Jay will be teaching Authentic Movement, Non-Violent Communication, meditation, and bodywork.

It’s the beginning of the grape harvest in ancient Israel. In the glow of a full summer moon, young women, robed in white, dance before the young men working in the vineyards.

That’s how Rabban Shimon Ben Gamliel described Tu b’Av in the Mishnah, the first post-biblical sacred Jewish text (compiled and edited in the end of the second century):”There were no happier times for the people of Israel than the Fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur, since on these days the daughters of Israel/Jerusalem go out dressed in white and dance in the vineyards, saying: ÒYoung men, consider whom you are about to choose (to be your wife).” (Taanit 4.8)

Tu b’Av literally means the fifteenth day of the Jewish month of Av. In ancient Israel it served as a matchmaking day. In modern Israel, it has become a Jewish Day of Love, celebrated with dance festivals and dedicating songs on the radio. Tu b’Av is popular for weddings, commitment ceremonies, renewal of vows and proposing. It is a day for enhancing current relationships or defining anew what one is looking for in a partner.

To celebrate, Denver’s “Judaism Your Way” is creating an evening with nationally acclaimed teachers Jay Michaelson (teaching on “Sacred Sexuality in the Jewish Tradition”) and Rabbi Tirzah Firestone. Sacred Dancing with Eyal Rivlin. Food for the Mood A late night Jewish Love Cabaret with Carla Sciaky, Bat Kol, and poetry performance by Jay Michaelson.

Click here to register

This unique weekend workshop at Kripalu in Lenox, Massachusetts, will focus on how Eastern and Western notions of enlightenment can inform daily spiritual practice so that one can actually make progress along the spiritual path.

Awakening is not just an Eastern concept. We live in a time when it is crucial to retreat and discover what is truly significant. Yet how do we emerge from personal exploration and apply what we have learned? Are there models of awakening and tools of spiritual practice that work within the messiness of daily life?

Internationally acclaimed teacher Jay Michaelson and martial artist and “Kirtan Rabbi” Andrew Hahn are two Jewish thinkers who have traveled the spiritual globe, blending Kabbalistic and Jewish wisdom with that of tai chi, Theravadan Buddhist meditation, Advaita Vedanta, Hebrew kirtan, and other paths. This unique weekend is a search for a personal, sustainable practice of balance. Incorporating Kabbalistic and Hasidic texts with rituals from Jewish and other traditions, we will chant, meditate, practice tai chi, and explore a distinctively Western tradition of enlightenment.

We will also celebrate the Sabbath, moving our bodies and singing. Saturday evening will feature a Hebrew kirtan for the entire Kripalu community.

Recommended reading Jay Michaelson, Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism (Shambhala).

Note Bring loose clothing for easy tai chi sessions.

Evening event Hebrew Kirtan with the Kirtan Rabbi.

Registration is on the Kripalu Website and follows their pricing structure.  The workshop lasts from 4pm on Friday to 12pm on Sunday.

The Institute will function as an intensive workshop/course designed to encourage and empower students working on LGBT studies who are interested in seeing the connection between their work and LGBT justice. The program will bring together well-known scholars and theologians to serve as instructors and mentors on themes related to LGBT religious and theological studies and hermeneutics; public theology and advocacy; justice work at the intersections of identities; religious pluralism and queer studies.

Jay will be joining Institute directors Dr. Rebecca Alpert from Temple University and Dr. Ken Stone from Chicago Theological Seminary.  More information: http://www.hrc.org/seminaryscholarship/summer_institute.asp

This year, our 6th Annual East Coast Retreat, features familiar faces (Jay Michaelson, Becky Emet, Rabbi Joel Alter) and new ones (Rabbis Sue Levi Elwell, Alissa Wise, Ilana Kramer, and Aaron Katz). As always we will have inspiring prayer services, dynamic spiritual and intellectual workshops, and delicious food.