This year has been different from all other years in the story of the Jewish people. Throughout our history Jews have been oppressed and killed as they were on October 7th. But never before has a Jewish army fought back with the power and destructiveness we have witnessed, the slaughter of thousands of Palestianins, the annihilation of Gaza, and the starvation of its people. Alongside the violence and protests, debates have raged, disagreements have ruptured relationships, and divides politically, generationally, ethically emerged over the most core human values, the rights of children, the right to safety and food, and freedom.
We wrote the questions in this Haggadah with the ethos of Temenos in mind: Questions that open. Questions that make room for vulnerability, grief, painful truths. Healing takes time. Can we surface the fears, personal and generational, that inhibit us from trusting in a different world? Can we ask and listen as friends and strangers make their way through the stories of oppression in their own lives and the stories of the world we share? If the world is a reflection of the inner lives of human beings, our brokenness is more transparent than ever. Can the Hagadah help us heal our stories that we might heal the world?
Friday evening ceremony to welcome Shabbat, everyone welcome, music wisdom, friends, dance, stillness, kiddos, poetry, wilderness.
Shabbat Upstate
Feast of Mystics: Passover Seder (April 23) & Berkshires Retreat
Temenos presents an evening of magic and beauty as we gather for a Passover Seder infused with wisdom and music. Rabbi Zach Fredman will lead us through spiritual teachings, delving into the myth, mysticism and liberatory ethos of this sacred celebration. Over wine, food, music, questions and stories we will illuminate the Passover narrative, exploring its ancient resonance in an unparalleled year.
The Seder will be accompanied by the enchanting melodies of Duo Andalus, as the sounds of the Magreb and Flamenco, mirror the essence of the Passover journey. Lala Tamar is a lineage holder in the Moroccan tradition, and will lead us in the melodies of Moroccan Passover. Come join us for a rare night of enlightenment and inspiration, darkness and freedom where we distill prayer to its essential elements through music and meditation.
Event Tickets includes a four course meal at our community tables in the barn. The food and ceremony is offered in four movements echoing the four seder cups of wine - Sanctification, Deliverance, Redemption, Praise. All integrating together in a nourishing of all sides of our collective being.
Piyut Sahra
A new Epichorus album is in the works with sounds drawn from the West African Tradition and Moroccan Chaabi, featuring master Kora player Yacouba Sissoko, Cheick Hamala Diabata on Ngoni, and vocalist LALA Tamar.
Ten at Dreamland; Healing and Lineage
Ten at Dreamland; Healing & Lineage is the first instrumental record from The Epichorus, recorded live, ten musicians in a circle at Dreamland, a church turned recording studio outside Woodstock, NY during the summer of 2018. Unexpectedly, our teacher and friend Bassam Saba was in town from Lebanon and joined us to record the album. These performances are some of the last recordings of the unparalleled performer of Arabic music and master of the nay (reed flute), as Bassam passed of Covid, on December 4th, 2020.
Healing & Lineage includes performances by the Epichorus of songs from the Arabic tradition composed by by Riyad Sunbati, Hamza El Din, and Saleh Kuwaiti, set alongside three new compositions from bandleader and composer Zach Fredman.
To accompany the digital album, the Epichorus will release a 70 page book with original artwork, photographs and short essays that tell the story of these songs and the artists of the generations who came before us, whose music became our teaching and our inspiration.
Click here to hear the album and purchase the book
Mourning Prayer - Ana Bekoach
