Gathering the Eternal Harvest:
A Sukkot Meditative Journey

By Or HaLev & HaMakom

Wednesday, Oct 16 - Wednesday, Oct 23, 2024

Seven 30-minute meditations in your inbox throughout Sukkot
& a 75-minute Live Session on Tuesday, Oct 22
at 10:30am PST/1:30pm EST/6:30pm UK/8:30pm Israel*
*this session will also be recorded if you're unable to make it live

The festival of Sukkot is described in the Torah as chag ha'asif, the festival of ingathering. 

This refers at one level to the crops harvested in the fall in Israel. Spiritually, it points us to the resources we can collect and recollect at this time; resources which we may so understandably have forgotten in the profound and ongoing pain of these past months. For many of us, Sukkot will feel very different this year, as we approach the Hebrew anniversary of October 7th. Please know that whatever you are feeling is completely welcome. That might be heartbreak, despair, rage, isolation, numbness. It might be more besides; it might be less. There is room under the Sukkah for the boundless fullness of our actual feelings, in all their complexity, humanity, and constant change. Let’s journey together, and see how we might meet and hold it all with love. 

In this week-long journey, through daily meditations, intention, reflection and practice instructions, we will connect with Sukkot as a present experience of ancient origin. 

We will open to the blessings it has to offer us here and now: shelter, spaciousness, endurance, equanimity, insight, and an essential quality of this chag: joy.
Each day, we will gather the fruits of practice together, each in our own time zone, and then we will gather for a live session to seal the journey together, as the Holiday draws towards its close.

For each of the days of Sukkot you will receive a 30-minute guided meditation video from Mira or Zac, exploring and practicing with the daily theme and resource below.

On October 22, just before Simchat Torah, you will be invited to a 75 minute live session with the teachers, with meditation, teachings, and a time for Q & A.

This course is an invitation to:

  • Explore the richness of Sukkot as an embodied experience from the Jewish tradition  

  • Connect with profound and timeless resources of heart and mind through various practices

  • Play at your growing edges by reconnecting to the meaning of ancient rituals

  • Meet sacredness and divinity right where you are

  • Share a Jewish meditative journey with others around the world

Our journey will include a meditation for each day of Sukkot:


Each day of the Festival, we invite you to journey with us through the meaning of Sukkot in its various dimensions: following the traditional order of the ushpizin (guests) that are welcomed each day in the sukkah according to the Jewish tradition, we connect to the sefirah they embody on the Kabbalistic tree of life, and, further, to the midah (character trait) they teach us. We will suggest an embodied practice each day to help to translate the experience into everyday life.
Throughout the week, we will engage with concentration practice, blessing practice, mindful eating practice, a shamanistic practice of gathering elements (literally or symbolically) to build a sukkah or to make a bundle of the four species, an embodied practice of welcoming guests (literally or symbolically), and a hitbonenut practice (nature contemplation).

Meet Your Teachers

  • Rabbah Dr. Mira Neshama Niculescu

    Mira is a Paris-born scholar and teacher of Torah and Meditation. She earned a Ph.D. in Sociology of Religion at Ecole de Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris (EHESS) and received Orthodox Smicha ordination from Rabbi Daniel Sperber for Beit Midrash Har’El in Jerusalem. Mira is a certified Jewish Educator (Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies), a certified Jewish Mindfulness Teacher with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS), a certified Vinyasa Yoga teacher (Sira Yoga RYT 200), and a certified Mindfulness Meditation Instructor (Mindfulness Training Institute).

  • Zac H. Newman

    Zac Newman is HaMakom’s Community Director. He leads HaMakom operationally. Zac also teaches Jewish meditation widely, including for Or HaLev and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. Zac is a long-time teacher of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction programme. He trained to teach mindfulness through the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University. Zac is continually interested in how we can wake up to the wisdom of our tradition and the goodness of our lives.

Choose your Rate

At Or HaLev, we believe in the spirit of generosity as an essential part of practice. We also acknowledge that financial abilities differ for everyone. We strive to make this retreat accessible to those who wish to participate, regardless of ability to pay.
Please consider paying at the highest rate that you are able to. Your generosity enables this retreat to happen and helps support Or Halev's activities and grow our community.

Standard Rate

Sustainer Rate

Scholarship Rate

We Are Here

Any questions? Please email Naomi Shifrin, our English Language Coordinator at naomi@orhalev.org

“[Last year,] not a day after the offering, on Shabbat Shmini Atzeret / Simchat Torah, sirens sent us to our shelters. We had no idea what was going on. I could put what I learned into action. The course was absolutely timely and practical.”
- participant from Israel

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