JOIN US FOR

SHABBAT

Beit Kohenet Shabbat offers prayer services online, and sometimes in-person, with chant, creative liturgy, Torah study, reclaimed folk traditions, guided visualization and embodied practice. Our prayer uses multiple-gendered God-language, honors the sacred earth, and connects to the Source of Life.

All are welcome to join us for Shabbat, no matter your faith background, identity expression, or familiarity and level of experience. Closed captioning will also be provided for all services. Add your email in the space below to join us. We look forward to celebrating with you!

OUR SHABBAT SCHEDULE

  • Friday, June 5, 7 pm ET: Kabbalat Shabbat

    Saturday, June 6, 5:15 pm ET: Torah Study

    Saturday, June 6, 6:15 pm ET: Mincha

  • Date TBD, 7 pm ET: Kabbalat Shabbat

    Date TBD, 5:15 pm ET: Torah Study

    Date TBD, 6:15 pm ET: Mincha

A TIKKUN LEIL SHAVUOT GATHERING

You’re invited to A Journey with Torah: A Tikkun Leil Shavuot Gathering, Beit Kohenet’s all-night Shavuot celebration.

Join Rabbi Jill Hammer, Shoshana Jedwab, and beloved members of our community for an immersive evening of song, study, chant, and creative offerings via Zoom. We’ll begin with Shavuot evening prayer on Thursday, May 21 at 7 pm ET, and continue through the night, culminating in a sunrise service on Friday, May 22 at 6 am ET.

This year’s theme, “Journey and Crossing Over,” invites us into Jewish teachings and practices for navigating liminal moments. As we complete the counting of the Omer and welcome the fiftieth day, together, we’ll enter this sacred threshold with gratitude for harvests, both earthly and divine. Scroll down to view the full schedule.

REGISTER HERE
REGISTER HERE

TIKKUN LEIL SCHEDULE

7-7:50 pm ET: Shemot Shelah Kirtan Maarivah with Anna Sobel

Join Shemot Shelah for Hebrew call-and-response chanting with feminine and non-binary names for the Divine. Through inspired drumming and music, we offer a new and groundbreaking type of prayer service that gives access to higher states of consciousness. The format of a kirtan service is a natural fit for Shavuot, as each chant as well as the whole session takes the shape of a mountain: we will ascend and descend with the highest energy at the center. No prior knowledge of Hebrew required.

  • SHEMOT SHELAH Shemot Shelah is a Jewish kirtan band offering Hebrew call-and-response chanting with feminine and non-binary names for the Divine. The call-and-response format allows for anyone to participate, regardless of background or familiarity with Hebrew. Kirtan is a devotional practice that opens the heart and paves the way for states of bliss and peace. At the peak of each chant, our style of kirtan closely resembles the long-lost Jewish women's practice of aynraysn (crying out) and gives participants the opportunity to call out to the Divine from the depths of their hearts.

  • Anna Sobel is a professional puppeteer, storyteller, and musician. Anna studied chanting with Rabbi Shefa Gold and maggidut, or Jewish spiritual storytelling, under Yitzhak Buxbaum. She has been practicing meditation and yoga for 25 years. Anna is also a reiki master.

8-8:50 pm ET: Under Sinai Mountain: Revelation through Divination with Kohenet Ketzirah Lesser

The Torah tells us that Moses went up to the top of the mountain, but Rav Kohenet Rabbi Jill Hammer taught us that Miriam went under the mountain. In this session, you’ll journey under the Sinai mountain for personal and collective revelation through meditation and divination.

  • Ketzirah Lesser, haMa’agelet (The Circle Maker), is a maker and teacher of the sacred arts who is an ordained Kohenet and Celebrant as well as holding a BFA from the University of Miami. Through Devotaj Sacred Arts, she explores Jewishly-rooted making, mussar, and magick to connect past, present, & possible future(s); cræfting artifacts for a forgotten future that is more equitable, just, and spiritually alive.

    The second edition of her oracle deck, Eit/Aht: a Netivot Wisdom Oracle, which is based on Jewish teachings, funded in only five days on Kickstarter and is available via her website devotaj.com. She is also the author of several haggadot and her most recent publication is Tzitzit: a talismanic guide, which explores tzitzit as magickal practice. Her current projects include Numerous as the Stars, a Jewish tarot and an ongoing series of embroidery patterns inspired by the history of Jewish magick and alchemy.

    For more, visit:

    www.devotaj.com

    devotaj.substack.com

    instagram.com/devotaj_arts

9-9:50 pm ET: Reading Revelation through Ritual: 10 Utterances, 10 Letters, 10 Breaths with Kohenet Amanda Nube

In this participatory workshop, we will explore Aseret HaDibrot—the Ten Utterances—through embodied ritual and collective reflection. How might each utterance speak personally and directly to our lives? Together, we will listen for and connect with the voice of the Divine—right here, right now.

