SOULIFT: Love at the Center
January 31- February 6, 2022
at
the Franciscan Retreat Center
in Tampa, FL
with
Rabbi Shefa Gold
Just Imagine!
A week-long dive into our Sacred story of Love!
An exploration of The Holy of Holies!
Through chant, study, meditation and sacred conversation.
Putting Love at the Center
It is time to put Love at the Center.
One way to do that is to reclaim The Song of Songs as a central text that can inform, remind and intrigue us daily. When it came time to decide which of our holy texts to retain in our canon and which to discard, Rabbi Akiva spoke for The Song of Songs (Shir HaShirim). “The whole Torah is Holy,” says Rabbi Akiva,” but The Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies.” He also said that “had the Torah not been given, we could live our lives by The Song of Songs.”
It is time for us to “live” it, to place Love at the center of our religious/spiritual practice and let the force of that love radiate out to penetrate every other aspect of our lives. Shir HaShirim is a hidden treasure that longs to be known. The Love of Shir HaShirim goes beyond the sentimental or romantic. This love is a force that connects the finite with the infinite, the known with the unknown mystery that lures us beyond our small lives. This love reveals the beauty that is everywhere hidden in Nature, in relationships and in the depths of our hearts.
Cornel West said, “Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.”
Finding and Cultivating Love
First we must find and cultivate that love, and then we can source every action, every expression from that infinite precious well. And through our loving expression and action, the Divine will flow through us, and the world will transform..
It’s time to put love at the center.
Immersing in The Song of Songs
We’ll spend a week immersing in The Song of Songs, exploring its subtleties, receiving her mysterious gifts, embodying her music, and living her questions. For information about Love at the Center, see the Love at the Center page.
To Register
View ALEPH’s SOULIFT page and click the Register Here! button.
(Everyone will need to show proof of vaccination. Sessions will be held out by the river or in a screened-in porch.)
