Shalom my friends, welcome to the Light Lab Podcast. My name is Eliana, I'm so grateful to be with you across time in space for today's episode. It's challenging to start, of course, I'm coming from the past, we're on day three of the current escalation of violence. And it's been challenging to figure out what to do next. Do I even mention it in the podcast? Is this something that those of you will week and a half from now who are listening, when that episode will come out? Is this something you will be dealing with, but no matter what happens from now the loss of life that has already been inflicted, will continue to remain so. And I am trying to give myself permission to just grieve, grieve for the loss of life, and take care of myself in doing so and take care of each other. And I hope you're able to do the same. It's also been comforting in a strange way today to think about the holidays, to see reflections from the High Holidays and Sukkot, which was last week for me. And there have been a couple of times today where I've been thinking about Hanukkah, the next holiday upcoming. And it's been touching, actually, a nice reminder that the Jewish sacred calendar is a spiral and brings us to the sacred times, and that they continue in whatever way they need to. So no matter how things are, when you are listening to this dear listener, I hope that you're able to take that moment for yourself and your own breath. And allow space for your own feelings. And I hope that you can use this time, a little bit as a distraction, because that can certainly be helpful in moments like this. And also as a chance to dig into Jewish learning, and spirit and liturgy as a reminder that you are not alone in this, we hold each other across space horizontally, and we hold each other across time, vertically, I suppose. I'm not really sure which one but in any case, we're all holding each other. And I'm really grateful that I get to bring you this interview today because I've been sitting on this interview for a very long time, waiting for the right moment to release it. Today we're talking to Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD, author, scholar, ritualist, poet, dream worker, midrashist, Kohenet, co-founder of the Kohenet Hebrew priestess Institute, Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion, and the author of some incredible books, Undertorah: An Earth-Based Kabbalah of Dreams, that's her most recent book and I just got it I'm very excited to explore, Return to the Place: The Magic, Meditation, and Mystery of Sefer Yetzirah, which has been such an incredible journey for me. I'm almost at the end of that. The Hebrew Priestess: Ancient and New Visions of Jewish Women’s Spiritual Leadership, with Taya Shere, The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for All Seasons, and Sisters at Sinai: New tales of Biblical Women and the Book of Earth and Other Mysteries, so many incredible volumes. She's the translator of the Romemu Siddur and of Siddur Hakohanot, Hebrew Priestess Prayer Book. She's written a children's book, The Garden of Time. She lives in Manhattan with her family. I had the honour of praying with her incredible partner Shoshana Jedwab, who's a sacred drummer, when I used to go to Romemu. And I remember, Rabbi Hammer leading the most beautiful Yizkor Memorial ritual, one of the holidays I was there. I loved being in her sacred presence. And Rabbi Jill Hammer is the author of the text Orah Hi, which I am so so grateful to her for and I feel so lucky that I found it that time that I was looking for, for audio who for a song sheet, and the reason that I wanted to wait for this episode is that I'm very excited to tell you that we get a chance to learn with Rabbi Hammer about the text of Orah Hi on November 5, in the evening, 7 to 8:15 ish Eastern Time, we're going to be doing a virtual gathering celebration of sorts for the release of the album Orah Hi which you heard about in the last episode that we aired. And it was such a dream, I was so nervous to ask Rabbi Hammer if if she would come and teach and explore with us the text of Orah Hi and she was so gracious. She's also excited to come teach. We'll do some learning with Rabbi Hammer, we will watch some videos we'll sing together, and singing together in these tough times, no matter what the world looks like, in a month from now, I think is still going to be very important. So you're all invited, you can register at lightlab.co. In the show notes of this episode, there will be a link at elianalight.com, plenty of ways to register or at bit.ly/ORAHHI. That's bit.ly/ORAHHI. And so now my friends, no matter where you are, or how you are feeling, I hope that you're able to take a moment of learning and joy. And give a listen to this conversation with Rabbi Kohenet Jill Hammer.