A different kind of school.
Course Catalog 2013/2014
Kabbalah Experience Engage your spirit. Contents Welcome to 1 Year One Core Curriculum 2 Year Two Core Curriculum Kabbalah 3 Year Three Core Curriculum Experience 4 Year Long Text Study Engage your spirit. 5 Year Long Experiential Learning 6 Electives and Mini Courses It’s about you transforming. While Jewish in its 7 Faculty origin and language, the Kabbalah Experience curriculum 8 Fall 2013 Registration Form has a universal spiritual message. Our classes are specifi- cally designed for people seeking a deeper understanding Mission Statement about life’s purpose and meaning. Kabbalah Experience is an open and Kabbalah Experience classes consist of small groups inclusive learning community committed in which questions and dialogue facilitate learning the to encouraging individual spiritual growth principles of Kabbalah and help students apply them to through the study and application of personal growth. This adult-centered method of learning Kabbalah’s insights into the parallels appeals to people who learn best when their own thinking between physical and spiritual reality. process is encouraged and engaged. The Kabbalah Experience curriculum draws upon Officers selections from the major texts of the Kabbalah, including the Zohar and Sefer Yetzirah, the teachings of Isaac Luria, Ilana Erez, President the Ba’al Shem Tov and more contemporary Kabbalah Elliott Husney, Past President teachers. The curriculum also draws from the sciences Dr. Martin Dubin, Vice President — quantum physics and biology, as well as the spiritual Malena Fernandez, Treasurer wisdom of other cultures and insights from various schools Ken Diamond, Secretary of psychology. Kabbalah Experience students deepen their understand- Board of Directors ing of themselves through exploring the ancient wisdom of Ken Diamond, Dr. Martin Dubin, Kabbalah. It’s not just about the information you learn, it’s Ilana Erez, Malena Fernandez, Dr. Andrew about the transformation you experience. Freeman, Dr. Anne Goldberg Wernimont, Richard Greenberg, Elliott Husney, Nancy Steele, Robert Weinberger
Staff Our Community Partners
Dr. David Sanders, Executive Director Patti Levine, Operations Director Saskia Kelly, Administrative Assistant
For More Information
Phone 303.758.8996 www.kabbalahexperience.com [email protected] 3599 So. Ivanhoe Street Denver, CO 80237 Year One Core Curriculum
The Year One Core Curriculum consists of three classes: Soul, Space and Time. It is recommended to start with Soul but the Year One Core classes can be taken in any sequence. They are a prerequisite for Year Two and Year Three classes. New students can take In Tune With Time, any mini course or any elective class except Kabbalah Review.
Soul In Tune with Time
The basic teachings of Kabbalah illuminate The celebration of the new month in the Jewish the parallel realities between the physical and calendar begins with the new moon. According spiritual dimension. Students learn the history of to Kabbalah, the Jewish calendar is a guiding Kabbalah and teachings from the Zohar and the light for personal transformation. Each of the Kabbalisitc masters of Tzfat. Students open up to twelve new moons offers different and unique a new awareness of the interconnectedness of energies that give us opportunities to understand souls and common miracles. and realize our own potential. For women only, this class meets monthly. Space Mystical Hebrew Letters All of physical reality is layered and flows down from higher worlds. The Tree of Life is the basic The early Kabbalah focused on the Hebrew map of spiritual reality unique to the Kabbalah. letters and language and how this code It describes the process of the infinite becoming underlies creation. The beauty of the letters is manifest as finite reality. Students learn to expressed through their meaning, shape, name apply the Tree of Life as a tool to change the and numerical value. The Hebrew letters are metaphors of their lives. containers for the energies of time, including the months of the year and the 12 Spiritual Senses Time of Soul explained in Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Formation). Quantum physicists debate what time is or whether it even exists. Kabbalah penetrates the mystery of time by asserting that it is God’s first creation. Students learn the concept of living in the present moment through Kabbalah’s insights into the Sabbath and Passover and making each day count. (Offered in Spring.)
