Temenos Center for the Arts is dedicated to teaching, translating and nurturing spirituality through mediums of artistic practice. We create products, works, rituals, and community events that tend to the wild beauty of humanity and the work of collective liberation. We are in the service of a political mysticism where diverse cultural lineages open to universal ethos.

Temenos is the boundary around a place of ceremony, the periphery physical or spiritual that nurtures the energy of creativity and transformation. We chose this word because even the smallest act of distinguishment can turn the mundane into a site of magic.

 

Temenos was founded in 2021, by Rabbi Zach Fredman.

After ten years running a hip New York synagogue Fredman understood the yearning for communal spirituality and meaning making that at once transcended and included the wisdoms and traditions of the particular lineages we inherit, in the service of an ethos of humanity. In addition to regular in person ceremonies and events marked by music, meditation, philosophy and new forms of prayer, Temenos is a production house for offerings that integrate spirituality and the arts. Current productions include The Wisdom of Birth, a tarot/oracle of doula teachings to help the process of birth, The Whole Torah a set of mystical coloring pages for children of all ages, Piyut Sahra an album by the Epichorus combining 12th century Hebrew poetry and a seventy generation North African musical tradition, a spring North American tour for Duo Andalus, and grief rituals to name and integrate contemporary and generational traumas.

Rabbi Zach Fredman is a teacher, essayist, composer and multi-instrumentalist. He is a student of world mysticisms, mythology, psychology, and a sought after teacher of contemporary Jewish and spiritual practice. His ensemble, the Epichorus, has published four studio albums, live recordings, books, and a recording of the Torah.


Offerings

We are a production house for wisdom and arts content big and small across every discipline: concerts, ceremonies, albums, books, Tarot, performance, events and celebrations that contribute meaning and joy to the cultural conversation.

We are a living spiritual community, rooted mostly in the Hudson Valley, occasionally in NYC and the Berkshires. Locally we gather for Shabbat twice a month, and for occasional holiday celebrations, and life-cycle rituals.

We offer personalized spiritual counsel via phone, text, over coffees, lunches and dinners, in regular and emergency circumstances. 

The Moment

It’s a tenuous moment for the creatures of planet earth. There are grave dangers before us and we’re recovering from thousands of years of tribal thinking. We’re distrustful of the old ways of religion because so often the good was mixed up in tribal mentalities. But we haven’t stopped being human, and we’re in dire need of experiences for healing, mourning, celebrating and coming together that speak the poetry of this moment and make space for all people. We’re yearning for connection, meaning, and beauty that’s inclusive and alive.

We know another way, because we live it — that one can be rooted in one’s own tradition and open to the world all at once. The mystical lineages of the world have always taught that every divine name refers to the same mystery, that there are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground. Every act that brings balance to a head or heart, that brings beauty to the world, that creates connection, is a moment of prayer and devotion. 

Some folks are comfortable with spiritual language and some aren’t, either way, we’re all in need of communion, that is, connection to ourselves, to others, and to the big questions of life. Whether you find that on the basketball court, in the kitchen, or on a stage, as far as we’re concerned each is a temenos. 


Values

Creativity -- The drive to create in ways that make the world better and more beautiful is universally human. Creativity is the best catalyst for community building because it returns us to ourselves and opens us up to the eccentricities of our collaborators.

Human Centered Ceremony -- Secular culture is in need of spiritual experiences for healing, mourning, celebrating and coming together. The best of these new rituals are rooted in the particular, serving the universal. Honoring the lineages and traditions we come from, by welcoming others in and sharing gratuitously.

Inner Outer Repair -- The political is spiritual, and social justice is a justice of spirit. But one can use the work of repairing the world to avoid the repairs of self and soul, and vice versa. The repair must take place within and without at once.

Feminist Spirit -- Most of our current crises take some of their root in patriarchal monotheism. We believe deeply in the unique wisdom and aesthetics of feminine spiritual leadership, particularly practices rooted in vulnerability, embodiment, intuition and mourning.

Reverant Heresies -- God hates religion, loves sex. That is god hates idolatry, loves integration. We question false pieties in search of enlivened reverence.