  • Amanda Nube brings Kohenet roots and Renewal vision to her work as an educator and spiritual leader. Part of the first Kohenet West cohort, she resides in Berkeley, California where she serves as lead educator for Olamim: Latin Jewish Belonging. Amanda earned an MA in Jewish Studies from the Academy for Jewish Religion. She is passionate about sharing her love of Judaism, Hebrew, music, and embodied spirituality, weaving inclusive and diverse strands of Torah into vibrant learning communities.

10-10:50 pm ET: Spinal Tap: The Ladder of Earth and Heaven inside the Body with Yoshi Silverstein

The spine is an incredible conduit of information, central skeletal organizer, and perhaps even a spiritual tether between heaven and earth. In this session we’ll tap into the multi-modal potential of the spine through a combination of embodied exploration and text-based learning.

  • Yoshi Silverstein is founder and executive director at Mitsui Collective and creator of the Mitsui Method system of embodied Jewish alchemy. A student of the human body and spirit rooted in his dual lineages as a Hakka Chinese and Ashkenazi-American Jew, he has over 25 years of experience as an educator, facilitator, and creative practitioner of movement and somatics, martial arts, music, and nature-based experience. He holds a 2nd degree blackbelt in Lotus Kajukenbo, is a level 9 Tai Chi practitioner, purple-black belt in Shuai Chiao (Chinese wrestling), and a nationally-ranked competitor in both Shuai Chiao & Sanshou (Chinese kickboxing).

    Yoshi is a recipient of the 2022 Pomegranate Prize from the Covenant Foundation and holds a Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture and certificates in spiritual entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, permaculture design, and environmental education. He lives in the Cleveland area on Erie, Mississauga, and Haudenosaunee land with his wife and daughter.

11-11:50 pm ET: Journeying Home to Yourself: What Bilhah and Zilphah Taught Me About Finding Home with erica riddick

Lech Lecha is a prophetic parasha about leaving home. It is a moment in a larger story of our foundational Jewish family that is also about returning home. This tale encompasses Bilhah’s and Zilpah’s journey through silencing, invisibility, lack of autonomy, and the legacy they leave for us to discover. The threads of this narrative extend wisdom to me about the journey of my life: leaving home, attempts to return, and the home I have made. Join me on my journey and leave with wisdom that may influence your own.

12-12:50 am ET: Shoshanat Haruhot: The Cycle of the Directions as a Map for Health with Naomi Katz

Reclaiming your relation with cycles allows you to access the wisdom that lives in your body, and in the natural world. This is necessary for health. The power of cycles is reflected in many of the maps that define and govern our lives: the seasons of the year the phases of the day the stages of our lives the menstrual cycle the phases of the moon and all of this wisdom resides in the Hebrew names of the directions.

  • Naomi Katz is a ritualist, educator, and artist working at the threshold between ancient ceremonial traditions and somatic practice. Her work focuses on collective healing by reawakening our relational awareness in response to an isolating culture. Naomi is the founder of Return to Your Animal Body, a collective for women integrating cyclical wisdom and sacred awareness day to day life through ritual, ceremony and somatic practices. Her work is rooted in a central question: how can ritual—a relational, embodied mode of knowing—be restored as a vital force in human culture? Naomi has spent the past 15 years exploring how traditional designs renew themselves, engaging ancient healing modalities to become accessible to people who have grown up in western culture. She is an internationally recognized ceremonial leader, and has guided hundreds of people in retreats, workshops and sacred ceremonies across Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East. Her work unfolds within an ongoing apprenticeship of more than fifteen years with Carmen Vicente, spiritual leader from the high Andes of Ecuador. 

1-1:50 am ET: Dayenu for You? Embracing the "As Is" and the "Good Enough" Within Ourselves with Dr. Kohenet Harriette E. Wimms

What would it mean if you were already good enough? Already wise, safe, whole, smart, spiritual, thin, learned, well-read, lovable and "fill in the blank" enough, just as you are? At the beginning of the pilgrimage from Pesach to Shavuot, we revisit the concept of Dayenu: it would have been sufficient. And yet, for many of us this moment of revelation finds us still at odds with ourselves. This workshop invites you to meet yourself as you are and explore how it might feel to be satisfied with yourself "As-Is."  By exploring Jewish texts--ancient and modern--in combination with experiential exercises, we will challenge the idea of perfectionism, explore the role of "Jewish Anxiety" in self-criticism, and journey toward gratitude, self acceptance, forbearance, and self compassion as forms of revelation.  

  • Kohenet Dr. Harriette E. Wimms is a Maryland licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in providing compassion-infused mental health care to children, adolescents, adults, and families across the age span. K’Harriette is a prayer leader in both the Kohenet community and at Hinenu: The Baltimore Justice Shtiebl. Dr. Wimms is also the inaugural Jews of Engagement Fellow at The Associated, Baltimore Jewish Federation (the first position of its type within any Jewish Federation System). A current Schusterman Fellow, Dr. Wimms is a Selah cohort 17 fellow; a contract trainer for Keshet, and the founder and executive director of the Jews of Color Mishpacha Project as well as the organization’s signature JOCSM Shabbatonim.  She is a proud Black, disabled, Jew by choice, and is most proud of being mother to her neurodiverse 18-year-old.

