Self, God, and the Space Between
A Jewish Philosophical Journey of Ideas, Poetry, Art, and Sound
Sarah Pessin
Saturday 10:45 PM–Sunday 12:00 AM
Windwood
Arts & Performance,
Text & Thought
What is the essence of self? What is the reality of God? How do the answers to these two questions fit together? In our late-night exploration, we will engage readings, poetry, art, and music to help answer these questions across a range of Jewish philosophical traditions from the 1st-21st Centuries. Our journey will include photography, existential literature, spiritual poetry, ancient numerology, discourses of anxiety, and ruminations on light, and will include comparative insights from Pythagorean, Platonic, and Sufi sources. We will travel from Egypt into Western Europe, with stops in Ancient Greece along the way. We will aim to see and feel a range of Jewish philosophical insights on the nature of self and sacred.
The Shema: Mind, Body, and Voice
III: Havdalah Kirtan
Andrew Hahn
Saturday 10:45 PM–Sunday 12:00 AM
Ballroom Ten Mile
Ritual & Prayer
This is the culmination of Rabbi Andrew Hahn's Shema "track": A rocking, Hebrew Kirtan based largely in chanting the Shema as mantra. Kirtan is a form of fully participatory chant developed in India. It is often considered to be the peak of yoga practice. It consists in simple call-and-response chant which is at once contemplative, meditative, ecstatic, and, yes, simply fun!
No knowledge of Hebrew is necessary to fully own this practice. It is customary to sit in close community on the floor, so bring a pillow and/or yoga mat with you. (Chairs will be available, too.) Also, please bring water.
Through the Lens
Artist-Residencies at Terezinstadt and Auschwitz
Helene Fischman
Saturday 10:45 PM–Sunday 12:00 AM
Foxfire
Join artist/photography Helene Fischman on a journey through two unprecedented artist-in-residencies: Focusing on the dynamic interaction of humans with their environment, Helene Fischman has done a series of site-specific artist residencies where she has captured a sense of human history and architectural history as set against its organic, time-less, natural surroundings.
Funded by the Ella Lyman Cabot Trust Grant and the Roszi and Jeno Zisovich Award, she innovated two artist residencies in former Eastern European Nazi territory to explore a sense of Jewish identity within the confines of a traumatic historical site. The exhibit of artwork from these two residencies has been traveling within the San Francisco Bay Area since 2006.
