Shefa: Jewish Psychedelic Support

Final week for registration!

This will be a deep dive into embodiment in the Jewish tradition, its connection to the Divine Feminine, and how to apply ancestral teachings on teshuvah- cultivating our highest selves– to our lives through and beyond the High Holiday season. We’ll also get a taste of various practices for returning to Divine consciousness, on our own terms, in and out of psych*delic space.

✨This course is comprised of four live sessions taught by and four printable resources full of texts, invitations for personal practice, and more.

✨All registrants are welcome to join the weekly live sessions on Zoom or watch the recordings at their own pace.

See link below for registration ⬇️
Use code DIVINEFLOW for 10% off.

Much like a psyched3lic experience, the Jewish High Holiday season can support a return to deeper levels of personal authenticity and an intimate awareness of Divinity. Join us online this September to tap into this potent time of year in "Accessing the Divine" with Rabbi Rishe Groner. We'll explore embodiment in the Jewish tradition, its connection to the Divine Feminine, and get a taste of various practices for returning to Divine consciousness, on our own terms, in and out of psyched3lic space.

Registration link below 👇

Shefa: Jewish Psychedelic Support Shefa supports and educates Jewish psychedelic explorers with spiritually-rooted resources and immersive experiences.

Applications are open until August 18th for our Elul ketamine retreat in Berkeley, CA.

Prepare for the High Holidays in a community of seekers and facilitators with learning, supportive psychedelic work, and integration rooted in Jewish wisdom and practice. We’d be honored to have you return with us.

Start your journey here: https://www.shefaflow.org/shuvaseptember

"The questions, I have learned, are my mind trying to take care of myself by going to the story of how I got here, and the best way to ride these waves are to turn toward all of that tightness and distress, to feel what it is like to lose all of my hope, and to begin to not identify with it. “I am not my pain. I love you,” I said, while I began the practice of turning toward... "

Read all of Rabbi Zac's essay on the month of Av on our website now.

🎙️ New episode of the Jewish Psychedel!c Podcast available now!

In this episode, Rabbi Zac speaks to entrepreneur Robert Ansin about his experience of awakening to love and unity after high-dose psilocyb!n experiences, and his commitment to support marginal communities in the psychedel!c field.

Robert has always been driven by two passions: to innovate and to give back. After attending three life-changing psilocyb!n retreats in Jamaica, he was inspired to create Healing Hearts Changing Minds. He now wants to give others the opportunity to process their own traumas and unpack the roots of their mental health problems―and then go back to their communities to spread the healing.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

Much like a psyched3lic experience, the Jewish High Holiday season can support a return to deeper levels of personal authenticity and an intimate awareness of Divinity. Join us online this September to tap into this potent time of year in "Accessing the Divine" with Rabbi Rishe Groner. We'll explore embodiment in the Jewish tradition, its connection to the Divine Feminine, and get a taste of various practices for returning to Divine consciousness, on our own terms, in and out of psyched3lic space.

Read more about the course and get your tickets at the link below-the Early Bird rate is available through August 8th, so don't wait!

Read about our first ketamine-assisted day-long retreat in Rabbi Zac's Tammuz blog post, "Tammuz: How to Transform a Jewish Psychedel!c Vision into Reality"

In this Shavuot psyc h edelic Torah study, we dive into text sources that focus on divine revelation, the nature of perception, and the place of direct experience in Jewish traditions. Deepen your Shavuot experience with this three-part teaching from Rabbi Ami Silver, available for free on our Youtube channel.

"Rebbe Nachman teaches that one can only master their spiritual journey if they are completely comfortable with the ebbs and flows of the experience, whether find themselves in heaven or hell. Derech implies that we continue to march forward, to be in a constant state of novel discovery."

Read more of Rabbi Zac's reflection on our first cohort of "Derech: A Jewish Path for the Psychedelic Explorer" in this month's blog post, up now.

💜 Next week in Brooklyn, join us in partnership with for this immersive ecstatic dance experience at Center for Enlightenment Arts in Brooklyn, NY. Ecstatic Omer is a dance ritual, integrating a live DJ set by Stuart B Meyers ( of @), immersive video installation designed by Shira Inbar (), a sound bath by Chaya Glaser (.sound), and an embodied practice for the Jewish tradition of counting the days of the Omer.

🧡 Learn more about the Omer below ⬇️

💜 The Omer marks the period between the holiday of Passover (which commemorates exodus and physical liberation) and the holiday of Shavuot (which celebrates the revelation of the Torah and Jewish law as a point of spiritual liberation.) Together, we'll dance our way over this bridge within the Jewish calendar.

🧡 Jewish mysticism associates each day of the Omer with a particular combination of sefirot or divine emanations. Throughout the evening, we will welcome in the 38th day of the Omer, which corresponds to the values of Tiferet (magnificence) and Yesod (foundation), immersing ourselves in the colors and visual motifs that Kabbalah assigns to these elements.

💜 Kabbalah associates each of these emanations with a particular color. You are invited to come wearing the colors of Tiferet (purple) and Yesod (orange).