2-2:50 am ET: Spiritual Mapping: The Treasure Map of You with Shira Kline

Calling all curious travelers: As you traverse worlds in time and space, let the collective compass guide you on this, your personal treasure map of life. Sometimes you need the infinite possibility of l’olam ul’almei almaya (worlds without end), and sometimes va’yinafash (and God rested) catches your breath in a sigh of release and rest.

  • Shira Kline is an internationally acclaimed performance and ritual artist, recognized as a revolutionary educator and named one of the new re-engineers of Jewish life today. A Co-Founder of Storahtelling and Lab/Shul, she serves as the Spiritual Leader of this artist driven, experimental and God-optional community for sacred Jewish gathering. With her unique combination of immersive artistry and education, she has toured extensively for almost three decades, delivering an experience of radical imagination, expansive heart and collective soul. In 2024, she received the Covenant Foundation Award for her profound impact on the field of Jewish Education. She is a frequent guest of numerous international leadership conferences and seminaries with a series of vibrant professional development and musical invitations to connect, for a new and realized conscious world.

3-3:50 am ET: Journey Songs שִׁירֵי מַסָּע (Shirei Masa) with Kohenet Liviah Wessely

Join us to sing and chant our way through the journey across the sea, through the desert, and up the mountain.

  • Kohenet Sho'eret Liviah Oreget Shirim (s/he/r), ordained Priestess, Guardian, and Song Weaver, has regularly held ritual space for the Beit Kohenet community and the Nechama Minyan, among other places. She composes and arranges liturgical music for chanting and choral settings. K’Liviah has held numerous rituals, including weddings, funerals, and shiva services. She has catered events and taught cooking classes through her company MamaBakes; teaches college theatre, English, and humanities; and is a theatre director, producer, designer, and dramaturg. Liviah is the mother of a coffee shop owner/painter/poet, a classical singer/librettist/songwriter, and an engineer, plus two cats—Cary Grant and Grace Kelly.

4-4:50 am ET: The Power of a Doorway with Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD

When we speak of connecting to spirit, we often speak about a “portal.”  Mount Sinai itself is understood as a portal between worlds.  In this session, we’ll explore various biblical doorway stories, from the bloody door of the Exodus to the mezuzah to the doors of biblical women, reflect on contemporary wrtings, and reflect on what these texts might teach us about sacred portals in our own lives.

  • Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD, author, scholar, ritualist, poet, dreamworker and midrashist, is the the Director of Learning and Ritual at Beit Kohenet, a house of Jewish, mystical, earth-based, feminist seeking, and the Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion (www.ajr.edu). She is also the author of Undertorah: An Earth-Based Kabbalah of Dreaming, Return to the Place: The Magic, Meditation, and Mystery of Sefer Yetzirah, The Hebrew Priestess: Ancient and New Visions of Jewish Women’s Spiritual Leadership (with Taya Shere), The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for All Seasons, The Omer Calendar of Biblical Women, Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women, The Moonstone Covenant, and The Book of Earth and Other Mysteries.

5-5:50 am ET: Reaping Justice: The Timeless Relevance of Gleaning with Shoshana Jedwab

The ancient economic justice practice of gleaning (leket)—where the poor and marginalized had a legally protected right to collect leftover crops from farmers' fields, as demonstrated in the Book of Ruth—informed later rabbinic tzedakah laws and is being reimagined today as a sophisticated pillar of ecological sustainability and circular economy models.

  • Shoshana Jedwab is a percussionist, singer-songwriter, worship leader, and prize-winning Jewish educator at the A.J. Heschel Middle School in New York City. Ariela Dubler, the Head of School at A.J. Heschel, has remarked, "Shosh teaches the joy, humor, love, and warmth that are at the core of Jewish tradition. Shosh invites students into a world of Jewish practice, reflection, connection, and happiness." Shoshana founded Beit Kohenet’s Practical Mystics Circle. Shoshana’s debut album, I Remember, along with singles such as Openings, Torah Orah, Life Is Born, and Where You Go (I Will Go), offer feminist perspectives on ancient wisdom. Her 2018 viral social justice anthem, Where You Go (I Will Go), is a "zipper song" inspired by the Book of Ruth that advocates for radical inclusion and love in the face of rising xenophobia. Shoshana Jedwab was featured in Jewish Rock Radio's "Jewish Women Who Rock the Worship World."

6 am ET: Dawn Prayer with Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD and friends

Join us for a morning service of meditation, prayer and bibliodrama. We’ll celebrate the blessings of earth, acknowledge our harvests this year, and explore what the revelation of Torah means to us in this moment. As the center of our prayer journey, we’ll make an inner ascent to Sinai.