Upcoming Events and Classes
ZIVUG: Transition to Marriage (6 sessions)
Join Rabbi Getzel and a cohort of other couples for a six-class series on love, partnership, and the conscious transition to marriage. Through Jewish wisdom, guided exercises, and frank conversations, we will explore the growth and maintenance of vibrant relationships. Open to couples (all gender and multifaith expressions of partnership strongly welcome) in the year preceding or following a wedding.
Jewish Prepare/Enrich Training (online)
For almost 40 years, Prepare/Enrich has provided Facilitators and couples with data-driven relationship insights that create clarity, focus, and a framework on which to build resilient relationships.
With the help of their Facilitator (you!), couples build on their strengths giving them the confidence to work on their specific growth areas.
Becoming a certified Prepare/Enrich Facilitator provides you with the core knowledge and skills to confidently utilize Prepare/Enrich’s proven assessment and feedback resources, allowing you to get to know couples on a deeper level, more efficiently.
Father, Abba, Tatti Circle: How We Dad (Monthly)
Join Rabbi Getzel and other dads for a feminist and anti-racist exploration of what it means to raise young children today. This cycle we will be focusing on our relationships with our children — how to practice love, envision our role as father, explore intimacy with our children, and what it means to teach and role-model. Through a combination of reflection on modern and ancient Jewish wisdom, self-reflection, and a good amount of group process, fathers will explore together questions of identity and spirituality. By the end of this course, we will all have made new friends, have a clearer sense of how Jewish identity intersects with parenting and develop strategies for becoming a better father and partner.
Enthusiastically open to all regardless of Jewish education, Hebrew background, interfaith status, or queer identity.
ZIVUG: Transition to Marriage (6 sessions, online)
Join Rabbi Getzel and a cohort of other couples for a six-class series on love, partnership, and the conscious transition to marriage. Through Jewish wisdom, guided exercises, and frank conversations, we will explore the growth and maintenance of vibrant relationships. Open to couples (all gender and multifaith expressions of partnership strongly welcome) in the year preceding or following a wedding.
Personalizing Your Jew-ish Wedding (4 sessions)
Planning your wedding ceremony? Performing a wedding for others? Curious about ritual, ancient and modern? Join Rabbi Getzel Davis to deeply explore the ancient form of Jewish weddings and how they can be adapted to meet modern values and families. All are welcome regardless of Jewish background, observance or relationship status. All will leave with a basic knowledge of how to craft a wedding ceremony and tips for how to make the wedding sacred, meaningful, and fun.
Shadow Dancing Through the Omer (7-class series)
After the sweet heights of Pesach, we count the Omer—the 49 days between redemption from Egypt and the revelation at Mt. Sinai—an invitation to do the spiritual work that opens the pathways from humanity to Divinity (and back). Join Getzel Davis in a deepened exploration of the lower sefirot—the qualities of God, self, and world found in the mystical Kabbalah. Each week we will explore that week's sefirah through biblical, rabbinic, and mystical texts. For each quality we will explore both the sefirah in its fully actualized state as well as its shadow manifestations. Over the seven weeks of the Omer, we will explore all seven 'lower sefirot' in depth and introduce the higher worlds as well. Open to all!
Boston In-Person ZIVUG: Transition to Marriage (6 sessions)
Join Rabbi Getzel and a cohort of other Boston-area couples for a six-class series on love, partnership, and the conscious transition to marriage. Through Jewish wisdom, guided exercises, and frank conversations, we will explore the growth and maintenance of vibrant relationships. Open to couples (all gender and multifaith expressions of partnership strongly welcome) in the year preceding or following a wedding.
Father, Abba, Tatti Circle 2023 (Monthly)
Join Rabbi Getzel Davis and Boston-based dads for a feminist and anti-racist exploration of what it means to raise young Jewish children today. This cycle we will be focusing on our relationships with our partners — how to practice love, negotiate careers, intimacy, and aging parents up against the incredible work of being a dad. Through a combination of reflection on modern and ancient Jewish wisdom, and conversation, fathers will explore questions of identity and spirituality. By the end of this course, we will have a clearer sense of how Jewish identity and upbringing intersect with our parenting and develop strategies for becoming a better father and partner. Enthusiastically open to all regardless of Jewish education, Hebrew background, interfaith status, or queer identity.