Take the Leap – Discover the Mystery! Free Introductory Kabbalah Class — Soul: Unseen Reality
Monday, August 26, 12:30-1:30pm with Dr. David Sanders Tuesday, August 27, 1:15-2:15pm with Dr. David Sanders Tuesday, August 27, 6:30-7:30pm with Dr. Anne Goldberg Wernimont Monday, September 9, 12:30-1:30pm with Dr. David Sanders Tuesday, September 10, 1:15-2:15pm with Dr. David Sanders Tuesday, September 10, 6:30-7:30pm with Dr. Anne Goldberg Wernimont
Fall free into classes are held at the Goldberger Center, 3599 So. Ivanhoe Street Call 303.758.8996 or email [email protected] to RSVP. 1 New students receive a $50 discount off their first class. Year Two Core Curriculum
The Year Two Core Curriculum is called Inner Transformation. It consists of three classes: Who Are You, Why Are You, and When Are You. Year Two classes parallel Year One classes as you apply the insights of Kabbalah to personal transformation.
Who Are You Upon completing Year One and Two Who we are at our essence is addressed as we curricula, students can choose to look at the Kabbalah’s insights into the structure continue with the Year Three Core of our souls. The Kabbalah teaches that there Curriculum called Holding Opposites, are five levels of soul. This study engages us pursue a path of text study, explore a to consider the masks we wear and who we track of experiential learning or enroll are within those masks. Through this process in one of many Elective classes. students come to an awareness of soul.
Why Are You
We return to the Tree of Life (Space) and focus on the “abstract” story level of our lives through Semester Dates: engaging in metaphor work. The key to this Fall 2013 September 16-December 11 inquiry is the realization that we are all living Winter 2014 January 6-March 19 inside of the metaphors (stories) we have created Spring 2014 March 24-June 23 or have been created for us with the practical Summer 2014 July 7-August 27 implication of choosing, modifying or changing Classes are held at the Goldberger Center, those stories. 3599 So. Ivanhoe Street, Denver, unless otherwise noted. When Are You
Time is revisited—and at this time we work on a personal relationship with living in the present moment. The Kabbalah teaches us to find a balance between our memories of the past and living in the present and to not live in the future. “This hour and this moment in which you stand never existed before. Who knows what can be attained now?” (Rebbe Nachman) Inner Transformation
2 Register online at www.kabbalahexperience.com or call 303.758.8996 Year Three Core Curriculum
The Year Three Core Curriculum consists of three classes in which we introduce and then apply the concept of Holding Opposites to the Kabbalistic worlds of our experience. Holding Opposites teaches us to have a more direct and balanced relationship with all aspects of ourselves. Examples of opposites include: expansion and contraction, attraction and aversion, holy and defiled, and oneness and separateness. Each successive world includes and contains the others and represents increasing levels of integration.
World of Action – Asiyah focuses on the physical manifestation and verbal The concept of non-duality is often misunder- expression of our world and ourselves. Babies stood. To live free of duality does not mean we are born through the contraction and expansion no longer differentiate between things. To live of the cervix and universes are formed through beyond duality means we embrace the whole contractions and expansions. In each set of of reality, including its parts. This concept opposites our physical bodies and the material of Wholeness is large enough to embrace world serve as a reference point to the holding of wholeness and separateness and all other opposites. paradoxes and pairs of opposites. In Kabbalah the concept of non-duality is referred to as Holding Opposites. World of Emotion – Yetzirah shifts the focus to the interior world of our emotions and psychology. Using the example of contraction and expansion, we explore emotions and mind states that are expansive and those that are contracted with the goal to hold both — to experience the full range of our emotional capacities and enable a broader range of choice.
World of Thought – Briah expands holding opposites to the conceptual arena of metaphoric and allegoric interpreta- tion and the possibility that mystery and paradox hold the deepest truths. The worlds of Action and Emotion are integrated into a larger context of both personal and universal syntax — exploring the story level of our experiences. Holding Opposites
Registration form on page 8 3 Year Long Text Study
Open to students who have completed Year Two Core Curriculum. Text study includes learning the classic books of the Kabbalah and special topic areas that are text based. This year we offer two of the formative texts of Kabbalah: Zohar and Sefer Yetzirah and special topics: Soul of Anatomy and the Messiah and Messianic Age.
