Meet our Key Presenters . . .

Conference Facilitator: Rabbi Tirzah Firestone is an author, Jungian psychotherapist and founding rabbi of Congregation Nevei Kodesh in Boulder, Colorado. Ordained by Reb Zalman in 1992, Reb Tirzah's writings include: With Roots in Heaven; The Receiving; and the award-winning Wounds into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma. She can be reached at www.tirzahfirestone.com.
Rabbi Firestone says “It’s an honor to join Ohalah 2021 as Conference Curator, in Hebrew, Otzeret. My role will be to draw from the rich treasury of ancestral wisdom as it speaks to the global shvirat hakelim* that we are now experiencing. I will cull from Reb Zalman’s video lectures, Hassidic texts, depth and archetypal psychologies, the Torah of intergenerational trauma healing, and our own four-world organizational wisdom to help us meet this crucial moment with creativity, courage and kedushah. Together let’s co-create a sacred living laboratory where we can take our movement to the edges of time and space!”
* Breaking of the vessels or cultural container
Rabbi Firestone says “It’s an honor to join Ohalah 2021 as Conference Curator, in Hebrew, Otzeret. My role will be to draw from the rich treasury of ancestral wisdom as it speaks to the global shvirat hakelim* that we are now experiencing. I will cull from Reb Zalman’s video lectures, Hassidic texts, depth and archetypal psychologies, the Torah of intergenerational trauma healing, and our own four-world organizational wisdom to help us meet this crucial moment with creativity, courage and kedushah. Together let’s co-create a sacred living laboratory where we can take our movement to the edges of time and space!”
* Breaking of the vessels or cultural container

Musician-in-Residence: Rabbi Shir Yaakov Feit is a musician and designer who weaves connection through music, mindfulness, and embodiment. Shir's award-winning liturgical compositions are sung throughout the world. Shir designed both the Kohenet and Romemu prayerbooks. Ordained by ALEPH, Shir founded Kol Hai and lives in Esopus, NY with Emily and their three kiddos. www.kolhai.org.
As Musician-in-Residence, Rabbi Shir Yaakov Feit will offer his sweet, deep, accessible, and unforgettable approach to embodied, melodic, and rhythmic prayer. Weaving song and silence, Shir Yaakov hopes to facilitate an all-worlds, intergenerational, trans-time-zone experience of connection and collaboration, inspiration and expression. As unregulated, extractive technologies threaten to displace, distract, and isolate us further, how do we regulate ourselves and communities? How do we provision our spiritual toolkits with emergent practices that empower us to remember, reorient, and return to our interconnected Selves? Let's get messy in our digital sandbox and embody new-old ways together.
As Musician-in-Residence, Rabbi Shir Yaakov Feit will offer his sweet, deep, accessible, and unforgettable approach to embodied, melodic, and rhythmic prayer. Weaving song and silence, Shir Yaakov hopes to facilitate an all-worlds, intergenerational, trans-time-zone experience of connection and collaboration, inspiration and expression. As unregulated, extractive technologies threaten to displace, distract, and isolate us further, how do we regulate ourselves and communities? How do we provision our spiritual toolkits with emergent practices that empower us to remember, reorient, and return to our interconnected Selves? Let's get messy in our digital sandbox and embody new-old ways together.
As Expressive Arts Muses-in-Residence, Reb Sandra Wortzel and Rabbi Eva Sax-Bolder will be offering our chevra the gift of opening up to our creative potential and possibilities. Throughout the conference we will be guiding participants through experiences using a multitude of arts-based explorations, such as visual art, movement, poetry/writing, music, and improvisational play. We will be meeting "workshop style" for most of our creative play. You will have opportunities in groups, dyads and individually--on your own--to explore the daily themes of the conference. A list of suggested materials will be sent out prior to the conference for participants to have on hand, and we encourage everyone to join our mikdash me’at workshop on Sunday, January 3 to prepare yourself for our time together.