Jewish Prepare/Enrich Training (online)
For almost 40 years, Prepare/Enrich has provided Facilitators and couples with data-driven relationship insights that create clarity, focus, and a framework on which to build resilient relationships.
With the help of their Facilitator (you!), couples build on their strengths giving them the confidence to work on their specific growth areas.
Becoming a certified Prepare/Enrich Facilitator provides you with the core knowledge and skills to confidently utilize Prepare/Enrich’s proven assessment and feedback resources, allowing you to get to know couples on a deeper level, more efficiently.
Dreaming with Rebbe Nachman (6 sessions)
Come and dream along with Rebbe Nachman of Breslev and discover Rebbe Nachman’s most famous story “The Seven Beggars”. Rebbe Nachman would tell amazing stories, almost fairytale-like in their construction, filled with the most esoteric Kabbalistic symbolism. These stories mirrored his personal dreams and often can reflect our own. He was explicit that his stories were designed to arouse us all from our spiritual slumber and connect us on an almost pre-intellectual level to the Divine. They are also fun, wacky, and thought to be some of the first Jewish fiction.
Zivug: Conscious Transitions into a Second Marriage (6 sessions)
Join Rabbi Getzel and a cohort of other couples for a six-class series on love, partnership, and the conscious transition to a second (or subsequent) marriage. Second marriages end in divorce even more often than the first, so spending time visioning together and setting expectations can really help start a new marriage off on the “right foot.” Through Jewish wisdom, guided exercises, and frank conversations, we will explore the growth and maintenance of vibrant relationships. Open to couples (all gender and multifaith expressions of partnership strongly welcome) in the year preceding or following the wedding.
Read more.
Inner Spaciousness: Class in Honor of Rebbe Nachman’s Yahrtzeit
In commemoration of the yahrtzeit (anniversary of death) of the great Chassidic master, Rebbe Nachman of Breslev, Rabbi Getzel will be holding a free learning session on Rebbe Nachman’s teachings about creating spaciousness in our minds and hearts.
Mystical Underpinnings of Teshuva - Elul through Sukkot (7 sessions)
Mystical tradition has it that the 40 days between the start of the month of Elul and the end of Yom Kippur constitute an auspicious period during which to engage in teshuva (forgiveness and return). This soul-accounting and forgiveness process can be one of the most intense spiritual practices in Jewish tradition—and it is most rewarding.
Dive into a textual and experiential exploration of teshuva during the month of Elul with Rabbi Getzel Davis as we prepare for the Days of Awe and teshuva. We will be learning about the practice of Cheshbon Hanefesh - “Soul Accounting” by Menachem Mendel Levin, as well as teachings on transformation from Rebbe Nachman of Breslev, Rabbi Alan Lew, and the Zohar.
The class will take from the Elul period, through Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and all the way to its resolution on Sukkot.
Lech L'Zivug: Adventuring into Vibrant Relationship
Join other couples in reflecting on relationship skills, studying Jewish wisdom around marriage, and making friends in your current stage of life. The wilderness will guide our journey into frank conversation, guided exercises, and text study.
Hiding in Plain Sight: Is God Everywhere? (6 sessions)
Each morning and night, many Jews recite the Shema proclaiming that “God is One.” What does this mean? The mystical tradition has long taught that ‘One’ is not a counting number but rather a statement of unity. God is The One, The Infinite, and The Only thing that is. From this panentheistic mythical worldview, the divisions we experience in our lives from others, the world and G!d are only perceived truth. Join Rabbi Getzel for an exploration of the mystical ‘True’ divine world behind the screen where all remains whole and one. The class is open to all regardless of Jewish or text background, mystical experience, or meditative practice. Throughout the series we will discuss a variety of ways to cultivate an experience of oneness in nature, erotic intimacy, meditation, or being part of group.
ZIVUG: Transition to Marriage (6 sessions)
Join Rabbi Getzel and a cohort of other couples for a six-class series on love, partnership, and the conscious transition to marriage. Through Jewish wisdom, guided exercises, and frank conversations, we will explore the growth and maintenance of vibrant relationships. Open to couples (all gender and multifaith expressions of partnership strongly welcome) in the year preceding or following a wedding.