The Messiah and Messianic Age The Zohar: Book of Radiance
What is the Jewish perspective on the Messiah While Jewish mysticism preceded the and what has Kabbalah innovated in our under- development of the Kabbalah by over a thousand standing of the Messianic Age? years, what we know of as Kabbalah emerged in Fall Semester: Introductory concepts and southern France and Spain in the 12th and 13th distinctions between the Messianic Age as a Century. We will study selected texts from the restorative or evolutionary process, overview of Zohar, the classic book of the Kabbalah, relating failed Messianic movements and a vision of the to its major themes of the secrets of Torah, good new emerging Messianic consciousness. and evil, and reincarnation. Winter Semester: In depth study of four significant Jewish Messianic Movements: Bar Kochva, Jesus, Shabbatai Tzvi and Menachem Sefer Yetzirah: NEW! Mendel Schneerson. The Book of Formation Spring Semester: The Messianic vision as a radical change in the nature of our physical “Sefer Yetzirah is the oldest and most mysterious world, our consciousness and our relationship of all Kabbalistic texts.” This is Aryeh Kaplan’s with Judaism. opening line of introduction to his translation of the first text on Kabbalah. We will be using Kaplan’s erudite commentary to help us navigate Soul of Anatomy through this dense text and, as always, make relevant its ancient wisdom to our spiritual Kabbalah considers the human body an analog growth and development. of God. There are 248 positive mitzvot (com- mandments) and 248 “limbs” of the body thus creating detailed correspondences between body and soul. Textual study of the hidden meanings of the mitzvot reveals how we perfect the work of our souls through physical actions of mitzvot. Discussion is enhanced through body movement awareness led by Feldenkrais® practitioner Barbara Dubin. Fall Semester: Introduction to the signifi- Text cance of the body manifesting as a structure of the soul. Studying mitzvot corresponding to the Study head, neck and shoulders. Winter Semester: Studying mitzvot corresponding to the upper torso, ribs, spinal cord, arms, hands and chest (heart). Spring Semester: Studying mitzvot corresponding to the lower torso, hips, pelvis, legs and feet.
4 Register online at www.kabbalahexperience.com or call 303.758.8996 Year Long Experiential Learning
Open to students who have completed Year Two Core Curriculum. Experiential learning classes are designed for students who want to advance their understanding of their spiritual selves through looking at their own thinking and feelings related to a particular framework. Classes typically include some reading material but the students themselves are the text.
Kabbalah and the Divine Feminine Manifesting Self
The Kabbalah teaches that the divine feminine, Manifesting self is a journey of self and group known as the Shekhinah, is God’s in-dwelling discovery about deepening awareness. The presence and bride. The feminine principle is format of the group borrows from Parker associated with the Tabernacle (Temple), the Palmer’s circles of trust, but differs in our trusting Sabbath, prophecy; all aspects of receptivity and each other to provide feedback in a manner that the manifest world. In the first semester we will is both compassionate and direct. We identify study the divine feminine texts. In the following and commit to either change or fully accept the semesters we will explore the Shekhinah in masks and metaphors of our lives. our lives, including our relationships with the Sabbath rest, love and sensuality, our bodies and food and the environment. Writing as a Spiritual Practice
Writing acts as a gateway to be more intimate with the full mystery of who we are. We will Bringing Together Spirituality practice writing to free us from the confines of and Interior Design who we believe ourselves to be. As we open our The world’s great spiritual religions have given bodies, hearts and minds, we will explore the rise to incredible beauty in design and architec- place in us where soul and spirit dwell. ture. We will explore the secret wisdom behind those designs, and how to take that wisdom and create beautiful, spiritually inspired interiors that inspire, nourish, support and shift consciousness. Experiential Learning
Did you know that Kabbalah Experience started in 2003 as four people studying in a private home? Did you know that we have grown? In the last year alone our seven instructors taught over 645 hours of Kabbalah classes! Did you know that your tuition only covers 60% of the cost of your class? Did you know that Kabbalah Experience is a non-profit organization that is generously supported by grants from Rose Community Foundation, the Allied Jewish Federation, and its many donors?
