Prayer Festival Workshops
Date: 1 July 2025
Time: 13:00–14:30
Title: “On the Tip of the Tongue”—Poetry and Creation at the Seam Between the Spoken and the Written Word
Creator: Yonatan Kunda
About the workshop: When we feel that ancient and ever-renewing thirst to express ourselves in words—what inspiration rises from the well of speech? And what from the well of writing? In this session, we will draw inspiration for creation through encounters with the worlds, traditions, and forms of poetry, Torah, and oral prayer across generations—from prophecy, the Mishnah, and liturgical poetry to spoken word and rap. We will explore the delicate, surprising, and stirring dance of words as they constantly move from the page—to the body, the voice, the stage, the street, the town square—and back again…
About the creator: Yonatan is a poet, an actor, a playwright, a musician, and an educator. One of the pioneers of spoken word in Israel, Yonatan has published three poetry books, including “Let the Crack Become Light”, which won the ACUM Prize. He leads numerous musical and educational projects that blend traditional sources with original creation, working with diverse communities across Israel and the world – in Hebrew, Arabic, and English.
Date: 1 July 2025
Time: 13:00–14:30
Title: “Musical steps between Chesed to Malchut”
Creator: Yaron Pe’er
About the workshop: An artist workshop with Yaron Pe’er, where we will experience, learn, and explore the different qualities within the musical scale, in which tones rise and fall like angels. A person is likened to a tree – his soul to the root, his body to the leaf. The belief that the world was created through voice, through speech, is not merely a legend. Sound and speech hold power – the ability to shift consciousness and create reality. Music helps us see and develop a subtle attentiveness to the relationships between things – to understand how they exist through one another, and how everything flows from and returns to a single source. Each tone has its own quality and context within the scale. When we look at notes as separate ‘bodies’, we can rediscover their connection and come to understand the entire tree through the ‘leaf’.
About the creator: Yaron Pe’er is a musician, a multidisciplinary artist, a Hebrew calligrapher, and a soul researcher. With over two decades of experience studying ancient music, he leads classes that weave together ancient Eastern wisdom, Kabbalah, and singing, illuminating what we already know and reconnecting everything to its source through sacred listening. Yaron has released 10 albums to date, leads the HaQawaliya ensemble, and directs the Shamayim Center for Learning and Culture in Jaffa, where he lives.
Date: 1 July 2025
Time: 15:00–16:30
Title: Turning Teachings into Prayers
Creator: Renana Eisenberg
About the workshop: This session will follow the format of a Chavurat Tefillah (prayer fellowship) founded by Rabbi Dov Zinger. We will begin with a First Blessing—a short introductory exercise to get to know one another. We’ll study a source from Hishtapchut HaNefesh (Outpouring of the Soul) by Rabbi Alter Teplicker, exploring different perspectives on the role of prayer. Next, we’ll practice a paired exercise in presence, in which each participant will pray for their partner. We’ll conclude with a song by Efrat Raefel-Farawi that reflects the essence of working in pairs. A final blessing will bring the session to a close.
About the creator: Renana Eisenberg is a poet, a hydrotherapist, and a facilitator of study and prayer groups. She holds a BA in Jewish Thought and an MA in Psychodrama Therapy. She taught at Herzog College and led learning circles for educators in various schools through Beit Midrash Lehitchadshut. Her poetry collection Jerusalem Slips From My Hand was recently published by Chut Hakesef.
Date: 1 July 2025
Time: 15:00–16:30
Title: Polyphonic Piyutim
Creator: Maayan Tzafrir
About the workshop: A musical journey into Jewish sacred song, through piyutim (liturgical poems) from the Middle East. This is a form of singing born from life itself: women singing while cooking, groups of men in synagogues or on the street, around holiday tables and family gatherings. Folk piyut is not a performance, it’s a living, multi-voiced participation, where each person brings their own unique sound into a shared space. Together we’ll experience piyut as a form of communal and traditional expression, through collective singing and contemporary vocal arrangements inspired by Bulgarian choral music and the polyphony of northwestern Greece.
About the creator: Maayan Tzafrir is a singer, musician, and teacher of folk singing and vocal development. She studied music at the Center for Middle Eastern Music in Jerusalem and was trained by master singers of traditional music in Greece, Bulgaria, and Crete. Her musical path weaves piyutim with musical traditions from the Balkans and the Middle East. Maayan performs with leading musicians from the world of Middle Eastern music and leads the Ensemble Ya’arot and Tavernikos ensembles.