Read more.
Father, Abba, Tatti Circle: L’Dor V’Dor (Monthly)
Join Rabbi Getzel and other dads for a feminist, and anti-racist, exploration of what it means to raise young children today. This cycle we will be focusing on our relationships with our families of origin—going deep on how we choose what to replicate and what not from our own upbringing. Through a combination of reflection on modern and ancient Jewish wisdom, self-reflection, and a good amount of group process, fathers will explore together questions of identity and spirituality. By the end of this course, we will all have made new friends, have a clearer sense of how Jewish identity intersects with parenting, and develop strategies for becoming a better father and partner. Enthusiastically open to all regardless of Jewish education, Hebrew background, interfaith status, or queer identity.
Sundays once a month at 8pm EST, online.
Beshert: Mystical Connections (4 sessions)
Yiddish for “destiny,” the word beshert is used to refer to an intended soulmate, a true love. Join Rabbi Getzel Davis on a search for the spirituality of encountering one's beloved. We will wonder together with surprising ancient wisdom about questions of queerness, interfaith status, and non-romantic beshert relationships. Dive into teachings from the Zohar, Rabbi Isaac Luria, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Martin Buber, Jacques Derrida, Rabbi Menachem Froman, and bell hooks. This class welcomes partnered and unpartnered folks of all ages, faith backgrounds, gender identity and sexual orientation.
ZIVUG: Envisioning Your Wedding and Marriage (2 courses combined, 10 sessions)
Getting married? Mazal tov! This summer, join Rabbi Getzel and other couples for four sessions exploring the meanings, history and possibilities of Jewish wedding ceremonies, and then six sessions delving deep on the next stage: married life together.
A combination of From Henna To Honeymoon and this summer’s ZIVUG cohort.
Read more.
From Henna To Honeymoon: Personalizing A Jew-ish Wedding (4 sessions)
Planning your wedding ceremony? Performing a wedding for others? Curious about ritual, ancient and modern? Join Rabbi Getzel to deeply explore the ancient form of Jewish weddings and how they can be adapted to meet modern values and families. All are welcome regardless of Jewish background, observance or relationship status. All will leave with a basic knowledge of how to craft a wedding ceremony and tips for how to make the wedding sacred, meaningful, and fun.
Read more.
Rest in the Seventh: Shabbat, Shmitta, and the Sabbatical Cycles of Redemption and Freedom (6 sessions)
This Hebrew year 5782 is the Shmita year, a sabbatical year of rest and release. How might we personally and collectively prepare for a year of rest, reset, and radical rejuvenation? Starting with the study of Shabbat, each week we’ll ground ourselves in text and conversation around our weekly, holiday and yearly cycles and explore what “release” might truly mean. We will delve into Biblical, rabbinic, and post-modern wisdom and draw on our own experiences as we vision what is possible.
Inner Journeys with the Omer (8-class series)
After the sweet heights of Pesach, we count the Omer—the 49 days between redemption from Egypt and the revelation at Mt. Sinai—an invitation to do the spiritual work that opens the pathways from humanity to Divinity (and back). Join Rabbis David Curiel and Getzel Davis in a deepened exploration of the lower sefirot—the qualities of God, self, and world found in the mystical Kabbalah. Each week we will explore that week’s sefirah through text, soul and self, including spiritual practices to enrich the journey. Our first session, before Pesach, will serve as an overview of the sefirotic system. Over the following seven weeks, we will explore all seven 'lower sefirot' in depth and introduce the higher worlds as well. Open to all!
Marbim B'simcha - Joyful Living (twice weekly or asynchronous)
How do we cultivate joy in the midst of exhaustion, isolation, uncertainty, and fear?
The Talmud teaches that with the beginning of the month of Adar, we are encouraged to increase our joy & happiness, Marbim B’simcha.
The recipe is: Laughter, Torah, and Community.
Join Laughter Yoga Coaches Shimon Darwick, Sarah Jean Lawson, with Rabbi Getzel Davis (of Zivug & Harvard Hillel) for twice weekly live laughter Torah sessions plus our “Jewish Expressions of Joy” course to warm up our hearts and invigorate our bodies. How do we cultivate joy in the midst of exhaustion, isolation, uncertainty, and fear?
