Class Recordings Archived HERE
Join Rabbis Charna Rosenholtz and Jonathan Seidel in an exploration of Eros, Kabbalah and Jewish Practice in class that invokes the textual, somatic and philosophic investigation of Love, Desire, Sexuality in Judaism. How have Jews historically understood Eros, a Greek locution? We will investigate ancient and new ways that Erotic energy runs through us and how it might express itself apart from sexuality, as well as classic understandings of the Erotic within the Godhead and the World Our teachers will share inspiring texts that imagine the Divine Feminine and Masuline within and without, including aspects of Cherubic Sexuality in Exodus, the Erotic love poetry of the Song of Songs, Talmudic tales of Sex and Sensuality, the Book Bahir, the Medieval 7 Wedding Blessings, the Zohar and Sabbath liturgies, the Tikkunei Zohar and a rare treasure that elevates Shekhinah and the Divine Feminine – the Ma’arkhet Elohut. We will engage in discussion of Role Plays, meditation, and song that will complement the teachings of Rabbis Rosenholtz and Seidel. Extensive Bibliography will be provided for those that would like to read more.
Rabbi Charna Rosenholtz is an accomplished teacher, specializing in psychospiritual growth and applications of spiritual wisdom. Ordained as a Rabbi by Aleph Ordination Program and as a Hebrew wisdom teacher (Maggid) by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, she also holds a master’s degree in religious studies from Naropa University in Boulder, CO. She has mentored with medicine women, clergy, and master teachers in the development of human potential. By utilizing technologies from Matrix Leadership Institute, Hakomi Institute, and Right Use of Power, she seamlessly weaves content and context, for a holistic educational experience. Rabbi Charna teaches nationally, and is currently the Director of Shulchan, LLC, an on-line beit midrash.
Rabbi Jonathan Seidel attended Oberlin College, the Jewish Theological Seminary, was a Hayes Fulbright scholar at Cambridge University and finished his studies at U.C Berkeley where he earned a doctorate in Judaic and Near Eastern Studies (1996). He was ordained as a Rabbi by ALEPH the Alliance for Jewish Renewal, and has taught Religion and Judaic Studies at UC ‘s Davis, Santa Cruz and Berkeley, as well as Stanford, the University of Arizona, ASU, Portland State, Oregon State U. and the University of Oregon. Jonathan is the Aquarian Minyan’s Rabbi-in-Residence and Rosh haYeshiva.