Kislev 5786: What’s the Meaning of the Dreaming?
After two long days of singing, crying, laughing, going inward, and being gently escorted to and from the bathroom, the group of six Jewish journeyers was beginning to land. People gathered snacks from around the altar space, settling into a soft quiet, exchanging kind and knowing glances across the ceremony space. Then one of the facilitators — a woman of Aymara and Quechua lineage — spoke with unmistakable conviction: “I didn’t know that your people travel with a Temple wherever you go!” Her words pierced the room. Journeyers and support staff alike began to tear up — how had our new and wise friend, with so little exposure to Jewish culture or spirituality, seen us so truly? How had she named one of our founding myths with such clarity? What does it mean when the cosmology of the Jewish people and those of Indigenous South America meet inside psychedelic space and, even for a moment, create a secret third thing — a shared, shimmering truth neither could generate alone? As Shefa evolves from providing Jewish psychedelic support to cultivating a global, intercultural community of practice, this question lingers: what dreams, what encounters, what emergent meanings should guide us as we chart our path forward?
First published in 1860, R’ Mordechai Yosef Leiner of Izbica—the Izhbitzer Rebbe—wrote in his magnum opus, Mei Ha’Shiloach: “Everything in this world is like a dream asking to be interpreted, and as one interprets the dream, so will it come to be. And if a person understands that everything that exists derives only from the Divine Source, and is animated by Divine communication, then they will sense the flavor in everything and achieve a state of true living.” As both Kislev/Hanukkah and the Torah readings centering on Yosef the Oneiromancer always arrive during the darkest stretch of the year, the Izhbitzer expands the importance of dream-work into the fabric of waking life. Reality, he teaches, is not static; the meaning of our experiences emerges only through the way we integrate them. As Morpheus of the Endless tells his crow companion Matthew in The Sandman, “Dreams are the language by which all beings make sense of themselves and their place in things. To dream is to imagine, and to imagine is to begin the act of creation.” The Izhbitzer invites us to reject passivity and fatalism, and instead to elevate an inner freedom to interpret the events of our lives as a spiritual act with genuine creative power. Heightened spiritual awareness becomes the ground of “true living”: an embodied aliveness in which purpose and responsibility emerge when we read our experiences as part of an ongoing, dynamic conversation with the Divine.
In this work, we are also learning from Indigenous practitioners how to hold expansive states in and for community—not as isolated peak experiences, but as moments that ripple outward into responsibility, kinship, and ongoing care. Their ways of tending to altered states with presence, humility, song—humor!—and collective witness illuminate possibilities for our own Jewish practice as we continue shaping the Idra model. And yet, even as we receive from these teachers, we walk with deep reverence for our own lineages of prophecy, dreaming, healing, and communal responsibility. Holding space for others draws us into a posture of humility: we are only beginning to understand what spiritual care, relational repair, and communal integration ask of us beyond the final circle. What is already clear is that this work cannot end when the retreat ends. We must create the platforms—spaces for continued gathering, avenues for learning, structures for peer support, resources for integration—and we must train practitioners who can accompany our people with spiritual depth, trauma-informed grounding, harm-reduction sensibilities, somatic wisdom, and clinical skill. This isn’t simply a series of programs; it is a growing ecosystem of Jewish spiritual care and psychedelic integration. And as we look toward 2026, we are committed to expanding what is possible: more retreats, more learning, more training, and a broader, more accessible network of support so that more people—across generations, geographies, and levels of experience—can find a place within this unfolding field of healing and connection.
The dreams, encounters, and meanings that will guide us now are emerging from the ground we’ve already begun to till together: the clarity people find in ceremony, the tenderness of being held in community, and the slow, steady integration that unfolds in the weeks and months that follow. As we look ahead, we’re drawing not only on these lived experiences, but also on the insights from Jewish Journeys, which we’ll begin sharing next month. This research offers an unprecedented look at what Jews across the country need as they navigate spiritual seeking, psychedelic experiences, and questions of belonging. These findings are already helping us shape the next chapter of Shefa’s Retreats–Research–Resources ecosystem as we move toward 2026: more retreats that are safe and spiritually grounded, more learning opportunities that deepen and sustain transformation, more practical skill building, and more open pathways for people to stay connected long after a retreat ends. If you believe in this direction—and in building a Jewish future where healing, meaning, and community are woven together—we invite you to support this work. Your partnership strengthens the foundation we are building and expands what becomes possible for all who seek it.
As Kislev unfolds, may your dreams—waking and sleeping—speak to you in ways you can hear.
May their meanings settle in your heart with warmth and clarity.
And may the One who illuminates the hidden guide you toward healing, courage, and deep, shared purpose.
Z