Registration form on page 8 5 Electives and Mini Courses
Electives Four-week Mini Courses
Kabbalah Review Communication as a Spiritual Practice Do you remember the names of the Sefirot and how created reality emerges from the infinite? Compassionate Communication is a framework The Year One Core Curriculum covers a myriad that allows us to practice Kabbalah teachings in of concepts and introduces new language and our daily communication. This course focuses on new thinking. This class is not a rehash or a the key principles and four skill areas of Compas- refresher. The core Kabbalah teachings are sionate Communication, leading us to powerfully placed in a new context so that the learning is transform our relationships. completely fresh, as we review. Completion of first year curriculum required. Meditations from World Traditions
The term meditation refers to a broad variety of Cultivating Your Inner Artist practices from different traditions that includes What challenges us and inspires us to express techniques designed to promote relaxation, build ourselves as artists and human beings? The Tree internal energy, and develop compassion, love, of Life serves as a map to the creative process. patience, generosity and forgiveness. We will Open to artists or aspiring artists in all areas learn a variety of meditation techniques from of creative expression. Artists from this class the world’s great spiritual traditions, including exhibited and presented at the Transformations Hinduism, Buddhism, Kabbalah and Sufism. Art Show at the Niza Knoll Gallery on Santa Fe Drive, July 2012. Kabbalah and Dreams
“I have dreamed a dream and I do not know what World Mystics it is telling me.” This prayer, part of the ritual of The mystics testify to the profound scope and effect the priestly blessing, illustrates the importance of the mystical experience that open us to a sense of dreams and their meanings. Dreams will be of wonder and freedom and an identity far greater explored as relaying to us important guidance for than anything we intuit with our ordinary con- our spiritual mission. Dreams as recorded in the sciousness. This class is an exploration of spiritual Torah, Talmud and Kabbalah as well as partici- perspectives from around the world into that pants sharing their dreams serve in deepening Divine mystery. our understanding of our dream life.
Did you know that first year students get a $50 discount off their first class? Did you know that if you refer a student to Kabbalah Experience who registers for a class, you can take $50 off the cost of your next class?
6 Register online at www.kabbalahexperience.com or call 303.758.8996 Kabbalah Experience Faculty
Dr. David Sanders is the founder and director of Kabbalah Experience. He has taught Kabbalah in Denver for twenty-five years. His teaching style engages and challenges the learner to find their own answers. David is a clinical psychologist.
Dr. Lorell Frysh has a PhD. in East-West Psychology and is an Interior Architect and Designer with an avid interest in the creation of Sacred Space. Her 40 year spiritual journey has been spent exploring, studying and receiving initiation in the great spiritual, mystical, and healing traditions of the world. Lorell leads regression sessions and has a private therapy practice.
Dr. Ivor Garlick is a graduate of the Kabbalah Experience Teacher’s Institute and has studied Kabbalah for four years. He is interested in exploring how events in a person’s life connect together in order to understand how and why people feel and behave as they do. Ivor is a physician.
Julie Geller is a singer/songwriter of Jewish and acoustic music. As a teacher, she specializes in helping others access their full creative potentials. Julie has released four CDs and performs regularly around Colorado and the country.
Susan Kaplan, M.S.W., M.P.A. has taught Compassionate Communication for over 15 years. She is an Adjunct Professor for the Graduate School of Social Work, University of Denver, and a Courage & Renewal Facilitator®. Susan uses story to help understand and transform our narratives and stories.
Teena Slatkin has been a student of Kabbalah for the past fifteen years. She leads women’s spiritual missions to Israel. Teena teaches In Tune with Time, a monthly (new moon) women’s class. She is a writer, storyteller and community activist.
