Open the gates through learning with B’yameinu Beit Midrash! Join Shula and a team of educators, facilitators, and ritual leaders for Yom Kippur Workshops. Together, we will gather in inquiry and curiosity — through a schedule of short classes, we will guide our High Holiday reflections towards textual traditions, into joyous community, and deeper into our hearts.

Why study on Yom Kippur? While many congregations and communities offer Yom Kippur classes as a way to stretch participation from the morning Shacharit to the closing evening of Neilah, we believe that learning itself is a ritual experience and a modality for spiritual depth. Our teshuva is deepened by practices of study and creativity. Join us to open the gates of learning!

Workshops:

Under the Ne’ilah Spell w/ Kohenet Sarit Cantor

The Kol Nidre service sets up the portal of Yom Kippur and Ne’ilah seals it. In this workshop, we will look at the ways in which the short and powerful liturgy of Ne’ilah serves as a sealing ritual for the liminal and transformative space that is created over the course of Yom Kippur and the Yamim Noraim. We will look specifically at the three ancient incantations we repeatedly chant: their meaning, some of the history behind them, and how we might want to create collective meaning with these potent verses as a prayer community.

A Mikveh in God w/ Shomeret Shula Pesach

The recurring liturgy of the High Holidays invites us to entrust ourselves to the Divine. What does it mean to hope in God? Can we immerse in Hashem? Is there a shallow end of the pool? This workshop follows these questions and explores the lines of Psalm 27. Together we will unpack and unfurl the meaning of Psalm 27 through SVARA-style text study, chevruta learning, and group discussion.

Yom Kippur Art Midrash w/ Jay Smith

Looking for a creative approach to deepen your spiritual connection to this day? We will use chevruta (paired text study), prompted individual art-making, and group discussion to help us explore the meaning of Yom Kippur liturgy. Anyone at any level of Jewish study and/or art making is welcome.

Time Teshuva #reclaimingmytime w/ Shomeret Shula Pesach

How can we reclaim our time in 5784? How can we return to alignment with our schedule, calendar, and capacity? How can the Jewish calendar guide us in the seasons head? This workship follows these questions and is dedicated to the work of mending the violence which white supremacy, capitalism, and colonialism has waged on bodies, on land, and our experience(s) of time. Together we will explore ancestral calendars and our own personal "time maps." In our workshop, we will experiment with breathwork, art-practices, and chevruta study.

Musical Rest w/ Helen Bennett

Nap your way into the Book of Life with songful accompaniment from Helen Bennett!