Art by Shira Inbar

Shefa: Jewish Psychedelic Support Shefa supports and educates Jewish psychedelic explorers with spiritually-rooted resources and immersive experiences.

We’re excited to announce Tending the Cosmic Temple on June 27th in Brooklyn, NY! Sing in community, explore ancient meditations, and clarify your deepest desires while creating your own “golem”/magical clay figurine in this special Kabbalistic experience based on the oldest surviving and most psyche-delic Jewish mystical text, Sefer Yetzirah/The Book of Formation. The evening will be guided by Rav Jericho Vincent () and Ariel Hendelman ()

Presented by Shefa in partnership with Temple of the Stranger and with the generous support of UJA Federation of New York.  

This month’s episode of the Jewish Psych-delic Podcast features guest Dr. Leor Roseman. Dr. Roseman is a Senior Lecturer and Psych-delic Researcher at the University of Exeter, and the chair of RIPPLES, a new non-profit for psychedelic-assisted peacebuilding. The conversation explores the potential for healing through psych-delic use from many perspectives--the role of visualization, the experience of “breakthroughs,” and the importance of groups and communities in healing work. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

"You’re looking at a newly minted psychedelic facilitator. Last month, I attended Lauren Taus’ INbodied Life psychedelic-assisted therapy and integration training to officially begin learning how to work with medicine and attend to careseekers before, during, and after their medicine sessions and support not just their healing, but their humanity along the way. I went to observe good work being done well by seasoned professionals, but moreso, to be observed by and receive feedback from them so I could one day step into the role of facilitator with the hekhsher of people I respect and trust."

Read Rabbi Zac's Iyar blog post at the link in bio.

✨ Shabbat is one of the more impactful innovations of Judaism—it introduced the cultural value of a communal time for rest & celebration. More than simply “the weekend,” Shabbat is a shared sacred experience built out of ritual, community, and embodied delight. We're diving deep into The Magic of Shabbat in this virtual four-part series taught by Yosef Rosen

✨ This workshop will guide you through four core components of Shabbat, listed below. Each session will be a place to learn and to connect with community.

Course Outline:
✨ June 3- The mythology & ethics of sacred rest
✨ June 10- Practices of preparing for & welcoming in Shabbat
✨ June 17- Practices of Shabbat delight
✨ June 24- Practices of welcoming in the new week after Shabbat (Havdalah & Melavah Malkah).

Sessions will take place from 6:00-7:30pm PT

This month on the Jewish Psychedelic Podcast, Rabbi Zac spoke with Dr. Rachel Yehuda about Jewish intergenerational trauma and how, with the help of medicines like M**A, our foundational stories can be expanded upon to include greater appreciation for our own resilience, creativity, and hope. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Additionally, if you’ve been enjoying the Jewish Psychedelic Podcast, please consider rating and reviewing on whatever platform you listen on. This helps others find our work.

We're proud to support Horizons PBC for 16th edition of Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics on May 8-11, 2024 at the New York Academy of Medicine in New York City. The conference spans Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, with workshops offered on Wednesday. Use the link below for 15% off registration!

"The Four Cups of Consciousness" is sure to elevate your Passover experience.

🍷 We encourage you to immerse yourself in these pages before Seder, bring them to read and share wherever you find yourself this year, or pour over them year round and go deeper with a collection of sacred Jewish texts from our spiritual teachers throughout the generations. 🍷

Tickets are on sale now for Discovery Sessions: The Bay Area Psychedelics Conference! Rabbi Kamenetz will be speaking on a panel about religious communities on Thursday, and moderating a panel on Friday about what it means to be at the crossroads of Jewish and psychedelics. More info below ⬇️

CONTEMPORARY SACRED SPACE
Discovering Spirituality in the Bay Area
Thursday at 12:00 PM
Moderator: Maya Jaguar
Panelists: Paul Ryder, PhD, Bob Otis, MDiv, Rabbi Zac Kamenetz

JEWS & PSYCHEDELICS
Healing our Deepest Wounds
Friday at 1:00 PM
Moderator: Rabbi Zac Kamenetz
Panelists: Hadas Alterman, Ariel Vegosen, Sam Shonkoff

"In light of the healing I have been able to do in the last few years, I could see how this idea became a belief, how that belief became a pattern, and how that pattern determined my actions until I actively chose to end it. Yet, in working persistently to heal from all of this long-standing bitterness, I may have missed some of the signs pointing me to some sweeter gifts my ancestors left for me along the way."

Rabbi Zac's Nisan blog post is now live on our website. Read it at shefaflow.org/our-blog

With this approaching new moon, we turn toward the expansion Nisan brings. As with any experience of expansion, preparation is key. Join us with our online workshop, our free resource, and our podcast available now.

If we use the term “psychedelic” to describe an experience of transformation into expanded consciousness, or "mochin degadlut," in Chassidic terminology, then all of our holy days are psychedelic. What matters most is how we prepare for them (set), how we enter into & engage with them (setting), & how we allow them to open us & inform the rest of our days (integration).