Take A Breath: Jewish Meditation Parenting Mini-Retreat
Caring for children is demanding, rewarding, and vital work. As we draw on our inner resources to do this work, we often feel the need to fill the tanks of our inner reservoirs by going on focused mindfulness or meditation retreats. But because we’re also watching kids, we can’t!
This virtual, live half-day meditation retreat is specifically designed for caregivers and parents who want to learn to meditate or deepen their practice in a supportive and accessible space. In addition to periods of silent sitting meditation, instruction on the retreat will bring the wisdom and power of Jewish mindfulness to the everyday needs of parents. We will explore feelings of being enough, being both resentful of and obsessed with the children in our care, the role of acceptance and grief in our caregiving, and finding the miraculous in our lives.
Dreamweaver: The Stories Of Rabbi Nachman (4 sessions)
Come and dream along with Rebbe Nachman of Breslev this winter as together, we explore Rebbe Nachman's stories. Rebbe Nachman was an amazing storyteller, weaving tales that were often fairytale-like in their construction and filled with the most esoteric Kabbalistic symbolism. These stories mirrored his personal dreams and often reflect our own. The Rebbe designed his stories intentionally, to arouse us from our spiritual slumber and connect us on a pre-intellectual level to the Divine. They are also fun, wacky, and represent some of the first Jewish fiction.
Father, Abba, Tatti Circle 2022 (Monthly)
Join with dads from the Greater Boston area for a Jewish, feminist, and anti-racist, exploration of what it means to raise young children in America today. Through a combination of reflection on modern and ancient Jewish wisdom, self -reflection, and a good amount of group process, fathers will explore together questions of identity and spirituality. By the end of this course, we will all have made new friends, have a clearer sense of how Jewish identity intersects with parenting, and develop strategies for becoming a better father and partner. Enthusiastically open to all regardless of Jewish education, Hebrew background, interfaith status, or queer identity.
Sundays once a month at 8pm EST, online.
Kabbalah of Relationships (6 sessions)
Join Rabbi Getzel Davis on a search for the spirituality of encountering one's beloved. Explore kabbalistic, rabbinic, and philosophical wisdom on the nature of relationship, sex, and intimacy. Dive into teachings from the Zohar, Rabbi Isaac Luria, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Martin Buber, Jacques Derrida, Rabbi Menachem Froman, and Bell Hooks. This class welcomes partnered and unpartnered folks of all ages, faith backgrounds, gender identity and sexual orientation.
Celebrate & Connect: Jewish Holiday Couples' Series
Celebrate the Jewish Holidays together with your partner. Not just a meal, a visit to family (hurray?!), or synagogue. Mark the holiday by working on your relationship. Sweeten your partnership and discover newness in Rosh Hashanah as a couple. Practice forgiveness this Yom Kippur. Explore productive conflict on Sukkot. Talk money and gelt this Chanukah. Talk about thoughts (and philosophies) on parenting this Passover and about spirituality on Shavuot. Join for one class, or the whole series.
Zivug: Activist Couples Preparing for Marriage (7-class series)
Join Rabbi Getzel to explore the growth and maintenance of vibrant relationships through Jewish wisdom, text study, guided exercises, and frank conversations. This is a class for folks specifically interested in exploring power dynamics, feminism, and how our decisions as a couple impact the world. Open to couples (all gender and multifaith expressions of partnership strongly welcome) in the year preceding or following a wedding who are interested in a conscious and healthy transition to marriage.
Mystical Connections: Kabbalistic Teachings on Relationships and Intimacy (8 sessions)
Join Rabbi Getzel Davis on a search for the spirituality of encountering one's beloved. Explore kabbalistic, rabbinic, and philosophical wisdom on the nature of relationship, sex, and intimacy. Dive into teachings from the Zohar, Rabbi Isaac Luria, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Martin Buber, Jacques Derrida, Rabbi Menachem Froman, and Bell Hooks. This class welcomes partnered and unpartnered folks of all ages, faith backgrounds, gender identity and sexual orientation.