Dr. Anne Goldberg Wernimont is a graduate of the Kabbalah Experience Teacher’s Institute and has studied Kabbalah for eight years. She has special interest in the interaction of quantum physics and ancient faith. Anne is a forensic psychologist in the field of health and chronic pain.
Lili Zohar, trained lawyer and conflict professional, is a lifelong yogi, spiritual seeker, teacher and student of the world’s great wisdom traditions. Lili has delved deeply into Kabbalah and yoga for the last eight years and uses her insights from both as teacher, spiritual counselor and coach.
Registration form on page 8 7 Kabbalah Send registration form & payment to: Kabbalah Experience, 3599 South Ivanhoe St., Denver, CO 80237 Experience Register online at: www.kabbalahexperience.com Fall 2013 (September 16–December 11, 2013) Call us at: 303.758.8996 or Email to: [email protected] Student Name ______Address ______Email ______City/ST/Zip ______Home Phone ______Cell Phone ______Year One Core Curriculum Soul: Intro to Unseen Reality - Dr. David Sanders Monday 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm $250.00 $ ______Soul: Intro to Unseen Reality - Dr. David Sanders Tuesday 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm $250.00 $ ______Soul: Intro to Unseen Reality - Dr. Anne Goldberg Wernimont Tuesday 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm $250.00 $ ______Space: The Tree of Life - Dr. Ivor Garlick (JCC) Monday 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm $250.00 $ ______Space: The Tree of Life - Dr. David Sanders Tuesday 12:00 pm -1:00 pm $250.00 $ ______Year Two Core Curriculum Inner Transformation: Who Are You? - Dr. David Sanders Monday 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm $250.00 $ ______Inner Transformation: Who Are You? - Lili Zohar (JCC) Monday 7:15 pm - 8:15 pm $250.00 $ ______Inner Transformation: Who Are You? - Dr. David Sanders Wednesday 11:15 am - 12:15 pm $250.00 $ ______Year Three Core Curriculum Holding Opposites: Action (Asiyah) - Dr. David Sanders Monday 11:30 am - 12:30 pm $250.00 $ ______Holding Opposites: Action (Asiyah) - Dr. David Sanders Tuesday 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm $250.00 $ ______Year Long Courses Kabbalah and the Divine Feminine - Lili Zohar (JCC) Monday 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm $250.00 $ ______Kabbalah and the Divine Feminine - Lili Zohar Wednesday 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm $250.00 $ ______Manifesting Self - Dr. David Sanders Tuesday 10:30 am - 11:30 am $250.00 $ ______Manifesting Self - Dr. David Sanders Wednesday 9:00 am - 10:00 am $250.00 $ ______Messiah and the Messianic Age - Dr. David Sanders Monday 3:45 pm - 4:45 pm $250.00 $ ______Sefer Yetzirah - Dr. David Sanders Wednesday 10:05 am - 11:05 am $250.00 $ ______Soul of Anatomy - Dr. David Sanders Tuesday 9:15 am - 10:15 am $250.00 $ ______Spirituality and Interior Design - Dr. Lorell Frysh Tuesday 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm $250.00 $ ______Writing as a Spiritual Practice - Lili Zohar Wednesday 12:30 pm - 1:45 pm $250.00 $ ______The Zohar: Book of Radiance - Dr. David Sanders Monday 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm $250.00 $ ______Electives and Four Week Mini Courses* Kabbalah Review - Dr. David Sanders Tuesday 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm $250.00 $ ______World Mystics - Dr. Lorell Frysh Tuesday 11:00 am - 12:00 pm $250.00 $ ______*Communication as a Spiritual Practice - Susan Kaplan Tuesday 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm $125.00 $ ______(Oct 1, 8, 15 & 22) *Kabbalah and Dreams - Dr. David Sanders Tuesday 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm $125.00 $ ______(Oct 28, Nov 4, 11 & 18) *Meditations from World Traditions - Dr. Lorell Frysh Tuesday 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm $125.00 $ ______(Oct 1, 8, 15 & 22) Total $ ______Other q Annual Membership Fee $ 36.00 $ ______q Sponsorship (Donation) q Yesod Sponsor $100+ q Tiferet Sponsor $500+ q Keter Sponsor $1,000+ $ ______q Tuition Assistance/Payment Plan (arrange with KE staff) $ -______q New Student Discount - $50 discount for first class (*$25 New Student Discount for Mini Course) -$ 50/-$25 $ -______q New Student Referral Credit (one per semester) New Student Name: -$ 50.00 $ -______Total Amount $ ______Name on Credit Card ______Expiration Date ______8 Credit Card Number ______CVC (3 digits from back of Card) ______Signature ______Billing Zip ______q Visa q MC q AmEx Fall Scholars-in-Residence
