (suggested $360), with No One Turned Away for Lack of Funds. If you are interested in signing up for an individual session (ie: only one of the sessions led by guest teachers) the sliding scale is $18 - $360 PER session.
We are offering this journey on an extremely wide sliding scale because ACCESS is EVERYTHING. Your presence is a vital contribution to this journey, and to this world.
It is essential to us that any community member who is called to join is able to join so that we all may benefit from these teachings and practices, regardless of our ability to financially contribute. We acknowledge that systems of power and oppression often define financial realities - this is especially true for Black & Indigenous people, as well as Trans people and crip / disabled / chronically ill folks.
Simultaneously, it is essential that teachers are supported in their work, so that they may continue to generously offer their service.
If you are able to contribute the recommended amount of $360, we are deeply grateful if you do so - this keeps the work sustainable! If you are able to contribute up to $720, please know you are ensuring that we will be able to continue to extend our offerings on such a wide sliding scale. If you are unable to contribute the recommended minimum ($36 for the journey, $18 for an individual session) at this time, please know that you are welcome to send a smaller denomination now, or at any time.
If you are trying to discern where you fall on the sliding scale, this document may be helpful: Sliding Scale Factors
I so look forward to journeying with you as we prepare to pass through the Yom Kipportal into 5783! With blessing,
Elana June Margolis (she/her)
Kohenet Chalav U D'vash b'Tehomo
Priestess of Milk & Honey in the Void
Teacher Bios: Elana June Margolis AKA Kohenet Chalav U D'vash b'Tehomo (the Priestess of Milk & Honey in the Gay Void) is a Queer Jewish teacher, priestess, artist and Anti-Zionist activist. Elana June is dedicated to realigning texts and ritual/ pedagogical technologies in service of the world we are co-creating: a world of peace, justice, beauty and Liberation for ALL Peoples.
Dori Midnight is a community care practitioner, ritual leader, writer, and deep listener oriented towards healing and liberation. For over 20 years, Dori has practiced intuitive healing and woven rituals in reverent collaboration with plants, the seen and unseen, and in service to personal and collective healing. Dori's work is rooted in and guided by Jewish ancestral traditions, feminist, decolonial and abolitionist scholarship, queer liberation, and disability and healing justice work.
Jules Pashall is a fat, white, trans/queer Jew who holds space as a somatic and spiritual facilitator. Their offerings are built on the belief that undoing violent hierarchies and how they live in our bodies is part of the path of soul retrieval and collective liberation. Their work as a theatre artist and training as a somatic therapist supports a facilitation style that invites play and honesty.
