Wedding of Heaven and Earth facilitators, Rabbi Lynn and Adam Horowitz

wedding of heaven and earth
A Jewish Storytelling Workshop and Festival

June 8-11, 2023
Blue Desert Retreat Center, Tijeras, New Mexico

Join master storyteller, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb for a three day immersion into the art and vibrant ceremonial legacy of Jewish storytelling—through an anti-oppression framework.

Storytelling comes alive in Jewish wedding festivities. We’ll delve into the vast treasure trove of Jewish stories about the marriage of heaven and earth and bringing the sacred into everyday life. Learn new stories and practice storytelling technique; learn about the living histories of Jewish storytelling; swap stories with other tellers; bring instruments, costumes, favorite tales, and your vision of beloved community. New and experienced storytellers are all welcome.

The workshop will take place at Blue Desert, a small-scale retreat space about 40 minutes east of Albuquerque, NM, dedicated to cultural, ecological, and social healing and renewal.

Register here!

magidah on sacred ground
performance

September 21, 2023
Pittsburgh, CA

In the lineage of the oral tradition, Paul Ford and Rabbi Lynn bring together performance art and ritual in a theater piece about her life of work in art, justice and global community. 

Details TBA. 

PAST EVENTS

• Teshuvah & Reparations: a Vision for this Time (Virtual event with Dr. David Ragland and Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb)
• Four Faces of the Jewish Goddess (Workshop series)
• Way of the Mishkan (Workshop series)
• Ger: Guest Laws & Land Back (Workshop series with Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb and Ian Schiffer)
• Harnessing Inter-communal Resilience in the Age of COVID19 (with the Truth Telling Project)
• and many more!

RECLAIMING THE fast of esther
​purim ritual, LEARNING EVENT & action for palestine

March 5-6th, 2023
Remote & in person, San Francisco 

Join Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb and many other leaders for a fast day devoted to the meaning of this moment for Palestine and what we can do now.

Fasting in Jewish practice is a sign of teshuvah — the need for atonement. Jewish people fast the day before Purim to honor the biblical Queen Esther’s public call to fast in the face of mass dispossession and killing. Even though Megilat Esther is a fictional narrative, it carries values we can observe and apply to current day events. But, not by massacring Palestinians as Baruch Goldstein to observe Purim, but by standing up for Palestinians.
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Palestinians are facing mass killing and dispossession by Israel at a rising rate due to the new government of committed zealots just elected to office.  Elected officials who love Barukh Goldstein are in charge of Israel's military and police. There are no constraints. 

The custom is to fast from sun up to sun down on Erev Purim, Monday, March 6th. 

You are invited to join Rabbi Lynn for the following events:

FAST OF ESTHER: IN SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINE
​Sunday, March 5th:  12:30-2pm PST
The Chavurah for a Free Palestine, Kehilla Community Synagogue

Fasting and Feasting are often linked in Jewish ritual traditions. A period of fasting precedes life cycle and holiday ceremonies and is meant to focus our hearts and minds on unhealed wounds within our communities. Fasting is a call for reparative action before festivities begin. The Fast of Esther is part of the tradition of repair. 

This year, The Chavurah for a Free Palestine is partnering with Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb to explore Purim texts and practice that lifts up a Judaism which believes that ‘all of us or none of us’ is the truest expression of our cherished values. In this spirit, the Chavurah dedicates the Fast of Esther to a call for reflection & action in solidarity with Palestinians who are experiencing a horrifying escalation of raids, murder, and brutal violence against their families and communities.  ​

magidah: master class in jewish storytelling​

October 31st - December 19th, 2022 Mondays, 5 - 6:30pm PST

Learn Jewish storytelling techniques and stories with Master Storyteller, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, in a collaborative and joyous setting. Read below for more information.

• Session 1: Introduction to the Art of Jewish Storytelling and Each Other ( bring ‘an opening’ to a story  to share with the class in performance - or a way you might envision announcing a story) 
• Session 2: Biblical performance legacies: oracle givers, prophets, seers and voices of lament (bring a percussive instrument, or the instrument of your choice)
• Session 3: M’targaman: The art of simultaneous translation of sacred text into living story: key words and themes, and the transformation of living text.   Bring a single line of Torah you want to translate in your performance style.  
• Session 4: Flipping the Script: Techniques in Jewish storytelling that deconstruct conventional narratives for the sake of liberation.  Bring a line ofJewish story whose script you wish to flip. 
• Session 5: Start with a Joke: Clever wit traditions, riddles & proverbial discourse. (Talmudic passover mouse in the house story)  Were proverbs spoken in your house? Bring family or community proverbs and/or jokes that were/are part of your personal legacy. 
• Session 6: Pageantry and the art of collective storytelling in Jewish life.   Bring/make a puppet that represents something from one of the seven days of creation that fits your zoom screen. You can use cardboard, paint or any materials that inspire your creation.    
• Session 7: At the Gathering of Nations:  Jewish Performance art in multi-heritage ritual settings on the front lines of solidarity. Bring a story and blessings for an indigenous land back ceremony, or other occasion which aligns with your activism.  
• Session 8: Telling the story - collaborative or individual tellings of a 3 minute Jewish tale; closing ceremony.  ​

JUBILEE SHABBATON & MAGIDAH PERFORMANCE, TEWA LAND, NEW MEXICO

September 30th - October 1st, ​2022 performance to follow

Shabbaton focused on Indigenous Landback Teshuvah for the new year, 5783. All events will be outdoors. Email me to learn more!

ROSH HASHANAH WITH BACKYARD MISHKAN

September 25th, 2022. Ceremony 4:30-5:15pm PST followed by potluck oneg

Story-telling, music, dance, shofar blowing, big puppets & shared visions for the coming year.  This event inaugurates BackYard Mishkan’s monthly Shabbat in 5783. All ages welcome. Multi-faith & multi-heritage families welcome.

tribal visions for a judaism beyond zionism

​September 22th - June 15th, 2022 Monthly on Thursdays​, 6-7pm PST

Draw on the stories of the 12 tribes in pre-zionist torah, midrash and kabbalah to access wisdom in a non-colonial context. Create teshuvah for the harmful aspects of torah's tribal visions. Tribal Visions for Judaism Beyond Zionism grows out of Lynn's work in solidarity with Indigenous Land Back Movements, including Palestinian & Native American land back movements, Black Reparations movements and Jewish anti-colonial communities of practice. Tribal Visions is part of Lynn's new book: Way of the Mishkan: A Ceremonial Guide to Indigenous Land Back and Reparations Teshuvah. Fee includes 18% for reparations and land back movements. ​