The Denver Jewish Learning Collaborative Kabbalah Experience presents three nights of presents renowned teacher of Jewish Mindfulness mystical study with scholar-in-residence Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg Rabbi Tirzah Firestone
Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, M.A. acts as spiritual director to rabbis, is an author, psychotherapist, cantors and Jewish educators and founding rabbi of Congrega- across the country. Rabbi tion Nevei Kodesh in Boulder, Weinberg is a senior teacher of the Colorado. A dynamic and engaging Institute of Jewish Spirituality and presenter, she lectures and teaches served as a congregational rabbi throughout the United States for 13 years in Amherst, Massa- on spirituality, meditation, and chusetts. She will be giving two public lectures and the integration of ancient mystical wisdom into offering smaller group seminars and workshops contemporary life. She is a doctoral candidate in during her stay in Denver, November 3-5, 2013. depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Reb Tirzah will present three seminars on second Sunday, November 3rd Tuesdays of the month. Public Lecture at JAAMMFest 7:00 pm, “Surprisingly Happy: An Atypical Religious Tuesday, October 8th Memoir,” Robert E. Loup JCC Tuesday, November 12th Tuesday, December 10th Monday, November 4th 7:00-9:00 pm, “Weaving a Radiant Garment Text Study Seminars—By Reservation Here and Now” 9:30-11:30 am, “Mindful Parenting and Grandparenting,” Kabbalah Experience The Zohar, the central text of Kabbalah, teaches that each of us must prepare for the ultimate 2:00-4:00 pm, “Varieties of Spirituality: A Writing leap that death will bring. In order to enter and Workshop on Creating Spiritual Memoirs,” experience the luminous dimensions of the next The University of Denver world, the soul is enveloped in a radiant garment. Time and date subject to change. This garment of light is woven here and now, out Tuesday, November 5th of our actions in this world. Join Reb Tirzah for study and meditation on these powerful images and Text Study Seminar at Robert E. Loup JCC practices in preparation for the greatest soul work 10:00 am-12:00 pm, “Talking and Listening to God” of our lives. Time and date subject to change.
Public Lecture at Kabbalah Experience $18 each for KE members, $20 for non-members. 3:45-5:30 pm, “Chassidic Teachings on Mindfulness” All 3 seminars $45 for KE members, $50 for non-members. For tickets and information call Tickets are $18 for each event. For tickets Kabbalah Experience at 303.758.8996 or visit and information Call the MACC Box Office at www.kabbalahexperience.com. 303.316.6360 or visit the MACC Box Office M-F, 9a-5p, 350 S. Dahlia St.
The Denver Jewish Learning Collaborative is a joint project of Kabbalah Experience, the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Denver, and The Department of Jewish Life & Learning at the Robert E. Loup JCC. Kabbalah Experience Engage your spirit.
3599 So. Ivanhoe Street, Denver, CO 80237 303.758.8996 • www.kabbalahexperience.com
Kabbalah Experience, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, is a beneficiary of the Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado and is supported by grants from the Rose Community Foundation. Kabbalah Experience relies on the generosity of its donors. Please consider making a donation online at www.kabbalahexperience.com. We offer tuition assistance and scholarships so that everyone in the community has the opportunity for continuing education.
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