Date: 1 July 2025
Time: 17:00–19:00
Title: Ecstatic Prayer
Creators: Rabbi Ruth Gan Kagan & Dafna Rosenberg from Nava Tehila
About the workshop: Come join us for a musical journey into the heart of ecstatic prayer — weaving between moments of magical stillness and joyful, soaring ecstasy. Together, we’ll explore practical ways to deepen both personal practice and prayer leadership, all within a warm and welcoming space for exploration and authentic personal expression.
About the creators: Rabbi Ruth Gan Kagan and Daphna Rosenberg are the founders of Nava Tehila, an egalitarian community in Jerusalem known for its inspirational, ecstatic musical prayers and original prayer melodies. We nurture young musicians as composers and prayer leaders and conduct workshops and classes to develop new models for communal prayer and prayer circles. Our melodies are used in Jewish communities throughout Israel and around the world. To date, we have released three albums, and dozens of additional melodies have been recorded in home videos. Listen to our albums, watch our videos, or join us for prayers with us in Jerusalem.
Date: 1 July 2025
Time: 17:00–19:00
Title: ‘Dream Stones’ – An Intuitive Workshop for Prayer Creators
Creator: Sharon Glazberg
About the workshop: What is prayer born from touch? What happens when we let the hands lead and let the body dream? In this workshop, we’ll meet the material with closed eyes and open hearts. We’ll set words aside for a moment and seek prayer that rises from movement, sensation, and stillness. Through the process, we will create ‘dream stones’ – images emerging from the body and emotions: connections between sensations, memories, and forms. At the end, by candlelight, we will write a personal text inspired by the stone we created – a ‘dream stone’: an inner gaze that opens outward. The workshop combines work with physical materials, intuitive sculpture, inner listening, and personal writing.
About the creator: Sharon Glazberg is an artist and cultural entrepreneur, active in both the Israeli and international art scenes. She is a graduate of the Mandel Leadership Institute in Culture, and is trained in breath therapy and NLP. Sharon specializes in the intersection of art and community and is the co-founder of ZUMU – the Mobile Museum, a community-based museum. Her solo exhibitions have been shown in galleries and public spaces across Israel and the world.
Date: 2 July 2025
Time: 13:00–14:30
Title: Pay Attention to the Soul
Creator: Rabbi Mira Regev
About the workshop: How do we pay attention to the soul? How can we cultivate a life that gives more space to its language? In this workshop, we will explore the soul’s nocturnal journey through ancient Zoharic teachings on the one hand, and integrate more modern perspectives from Jung and his students—James Hillman and Francis Weller—on the other. The workshop will include writing exercises and meditation, as we collectively seek a gentle listening to the subtle, vibrating space of the soul.
About the creator: A Reform rabbi who has taught Zoharic and Kabbalistic literature for many years, following extended academic study and research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In recent years, she has trained as a psychotherapist and spiritual/emotional guide at the Hakomi Institute: a mindfulness-based somatic psychotherapy approach. Her teaching blends profound wisdom from depth psychology, including Jung and his successors. She offers spiritual and emotional accompaniment, leads life cycle rituals, and currently serves as the Head of Content for the Reform Movement in Israel.
Date: 2 July 2025
Time: 13:00–14:30
Title: Zikr and Sufi Dance
Creators: Sheikh Ihab and Ora Balha
About the workshop: The Sufi path is an ancient spiritual way of love, inner contemplation, and surrender. It is a path of open-heartedness, divine remembrance, and union with the transcendent through music, song, movement, and silence. In this gathering, we will dive together into the depth of the path through: “Suhba” (spiritual conversation), “Zikr” (remembrance of the Divine name in heart and voice), meditative singing, and healing, circular Sufi dance.
About the creators: Sheikh Ihab and Ora Balha are senior teachers in the Mevlevi Order of the Whirling Dervishes. For over twenty years, they have taught in Israel and around the world, and lead Dergah, a Sufi center in Konya, Turkey.
