Kohenet Virtual Temple Offerings
Welcome to the Kohenet Virtual Temple - our online space for coursework, prayer and more! Classe are taught from a Hebrew priestess perspective, in which the history of women ritual leaders, of embodied spiritual practice, and of the divine feminine in Jewish tradition are central elements. The Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute welcomes students from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives to its online classroom, and maintains a pluralistic approach to the study of Judaism and ancient Israelite religion. Our studies focus on understanding the past and also on making use of ritual and spiritual wisdom in the present. To learn more about Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, our offerings and our teachers, please browse these pages.
The Wheel of the Year: A Hebrew Priestess Exploration
with Rav Kohanot Jill Hammer and Taya Shere
February 2015 - December 2015
$375
This monthly Virtual Temple class presents an earth-based view of the Jewish calendar, including ancient practices and modern customs, and explores Kohenet-resonant ways to create meaningful holiday ritual. This ten-month class includes readings, lectures (listen live monthly, Wednesdays at noon EST or recorded anytime), an on-line discussion forum, audio guides for embodied practice and ritual and liturgy for each festival season. This class will also serve as a holiday community where students can post about their holiday experiences and practices, and share their questions and ideas. Required texts are The Jewish Book of Days by Jill Hammer and Seasons of Our Joy by Arthur Waskow, and additional material will be regularly posted and assigned.
Week of Feb 1 - Feast of the Tree of Life: Tu b’Shevat
Week of Feb 22 - Fertility Masque: Purim
Week of March 16 - Festival of the First Sheaf: Pesach
Week of April 20 - The Omer and Lag b’Omer
Week of May 11 - Shavuot
Week of June 29 - Tisha b’Av and Tu b’Av
Week of Aug. 3 - Cleansing Soul, Body, and Land: Rosh haShanah and Yom Kippur
Week of Sept. 7 - Sacred Circles: Sukkot, Hoshanah Rabbah and Simchat Torah
Week of Oct. 12 - Making Your Own Wheel of the Year
November/December - Fire Festival: Chanukah
Mitzvanitiation: A Bnai Mitzvah Officiant Training
February 9 - June 27, 2015.
with Rav Kohenet Taya Shere
$475 for online course and support materials.
$575 for online course, materials and two 30 minute individualized support calls.
Mitzvanitiation Bnai Mitzvah Officiant Training is a five-month online training which integrates lessons, virtual resources, assignments, forum discussion and individualized support for those seeking to develop and deepen their work as Bnai Mitzvah officiants.
Mitzvanitiation Bnai Mitzvah Officiant Training is designed for those seeking to build or strengthen skills as a Bnai Mitzah guide and officiant. Blueprints, specially-developed scripts, audiofiles and resources to craft Bnai Mitzvah ceremonies are provided.
The course takes place in the Kohenet Virtual Temple platform. Content is delivered through monthly written and audio lessons. Text and audio resources toward crafting and guiding each aspect of the Mitzvination process and ceremony are provided. Active participation in the course discussion forum is expected. A qualitative evaluation is offered upon completion of the course for those who wish to name completion of this training as a credential.
Mitzvanitiation Officiant Training is designed for those who have mentored or worked with Taya directly, including Kohenet community members and allies. Feel free to share this invite with specific resonant people. If you are drawn to this training but haven’t worked with Taya previously, please be in touch to request special application.
February 2015:
Bnai Mitvzah as Initiation Experience
March 2015:
Preparing the Student
Prayers, Torah Portion, D’var Torah, Mitzvah Project
Text: Mitzvanitiation Siddur.
Audio: Mitzvanitation Siddur prayer audio files.
April 2015:
Guiding the Ceremony / Supporting Student Leadership:
Torah Service, The D’var Torah & Honors
Text: Mitzvanitation Siddur
Text: Siddur Script
Audio: Siddur Script
May 2015:
Working with Families In Rite-of-Passage
Creating Welcoming Environments in Interfaith Contexts
Skillfully and Spaciously Navigating Family Dynamics
June 2015:
Creative Evolution and the Bnai Mitzvah Experience
Integrating Body / Earth / Feminine
The Alchemy of Erotic Presence
with Rav Kohenet Taya Shere
March - June 2015
$200
This ten-week Virtual Temple priestess practicum attunes us with the Eros animating all life and invites us into increased intentionality as erotic beings. This journey supports sacred sensuality and erotic & sexual healing as a path of devotion and transformation. The Alchemy of Erotic Presence Practicum offers a container for and community around erotic emergece and supports the cultivation of erotic presence, pleasure and possibility. Concentrated course content is delivered Mondays each week as both audio and print files and supplemented by an online discussion forum for course participants.
Week 1: The Alchemy of Initiation
Week 2: The Alchemy of Pace
Week 3: The Alchemy of Gratitude
Week 4: The Alchemy of Elementals
Week 5: The Alchemy of Clearing
Week 6: The Alchemy of Pleasure
Week 7: The Alchemy of Desire
Week 8: The Alchemy of Naming
Week 9: The Alchemy of State Transmission
Week 10: The Alchemy of Completion
Faces of Shekhinah: Meeting the Divine Feminine in Jewish Texts
with Rabbi & Rav Kohenet Jill Hammer
Faces of Shekhinah: Meeting the Divine Feminine in Jewish Texts explores biblical, talmudic, and mystical texts related to faces of the Divine Feminine across Jewish history, and invites participants to experience these faces of the Divine through guided meditation. The course includes weekly audio lectures, textual sources, online discussion in the class forum, and guided meditations.
Week 1: Sept. 1 - The Divine Glory: Shekhinah in Exodus and the Talmud
Week 2: Sept. 8 - Lady Wisdom and the Book of Proverbs
Week 3: Sept. 22 - Shekhinah as Exiled Woman: The Midrash
Week 4: Sept. 29 - Shekhinah as Divine Daughter
Week 5: Oct. 6 - The Cosmic Mother: Divine Feminine as Womb
Week 6: Oct. 13 - Shekhinah as Lover: The Sabbath Bride
Week 7: Oct. 20 - Shekhinah as Warrior and/or Monster
Week 8: Oct. 27 - Shekhinah as World: Divine Feminine as All That Is
Presencing the Priestess Body: A Practicum
with Taya Shere
This 8-week Virtual Temple class invites and supports us to cultivate a being-ness that is aligned with our essential self and gifts and with Source. Explore right pace, inhabit space, be guided by gratitude and become fluent in state transmission. This practicum engages simple and potent exercises and inquiries to activate awareness, to strengthen and supple our sensory selves and to empower our embodied presence. Concentrated cotent is delivered Mondays each week as both audio and print files and supplemented by an online discussion forum. Practicing and exploring together, we become additionally, exceptionally here and whole.
Week 1: Presencing Pace
Week 2: Presencing Grace & Gratitude
Week 3: Presencing Space
Week 4: Presencing Place & Elementals
Week 5: Presencing Soma
Week 6: Presencing State
Week 7: Presencing Form and Flow
Week 8: Presencing Completion