Join Wilderness Torah for a powerful Yom Kippur preparation event.
We will experience Hatarat Nedarim, a communal practice of loosening vows and limiting beliefs, and then mikveh, immersion in the living waters at Point San Pablo Marina.
Immersed and Unbound: Preparing for Yom Kippur in Body and Spirit
September 20 @ 9:30 am - 12:30 pm PDT
Point San Pablo Marina (Richmond, CA) + Google Map
Event Details
The most sacred moments of our lives ask something of us before we enter. Yom Kippur is no different. But we don’t have to prepare alone.
Three Jewish adults gather as a Beit Din, a Jewish court. You speak what is true. They respond with a threefold declaration of release, affirming that what has been bound is now permitted.
Judaism’s audacity is that when a Beit Din releases a person on earth, Heaven honors that release.
Together, we give one another permission to begin again, trusting that the Holy One responds, Salachti kidvarecha—”I have forgiven, according to your word.”
From there, you step into the living waters.
Held completely by the water, mikveh invites us to release what we have been carrying. We return to the womb of creation and emerge not as someone new, but returned to ourselves.
Unburdened, permitted, and renewed, we are ready to enter Yom Kippur’s prayer.
Join us Sunday morning, 9:30am–12:30pm September 20th, at Point San Pablo Marina, for a powerful Yom Kippur preparation.
Together, we will slow down and reflect on what we are ready to release. We will experience Hatarat Nedarim, a communal practice of loosening vows and limiting beliefs, and then mikveh, immersion in living waters.
You will be guided through a process of reflection and journaling, sit with a small group in a Beit Din, enter the waters with support and witness if you choose, and gather afterward for some nosh generously provided by The Sailing Goat. Come prepare to step into Yom Kippur right.
Participants B’nai Mitzvah and older are invited to partake in the ritual. There will not be childcare provided, but kids are very welcome to play on the beach!
NOTE: there is no lifeguard at this beach, participants enter the water at their own risk.
Meet your facilitators:
Ilana Meallem
Ilana is an Aguahara water-healing practitioner with 20 years of ceremonial experience, weaving Jewish spirituality, embodied healing, and sacred water ritual. She is a co-leader of the Jewish Hoshana Rabbah Rain Dance, creating spaces for release, renewal, and reconnecting with purpose and the Divine.
Eli Witkin
Every Friday (after calling his grandmother) Eli goes to the shore. Reviewing the week in his journal, he asks the living waters to wash him clean in preparation for Shabbat. Eli is a playful and experienced educator whose mikveh and journaling practices are pillars of his spiritual life. Having fallen in love with Torah at age ten, he has been learning ever since. Now Eli has a passion for bringing our ancient tradition, kept for thousands of years in books, alive into an embodied relationship with nature and land.
