MYSTICS
ROOM
The Mystics’ Room is a place with resources for spiritual journeyers and adventurers. Here, you’ll find interviews, articles, poems, and other mysterious doors to open…Go where your heart leads you and enjoy!
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AN INTERVIEW WITH RABBI JULIA WATTS BELSER
Rabbi Julia Watts Belser is a renowned Jewish scholar, the author of several books on rabbinic text, and the recent author of Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole. She discusses her book's themes and her personal journey in this interview conducted by Rabbi Jill Hammer.
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AN INTERVIEW WITH KOHENET ANGELIQUE RIVERA
Kohenet Angelique Rivera aka YA is a priestess co-creating collective medicine as an herbalist, energy healer, liberation activist, and poet crafting incantational wordplay. In this interview, conducted by Rabbi Jill Hammer, she shares about the many layers of her work, and her journey to come home to herself.
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AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. JOY LADIN
Dr. Joy Ladin is a poet and the author of Shekhinah Speaks, as well as many other books including The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective. In this interview conducted by Rabbi Jill Hammer, Joy shares her experience of Shekhinah, the mysterious divine presence who is completely transcendent and completely intimate and defies all binaries.
MY JEWISH LEARNING
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This ancient mystical text introduced many concepts that would be more fully developed by the tradition of Kabbalah.
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The Jewish practice of blessing natural phenomena awakens us to the fact that the earth is a wonder, a witness, and a spiritual mystery.
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What would it mean if we could hear what the plants are saying?
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The blessing traditionally recited after using the restroom reimagined as praise for the inner drumbeat sustaining the body.
MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL
By Rabbi Jill Hammer
FEMINISM & RELIGION
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I have always had a particular fascination with women warriors—particularly ancient and medieval ones. Joan of Arc was a favorite, as was Artemis, Greek goddess of the hunt. My father had a sword from Spain hanging on his wall in his study…
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The liturgy of Yom Kippur states: “On Rosh haShanah it is written, on Yom Kippur it is sealed: who will live and who will die, who by fire and who by water…” This prayer refers to a legend mentioned in the Talmud…
AYIN PRESS
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Have you ever dreamed of a tree? Go back to that image in your mind. What kind of tree was it: big, small, deciduous, coniferous? What did it look like? How did you feel about it? How did you interact with it? What role did it play in your dream?