• Three Mother Letters: A guided meditation on the mystical meanings and uses of Aleph Mem and Shin in Sefer Yetzirah (1h)

• History of Jewish Mysticism: 2000 years in 90 minutes (90m)

• Intro to the Sephirot: A Map of Creation and the Soul (90m)

• Meet the Zohar: The central Jewish mystical book that’s not a book)

• How to Forgive: A practical hands-on real-time instructional workshop on forgiveness through Shadow Work and Kabbalah (1h)

• Riding the Chariot: Psychedelic Jewish Mysticism (1h)

• The Three Meanings of Tikkun Olam: How different historical meanings of the popular phrase can each influence our activism (90m)

Ha'Sadeh is a grassroots volunteer-led community that gathers for holidays, ritual and cultural events in the Jewish Renewal tradition. “Our services are not strictly traditional. Instead, we engage with tradition in creative ways, focused on tapping into our collective ruach (spirit). Expect a circle of friends, age-old prayers (tefillot), wordless songs (niggunim), and live instrument(s). This is a participatory experience where each attendee is a co-creator.”

Ha’Sadeh was founded as a living-room community project in 2022 by Cara Gold and Rabbi Aaron Rotenberg. In 2024, they were joined by Izzy Waxman, Michael Morgenthau and Alon Nashman in growing it into a thriving, public community.

Since early 2025, Izzy has bottom-lined logistics, finances, marketing, and board-level responsibilities like strategy, recruitment, and leadership training, developing it into a thriving community with hundreds of attendees and a $30,000+ annual budget.

She teaches casual drop-in lectures on Jewish mysticism after dinner during Ha’Sadeh’s monthly Shabbat services.

Twelve-hour course taught through Lishma

For at least two thousand years, Jewish people have pondered the structure of Creation, our purpose here, and how to increase our connection with the Divine. The Kabbalah ('that which is received', sometimes translated as simply 'the Tradition') is a school of Jewish thought that seeks to answer these questions through a unique and complex cosmology. As a self-help strategy, a worldview, or a spiritual tool to fix a broken world, Kabbalah has spoken to millions of people over dozens of generations, and has lots to say to modern Jews with all types of observance. Aimed at beginners who may know no more than the word 'Kabbalah', this class will provide a brief overview of the history, theology and techniques of Jewish mystics, focused on giving learners concrete tools and methods to enrich their own spirituality, and providing basic information as a springboard for further learning.

Twelve-hour course taught through Lishma

Thousands of years ago, Jewish mystics “rode the Chariot down" to glittering, fractalling realms, populated with impossible beings and indescribable sights. They left warnings that these experiences could expand one’s mind, or drive one mad. Today, psychedelics offer similar experiences, with similar risks and rewards - but are easily accessible at stores and online, without the rigorous preparation and training endorsed by our ancestors.

How can Jewish spiritual and cultural framings help us spelunk the Caverns of Consciousness safely and generatively? What wisdom can we glean from our trippiest ancestors, the Mystics and Prophets, about both sober and 'enhanced' states of consciousness? How are Jewish psychedelic leaders and researchers, from the 60s to today, building on these foundations to enrich our spiritual and material lives with and without drugs? And what do these teachers think is even going on in this wild Creation we're Cartwheeling through?

Whether you come with or without personal psychedelic experience, you’ll leave our Meander through the Mysteries with an expanded mind, inspiration, and concrete skills (but no pressure to use them). You're asked only one thing in return: expect this class to get really, REALLY weird.

Acid, Shrooms, and DMT, Consecrated unto Thee... Angels, elves, and heavenly realms, oh my, oh my, oh my....!

Every Sunday in the summer of 2024, Izzy read Zohar on a picnic blanket in Suydam Park with snacks to share, with an open invitation to join her to study Jewish msyticism.

Sometimes, four people did. Sometimes, no-one did. She enjoyed it either way.

Shabbat dinner series, 2024.

“Young Prophets Club is a queer-normative space for Jewish mystics to blow each other's minds.

Criteria for attendance is self-perception as a conduit of HaShem's will, regular contemplation of the Infinite, a touch of Divine madness, and understanding of basic terms in the Jewish mystical canon (cause we ain't slowin' down for you). Bonus points if you've Descended upon the Chariot or you're on a first-name basis with at least one angel.”

Discussion topics included: The definition of 'prophecy'; witchy Sephardic traditions; app dating while spiritually bonkers; what do to with one's bone collection; the Remembering and the Forgetting; incubi; Ginsberg's queer Jewish poetry; why having a Zohar Girl Summer means giving your friends forehead kisses; the purpose of ritual to both elevate and ground; the high moral stakes of keeping Kosher L'Pesach; golem tattoos, pro or con; eclipse season's effects on Jewish nonprofits; chosen name stories; religious trauma; the Patterns and the Fractals; fish on the seder plate; the screaming, aching soul of the Jewish people; staying grounded when mystical ecstacy threatens to blow you away; how one can believe the arc of the universe bends towards justice with so much abject suffering all around us; how to pronounce 'zchug'.

Lishma is a 20s-30s Jewish educational space focused on making Jewish knowledge affordable, accessible, and welcoming. Three times a year, it hosts a six week semester of three courses, held simultaneously in the same space, and structures social connections between all three classes to build community. It is co-managed by the MNJCC, Darchei Noam and Beth Tzedec.

At Limmud 2018, on a panel about barriers to synagogue affiliation and attendance for Jewish youth, Izzy complained that shul events for young people were spiritually and intellectually condescending, “sneaking in” just a tiny bit of Judaism on the assumption that young people didn’t want it. “I don’t want to go to Drinks and Dreidls, or Vodka and Latkes,” she complained. “If I wanted to drink, I’d go to a bar. What can a synagogue offer me?” She challenged the room with her recent interest in Jewish mysticism: “Why isn’t there a single place in the city where I, as a young queer woman, can learn Kabbalah?”

Rabbi Jordan Helfman, then of Holy Blossom Temple, responded to her call to action. He convened Izzy and representatives from interested Jewish institutions to plan and create Lishma’s first semester. Izzy was core to strategic program design, set up core digital infrastructure, and left the project to paid professionals after launch.

Interestingly, Lishma struggled for many years to find someone qualified to teach Kabbalah… Until 2023, when they approached her again, and she felt ready to be the educator that her younger self needed.