Join us with Ariel Yisraelah Hendelman as we prepare for the Passover journey through four chants, each one representing one of the cups of wine we drink. These chants are taken from the Haggadah & through them, we will experience & discuss what it means to liberate our hearts, the parts of ourselves that may be in exile, and the way we see each other & the world.

This virtual workshop will take place on Thursday, April 18th at 5:00 p.m. PT | 8:00 p.m. ET.

Registration is closing for "Derech: A Jewish Path for the Psychedel!c Explorer" this week! This in-person intensive will be taught by Rabbi Zac Kamenetz (Zac Kamenetz) and Dr. Ido Cohen, and hosted by Chochmat Ha Lev () in Berkeley, CA. Sessions will take place on Thursday evenings.

You’ll be with an incredible group of other explorers throughout this 9-week series, fostering a true Jewish psychedel!c community. Want to learn more? See shefaflow.org/derech for a full course description.

There are still a few spots available to join our in-person intensive in Berkeley, CA! Derech: A Jewish Path for the Psych-edelic Explorer. You'll learn:

🌀How to prepare for a psychedel!c journey with a Jewish intention

🌀Ways to integrate Jewish ritual into our journey spaces

🌀Jewish Breathwork practice

🌀And so much more! See a full course outline on our website.

Last month, we hosted an incredible webinar + workshop on cultivating safety in frum psychedel!c space. Featuring Erica Buchman and Erica Siegal (of NEST Harm Reduction & Consulting), the conversation touched on topics of choosing ethical facilitators, pharmacology of specific substances, and questions related to halacha and Jewish cultural competency. The recording is now available to download on our website!

We'd like to shoutout these wonderful organizations for sponsoring and making this possible. Thank you to:

💙 OKclarity, the premier directory platform to find top therapists, coaches, psychiatric medication providers, and nutritionists who specialize in working with the Jewish community.

💙 Plant Medicine Law Group, a psychedel!cs law firm active in New York, California, Georgia, Colorado, and Oregon. PMLG is shomer shabbat and dedicated to supporting a safe and dynamic Jewish psychedelic ecosystem. Find out more about PMLG.

💙 SHINE Collective, a not-for-profit organization that offers survivor-led peer support groups, public education programming, and ethics consultations for communities engaged in altered states of consciousness practices.

Purim is just around the corner! This month's episode of the Jewish Psychedel!c Podcast, Rabbi Zac receives the Purim wisdom of altered states by Mitchell Gomez, executive director of ⁠DanceSafe⁠, a nonprofit health education and harm reduction organization based in Denver, CO. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

For folks in the Bay Area, there are still tickets available for "Dance 'Til You Don't Know," our Purim Ecstatic Dance Ritual with the Osher Marin JCC. There will be community intention setting, Purim learning, a dance set by Lawrence Dreyfus, and meditation + integration led by Rabbi Zac.

Hodesh tov! Rabbi Zac's Adar II Blog Post is now live on our website.

"“More real than real.” I remember feeling, and maybe even saying that, as I removed the eye mask and sat up on the couch which had held me for many hours and through worlds. If my first psilocyb!n experience was realer than most of what I had experienced up to that moment, had I just encountered my real, true self within a world in its more-fullness? As I removed the mask, was I still that more authentic person who now knows and has been known more deeply, or have I returned to my former self with only the memory of that knowing, now, unknowing? In these scant moments, psilocyb!n had taught me how to reorient myself to the light of Purim, all year long."

A person is obligated to become intoxicated with wine on Purim until they do not know…״ –Babylonian Talmud Megillah 7b

On Wednesday, March 20th we’ll be collaborating with the Osher Marin JCC for an ecstatic dance Purim ritual. We won't be getting intoxicated with wine, but we'll be reaching an expanded state of consciousness through ecstatic movement. You can expect:
✨ Group intention setting + Purim learning
✨ Guided ecstatic dance with music by Lawrence Dreyfuss
✨ Meditation + integration led by Zac Kamenetz

We'd like to express gratitude to this program's sponsor- AVAR אבר Embodied. Head to their page to explore "Beyond the Mat," an online monthly learning series that combines a 60 minute yoga class with a 30 minute overview of a contemporary book on Jewish spirituality.

Attention Bay Area folks! We’re excited to announce an in-depth experiential series dedicated to bridging Jewish spirituality, analytical psychology, and embodied practice as foundations for Jewish psychedelic exploration.

“Derech: A Jewish Way for the Psychedelic Explorer,” is an intensive nine-week course that will help guide Jewish psychedelic explorers towards embracing their ancestral wisdom and practices as supportive tools in preparing for, journeying within, and integrating individual and collective psychic material we may encounter in expanded consciousness.

💙 Learn more about course material, our instructors Zac Kamenetz + Dr. Ido Cohen, and how to get started on our website.

💙 Sessions will take place on Thursday evenings at Chochmat HaLev in Berkeley, CA.

💙 Register before March 10 to take advantage of early bird pricing!

🛣️ https://www.shefaflow.org/derech