Sukkahfest at Freedman is perhaps the most joyous and diverse celebration of this holiday you will find. It takes the full spectrum of our Jewish community to manifest the joy of Sukkahfest. Join us!
Enjoy Sukkot with us surrounded by the natural beauty of the Berkshires! Mornings are filled with meaningful spirited prayer led by inspiring leaders in the beautiful setting of the Berkshires amongst the tall trees and sparkling lake. Afternoons and evenings are packed with leisure activities, classes and fun, including special programs for children. We offer the highest quality organic kosher meals to Jews of all denominations and backgrounds.
We feature two prayer options:
Renewal Minyan led by Kohenet: This Kohenet-led service will have an earth-based, embodied, feminist approach that includes chant, meditation, and embodied practice as well as traditional forms of prayer. We use a mix of feminine, gender-neutral, and masculine G!d-language, and invite joyful, intentional worship. All are welcome!
Open Orthodox Partnership Minyan: Open Orthodox Partnership Minyanim have women leading Kabbalat Shabbat, Pseukei D’Zimra, Hallel, the Torah Service, and Yizkor. In many cases, these are specifically done by women and gender non-conforming folks. Anyone can read Torah, and other than Kohen and Levi aliyot (which must be men), anyone can get an aliyah. There will be a trichitza (separate seating for men, women, and an egalitarian/mixed gender section).
We will be hosting two separate retreats: Sukkahfest over the start of Sukkot and Simchafest over Simchat Torah. The option to stay on site during Chol HaMoed is not available. Shabbat is included in both holiday retreats.
We feature two prayer options:
Open Orthodox Partnership Minyan: Open Orthodox Partnership Minyanim have women leading Kabbalat Shabbat, Pseukei D’Zimra, Hallel, the Torah Service, and Yizkor. In many cases, these are specifically done by women and gender non-conforming folks. Anyone can read Torah, and other than Kohen and Levi aliyot (which must be men), anyone can get an aliyah. There will be a trichitza (separate seating for men, women, and an egalitarian/mixed gender section).
Renewal Minyan: This Kohenet-led service will have an earth-based, embodied, feminist approach that includes chant, meditation, and embodied practice as well as traditional forms of prayer. We use a mix of feminine, gender-neutral, and masculine G!d-language, and invite joyful, intentional worship. All are welcome!
Pluralism at Freedman: All Streams of Judaism flow from One Source! “AllStream” is our name for the gathering of diverse Jewish communities at Sukkahfest. AllStream (rather than “Mainstream”) Judaism seeks to validate all streams of Jewish spiritual expression, recognizing that All of the ways of being Jewish flow from and return to One Source.
Our various educators lead a series of outdoor classes throughout the holiday, as well as yoga, tours of our organic farm, and guided hikes on our trails. While many of our activities are family friendly, there will also be some dedicated programs for kids. These will make use of our farm and the natural environment of the retreat center.
On Sukkot, we dwell outside under the sun, moon, and stars. We top our sukkot with plants, and we carry plants as we pray. Sukkot invites us to commune with nature in a profound way.
The Beit Kohenet track at Sukkahfest will help you connect to the more-than-human world—trees, creatures, stones, water, and earth, and the great Mystery—through Jewish sources, meditative practice, nature connection, and prayer.
Some of our session topics will include Jewish tales of sentient trees and stones, learning about the Shekhinah/feminine divine as a being who dwells within our ecosystem, animals in Jewish tradition, singing to connect to all of creation, and mystical, meditative experiences out in nature. We’ll pray in a joyful Jewish Renewal style that celebrates bodies and the earth, includes instruments, and uses multigendered God-language. Join us and enter the sukkah of the world, with a floor of soil, a roof of branches and the sky above.
This track is sponsored by Beit Kohenet, a house of mystical, earth-based, feminist Jewish seeking, and will be staffed by Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD, Shoshana Jedwab, Kohenet Liviah Wessely, Kohenet Harriette Wimms, and Kohenet Sarah Shamirah Chandler.
Camp Adamah offers engaging programming for children ages 2-12. Adamah’s values of cultivating vibrant Jewish life in deep connection with the earth through joy, love, and hope are exemplified in all of our activities. At our holiday retreats, children will have the opportunity to explore the land, forest and farm. All activities are shabbat and holiday friendly. Activities include meeting the chickens, hiking to the magnificent overlook, forest games, nature art, field games, and more! Gan Adamah, ages 2-4, is scheduled each morning of the retreat and Camp Adamah (ages 5-12) is held in the mornings and afternoons. We look forward to welcoming your family to our campus!
Kids programming will be outdoors as much as possible, including in the rain; a raincoat, rain boots, hiking boots or sneakers, and a labeled water bottle are required.
As a child, Shoshana Jedwab, would drum on parked cars, plates, tables, books and other people’s bodies. Shoshana Jedwab is a percussionist, singer-songwriter, worship leader, prize-winning Jewish educator and the Jewish Life Coordinator at the A.J. Heschel Middle School. As a Jewish educator, Shoshana has more than 30 years of experience bringing sacred Jewish texts to life. Shoshana Jedwab drums regularly for Romemu and serves as founding faculty member at the Kohenet Institute. Shoshana’s original, hip-shaking sacred music brings the ancestral past into joyous contemporary practice. The original songs of Shoshana’s 2016 debut album, “I Remember,” and her 2018 zipper song single, “Where You Go,” emerged from ceremonies Shoshana was leading, and are now being sung, and danced to, in churches, synagogues, and protest marches around the world. Shoshana Jedwab was included in Jewish Rock Radio’s Jewish Women Who Rock the Worship World. www.shoshanajedwab.com
Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD, author, scholar, ritualist, poet, dreamworker and midrashist, is the Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion (www.ajrsem.org), and co-founder of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute (www.kohenet.org). She is the author of Undertorah: An Earth-Based Kabbalah of Dreaming, Return to the Place: The Magic, Meditation, and Mystery of Sefer Yetzirah, The Hebrew Priestess: Ancient and New Visions of Jewish Women’s Spiritual Leadership (with Taya Shere), The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for All Seasons, Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women, and The Book of Earth and Other Mysteries. She lives in Manhattan with her family.
Kohenet Shamirah Bechirah aka Sarah Chandler is a Brooklyn-based Jewish educator, artist, activist, healer, and poet. She teaches, writes and consults on issues related to Judaism, earth-based spiritual practice, respectful workplaces, mindfulness, and farming. Previously, Sarah served as the Director of Romemu Yeshiva, Chief Compassion Officer of Jewish Initiative for Animals, and Director of Earth Based Spiritual Practices at Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center. An advanced student of Kabbalistic dream work at The School of Images, Sarah is the founder and lead trainer for “Soft as a Rock: Public Speaking for Sensitive Souls.” softasarock.com. Currently she is the CEO of Shamir Collective, as a coach and consultant to high profile artists and authors to launch new music and books.
Rabbi Ezra Weinberg is a shaliach tzibur, officiant and
Jewish educator dedicated to creating connection and
community. He is a native Philadelphian and holds an MA in
Conflict Transformation. Reb Ezra officiates weddings and Bnai
Mitzvot, teaches a University course called, “One G-d, Three
Paths”, alongside a priest and Imam. He currently works with
individuals and families within the Jewish community and
founded ReVoice, a network of resources for Jewish going
through divorce.
More to come!
