Season’s Theme

We are living in mad times. Public opinions cost lives. Disagreements tear relationships apart. Our own minds are fragmented by competing yearnings and needs. It seems as if each of us inhabits a reality no one else shares. Desperate to get by, we try to speak to one another across the divides of our dream-realities.

Rabbi Nachman of Breslav (Ukraine, 1780-1810) offered a teaching for just such a predicament. In his tale of The Tainted Grain —

A king discovers that the coming harvest will drive everyone who eats from it mad. He and his trusted advisor decide to eat the wheat along with everyone else, but make a mark on their foreheads so that when they see one another, they will remember that they are mad.

How do we move from being merely a character in a dream, carried by the momentum of our own minds and of the world, to realizing the dream, choosing the dream, and perhaps even shaping the dream itself? What is the mark?

And why bother, given how grim it all looks?

But the dream of madness does not demand the dramatic flare. It manifests in all the small ways our minds limit our views with certainties, the somber ones, as well as the flowery and ecstatic ones.

We will use Reb Nachman’s The Tainted Grain In the tale as a starting point for a season of sustained practice and inquiry, drawing on Jewish contemplative teachings, Zen, and Vajrayana.

We will draw sustenance from the stillness of meditation, the depth of learning, and the richness of prayer from the siddur. We will tend to our Yiddishkeit and connect with the living sounds of contemporary Israeli prayer music.

More about Daroma.

Structure

The nine weeks will include learnings, meditation and prayer practice, art practice and fellowship in weekly meetings.

Part Monastery part waystation, all online, the season will take place in three distinct zoom rooms, Beit Tefilah - practice hall, Beit Midrash - study hall, and Akhsadra - the fellowship’s courtyard. Meeting one or twice each week, we will rotate the location and day according to the activity.

Schedule

9 weeks:

Opening: 2 weeks, Practice before learning

Learning: 5 weeks, Five teachings & practice

Integration:2 weeks, Practice & release

Total: 17 gatherings, approximately 25 hours of live facilitation, 2 half-day intensive retreats on Shabbat

See the full schedule.

Pricing

$300 Supported Resident (unlocks when minimum resident join at base tuition.)

$500 Program resident base tuition

$750 Program resident and community supporter - will fund financial aid for residents of  lesser means.

$50 cancelation fee will be retained from refund after first week, December 11th 2026.

Financial aid 

Financial aid will become available once the base overhead is funded by fully paying residents and offered on first come and first go.

To keep the container intimate, new participants would not be able to join once the program starts. 

Registration

Use the form below to indicate your intention to participate. Rami will follow up personally with payment options and next steps.

 If this is your first interaction with with Daroma, please share a bit about yourself in the form — your relationship to meditation, Judaism, or anything else you’d like me to know. You’re also welcome to ask any questions about the program, tuition, or accessibility. Rami will schedule a 30–min video call to help determine fit. This step helps ensure resonance, allows for sliding scale access, and preserves the relational spirit of the offering.

Please register asap and indicate your level of payment pledge, including request for financial aid, as a minimum number of pledges will be needed to launch the program and make scholarship available for others. Do not complete your payment until you hear back from Rami.