Sacred Drumming and Sacred Community

A community drumming workshop with Rabbi Tsvi Bar-David

Sunday December 17th, 2023 - 11.30am - 1pm

This is a workshop on learning how to use rhythm and chant, based on Middle Eastern drumming patterns, as a means of getting into the G!dzone - dveikut in Kabbalistic Hebrew, and it-taqaarub il-Allah in Sufi Arabic.  No prior drumming experience is required. My favorite part of the G!dzone is that place where

I am still me, and the Beloved is still the Beloved, and yet the wall between us dissolves!

For me this is best done as a collective practice that can build multi-faith sacred community. Indeed, if this session works, that's where I hope it goes!

Instructor:  Rabbi Tsvi Bar-David. 

Around 2014, Reb Tsvi came to the conclusion that teaching mystical Jewish texts cognitively was too high a barrier to entry into the G!dzone for many. This despite his deep love of reading Kabbalistic and Chasidic texts in the original Hebrew and Aramaic.  So, honoring both his Chasidic rebbe grandfather as well as his growing involvement with Sufism, Reb Tsvi founded a sacred ensemble - Qirvah (intimacy with G!d) - and began playing sacred ecstatic concerts all over California. In fact, Reb Tsvi will be directing a sacred concert at the Bishop Methodist Church, 6:30 PM Saturday night, 16 December 2023, which will be followed by nibbles and a jam at the church. Flyer attached as pdf.

Reb Tsvi was ordained as a rabbi at AJRCA in Los Angeles, and also proudly holds CPE Level 2 certification as an inter-faith chaplain with specialization in recovery (yes, 12 Step too) from chemical dependency. And to complete the picture, a PhD in applied Mathematics from UC Berkeley.

Reb Tsvi lives with his beloved Ilana in Berkeley, and Ilana teaches harpsichord in the Music Dept. at Stanford University. She is known in the Baroque music world as Elaine Thornburgh.

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