Date: 2 July 2025
Time: 15:00–16:30
Title: The Voice of the Letter
Creator: Chana Bat Yael
About the workshop: A journey into the depths of the voice, exploring and singing the Hebrew letters. In this workshop, we will explore the connection between language and spirit through the investigation and vocalization of the Hebrew alphabet. Hebrew letters carry unique energy and essence. Each one is a treasure – a world unto itself – connected both to a part of the body and to the movement of sound. Their shapes, vibrations, and links to the body guide us toward a deeper connection with ourselves and our surroundings. We will delve into the study and experience of the Hebrew letters, focusing on the depth of their pronunciation and essence. In doing so, we will connect to the most fundamental spiritual realms. We will learn to sing the letters with full awareness, deepening our sense of touch and vibration using our primary instruments: the mouth, the body, the heart, and the soul. By exploring and expressing our voices, we will learn to bridge the physical instrument (the body) with the spiritual instrument (the soul).
About the creator: Chana Bat Yael is a poet, a singer, a vocal healer, a writer, a composer, an arranger, and a deeply soulful artist. She immigrated from Paris in 2000, where she had been a singer (in French, Yiddish, and Hebrew), and a drama and theater teacher for children, at-risk youth, and adults. She studied various vocal methods – classical, world music, and folk – until she encountered the Hebrew language and began an in-depth exploration of its mysteries. Alongside this, Hannah pursued interests that connect body and soul, such as yoga, meditation, qigong, and holistic healing practices. She has created a unique approach for sharing the joy of letting the body and soul sing together, in harmony, simplicity, and joy. Chana guides groups in exploring the depth and delight of discovering their voices.
Date: 3 July 2025
Time: 09:00–10:30
Title: Prayer in Motion – A Workshop of Body, Voice, and Ritual Inspired by the Work of Anna Halprin
Creator: Michal Sternbach
About the workshop: What is prayer in the body? How can movement touch that inner space that seeks change, healing, a request, or gratitude? In this workshop, we will meet the body as both home and temple. Drawing inspiration from the work of choreographer and artist Anna Halprin (z”l), we will explore the possibility of creating a personal ritual through movement, voice, and music – a ritual in which the body speaks the prayer, carries emotion, and opens a doorway to healing and new movement. We will begin with gentle listening – to breath and inner movement that exists even before action begins – where the body tells a story without being asked. We will dwell on questions such as: What is alive in me in this season? What wants to be revealed or transformed? What prayer is asking to be born from within me?
We’ll remember that in every prayer – whether in words, song, or silence – the body is always present and participating, even if we’re not always aware of it. This workshop will expand our awareness of the body as a living space for prayer, presence, and healing. As we move deeper into creative territory, we will dance between intuition and structure, the personal and the ceremonial. Through prompts drawn from movement, voice, and imagination, we will weave moments of meaning – personal and intimate rituals born from the body.
About the creator: Michal Sternbach is a dancer, movement therapist, and teacher of Contact Improvisation. She is a practitioner of the Ilan Lev Method and is currently training to be a trauma therapist through Somatic Experiencing (SE). She facilitates workshops throughout Israel and leads body-based healing rituals in the Jerusalem Hills. Michal explores the deep interface between dance, healing, and personal and social transformation, and believes in the body’s power to lead us into genuine, present, and meaningful encounters. Partner to Roi and mother to Tamara-Lev and Kerem-Shira, she lives and creates in the Jerusalem Hills.
Date: 3 July 2025
Time: 09:00–10:30
Title: Tefila Journey – An exploration of Tehilim and Personal Prayer
Creator: Adirchai Haberman-Browns
About the workshop: This session provides a devotional experience of Tefila, cultivating spiritual intimacy and a fresh connection to the many words of the Siddur. Together, we will explore how this practice influences our personal prayers, leading us into a ceremony of personal and collective improvised prayer.
About the creator: Adirchai Haberman-Browns is the founder and leader of Kula Liba, a Jerusalem based spiritual community which explores the meeting point of Tefila, music and ceremony. With musical roots in Hindu, Sufi, and Middle Eastern traditions, he is on a journey creating contemporary Jewish music and ritual that is devotional, meaningful and relevant. Seeking to connect the ancient, the new and the sacred, Adirchai is active both in Israel and in North America, bringing his Tefila, music and teachings to many communities and festivals.
