About

Shavuot is one of three annual harvest festivals marked by pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. After the Temple's destruction, Jewish Mystics transformed Shavuot night into a time for deep practice, reflection and intimacy with the Infinite One -- seeking to relive the revelation at Mt. Sinai.

Our retreat will center on both of these aspects -- the historical and the mystical -- as we harvest the fruits of the tree of life and open to receiving expansion through chant, meditation, mystical study, and dreamwork.

We will gather in community to help each other connect to Source and our own hearts through the potent energy that Shavuot is offering us, in order to channel personal and collective Torah — not only as text, but as living, ever-flowing wisdom.

We will close Sunday night with a mugwort dream ceremony, calling upon the plant’s ancient relationship with intuition and inner vision to guide us into the Undertorah (to quote Rav Kohenet Jill Hammer). In the liminal space between worlds, our dreams become midrash—holy conversations of soul and cosmos. On the subject of dreaminess, we will enjoy homemade cheesecake and bourekas throughout the retreat (to honor the tradition of eating dairy on Shavuot in style). On Monday morning, we'll have group facilitated dream work, followed by creating art around our own version of the 10 Commandments (traditionally read from the Torah on Shavuot), and looking at the book of Ruth through the lens of mythology. There will also be homemade cheesecake and bourekas (to honor the tradition of eating dairy on Shavuot in style!), and time to ritually immerse in the cleansing waters of the creek on the property where we'll be staying.