Date: 3 July 2025
Time: 11:00–12:30
Title: Gospel in Jerusalem
Creator: Elisheva Young
About the workshop: Gospel music is a musical style that originated in Black churches in the United States. It grew out of spiritual and slave songs that evolved over the years. Gospel combines emotion, energy, and movement, and serves as a powerful vehicle for expressing faith and connection with the community. During the workshop, we will learn to sing in harmony, practice group listening and collective learning, and experience the energy and rhythm that arise from many voices coming together. Most of all, we’ll encounter the joy, devotion, and uplifting spirit of the music, the words, and the shared prayer.
About the creator: Elisheva Young moved to Israel from Detroit, Michigan, USA. She is a choir conductor, singer, composer, and musical arranger. For over 30 years, Elisheva has been teaching gospel and vocal harmony in leading music institutions across Israel, and has performed with many prominent artists both internationally and in Israel.
Date: 3 July 2025
Time: 11:00–12:30
Title: Be Still and Know
Creator: Guy Biran
About the workshop: A workshop of meditation, contemplation, and reading from the Book of Psalms; Introduction to a basic meditation technique; Guided, direct reading from selected Psalms – The Book of Psalms holds profound insights into the nature of the human soul and the surrounding world. In this workshop, we will use selected verses for meditative, non-interpretive reading practice; Movement – warm-up and spatial exploration.
About the creator: Guy Biran is a director, an artistic director, and a theater educator. He served as the Artistic Director of the Arena Theater in Jerusalem from 2009 to 2017 and taught Directing at the Academy of Theatre in Amsterdam for 24 years, and at most of the major theater schools in Israel. Guy facilitates creative processes with a focus on the art of encounter. He teaches meditation and explores the deep principles of movement and action. Guy is the recipient of the 2018 Minister of Education’s Prize for Jewish Theater.
Date: 3 July 2025
Time: 15:00–16:30
Title: An Example of a Biblical Prayer and How it Might Inform the Culture of the Prayer Circle
Creator: Rabbi Joel Levy
About the workshop: Chavruta and conversation: we will learn an example of a biblical prayer, together with some classical medieval commentaries on it, and reflect on how this very different mode of prayer might nonetheless inform the contemporary culture of the prayer circle.
About the creator: Rabbi Joel Levy is Rosh Yeshiva of the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center Yeshiva where he has studied and taught for over twenty-five years. He received rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Dr. David Hartman in 2000 and has since also served as the Rabbi of Kol Nefesh Masorti, the UK’s first fully egalitarian, traditional synagogue.
Date: 3 July 2025
Time: 17:00–18:30
Title: “And Regarding the Repair of the Body’s Condition” – A Midrash-Body Workshop and Prayer Preparation with Rabbi Avraham ben Rambam
Creator: Oran Kalech
About the workshop: In this session, we will translate an ancient text into living, breathing movement. We will study Rabbi Avraham ben Rambam’s unique approach to preparing the body for prayer, along with the philosophical and spiritual ideas behind the distinctive choreography expressed in traditional prayer. The workshop combines textual study from his book ‘HaMaspik LeOvdei Hashem’ (‘Sufficient for the Servants of God’) with a movement journey that emerges from the text and demands the words be embodied.
About the creator: Oran Kalech is a certified rabbi from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Education and a teaching certificate from Herzog College. He is a certified dancer from the men’s dance school ‘Kol Etzmotai Tomarna’. Oran currently teaches at ‘Nativ’, the military conversion program and also leads workshops integrating the rich and profound world of Torah with the complex and full world of the soul. He strives to create around himself a mindset of embodiment and an atmosphere of seeking God within the human.
Date: 4 July 2025
Time: 09:00–10:00
Title: Ne’ilah Prayer – Attentive Integration
Creators: Noa Ben Porat & Shira Levy Cohen
About the workshop: A gathering that creates a space for personal processing within a shared, grounded, and attentive environment. Through gentle movement, connection to breath and soul, healing sounds, voice, and inner listening, this is a place to rest and move toward Shabbat and the closing of the festival.
About the creators: Noa creates spaces of spirit, sound, and prayer. She is completing studies in spiritual guidance and brings healing through prayerful singing and connecting between dimensions. Noa holds spaces and ceremonies that allow for gentle and embracing contact with grief and loss. She is also the author and illustrator of the book ‘I Have a Sister in Heaven’. Shira is a mindful trauma-informed gentle yoga instructor, finishing a degree in social work with a specialization in acute and post-trauma. She loves the earth and people and supports life processes and circles with attentive, sensitive, gentle, and compassionate care – together.