Daroma: Temple of One 5786 Winter Practice Season
A program of Daroma: Fellowship for Jewish Contemplative Arts
A 10-week season dedicated to spiritual formation, fellowship, solitary and shared practice, including meditation, liturgy, ancestral connection, and Neo-Hassidic non-dual learning — sustained through Hanukkah in the darkest season of the year, and guided by the fierce inner world of the Kotzker Rebbe.
With Rabbi Rami Avraham Efal
Saturday / Motzaei Shabbat 5:30-7pm, (Havdallah included)
November 29, 2025 – February 7, 2026 (skipping 1/10/2026)
"Three ways are open to a man who is in sorrow. He who stands on a normal rung weeps, he who stands higher is silent, but he who stands on the topmost rung converts his sorrow into song. “ - The Kotzker Rebbe
Between Hanukkah and Purim stretches the longest span of the Jewish calendar without sacred days — a quiet corridor of inner work. These darker days and longer nights surface the ache of loneliness, grief, and the heaviness of a world shadowed by fear, antisemitism, war, hunger, climate crisis, and global uncertainty. And yet, in this darkness the small light of the contemplative impulse - awakens. Temple of One — the theme of this season — asks:
How might we become a self-nourishing sanctuary —
a fountain of insight, presence, compassion and companionship with Mystery itself?
It honors that many of us are not fulfilled by any one thing — not one community, one role, one friendship. Parts of us are seen; others remain hidden. Temple of One invites us to dwell in the space between and around those parts, to grow our intimacy with fragmentation, discover the love, wholeness, creativity, flexibility and wonder, there.
We’ll explore past models of such a way of being — monastics, mystics, hermits — not as prescriptions, but as mirrors. We will be guided by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and the subject of his book “A Passion for Truth” — the 18th century Polish Kotzker Rebbe whose fierce insistence on practice, solitude, and radical interiority embodies it. We will meet through the book the teachings of Reb Bunam, the Kotzker’s own teacher, and Søren Kierkegaard, whose early mystical existentialism Heschel jusxtaposed with the rabbis’.
‘A disciple of the Kotzker complained to his master that he was unable to worship God without becoming aware of his pride. "Is there a way of praying that prevents the self from intruding?" he asked.
"Have you ever met a wolf while walking alone in the forest?" "I have," he answered.
"What was on your mind at that moment?"
"Fear. Nothing but fear, and the need to escape."
"You see," replied the Kotzker, "at that moment you were afraid without being self-conscious of your fear. It is in this way that we must worship God."‘
We will dive into the rich Kabbalistic and Hassidic teaching on Tzimtzum (concentration or removal) and Bitul Hayesh (nullification of form,) letting longing ripen without converting it into impulsive action. Staying close enough to the signal to feel it, but far enough not to distort it. Holding that tension — between ache and restraint, immediacy and architecture — everything one touches gains gravity. In holding the tzimtzum without collapsing it — maintaining the holy contraction that allows light to accumulate before release. Appropriately, we will enter deeper through Hanukka and re-emerge on Tu Bishvat, the ‘new year for the trees’ to orient towards the spring and renewal.
Over Ten Weeks, We Will also:
Gather online as a group for weekly practice meetings with silent meditation, prayer, learning, and fellowship;
Immerse in contemplative musical nourishment;
Each session will include Havdallah — the ritual closing of Shabbat — either at the beginning or end;
Supplement our learning with music, texts on Zen Buddhism, consciousness, grief, and spiritual formation;
Hold impromptu practice offerings (Kabbalat Shabbat, or pop-up practices) with short notice;
Times and dates
Motzaei Shabbat / Saturday evenings, 5:30-7pm Eastern timezone.
Meeting #1: Nov 29, 2025 - opening
Meeting #2: Dec 6, 2025
Meeting #3: Dec 13, 2025 - Hanukka seventh night
Meeting #4: Dec 20, 2025
Meeting #5: Dec 27, 2025
Meeting #6: Jan 3, 2026
Jan 10 2026 - no event, full solo practice week
Meeting #7: Jan 17, 2026
Meeting #8: Jan 24, 2026
Meeting #9: Jan 31, 2026 - ahead of Tu bishvat on 2/2
Meeting #10: Feb 7, 2026
Tuition
$350-500 for the full season, one time. This includes the program’s 10 group sessions, communications, and optional pop-up offerings.
If you are able, please offer the full amount — this helps support others who require reduced tuition.
This is not a mass-market course. It is intimate, experiential, and relational. Pricing reflects that.
If finances are a barrier, do reach out — no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Cancellation policy: Full refund through the first week of the program.
"In the Kotzker's thought the aim of reflection was to overcome the dualisms within a person. Self-knowledge implies honesty…because we know that a person may sincerely believe something about himself that is not true….The Kotzker did not seek to convert his disciples into quietists, who might exalt the motionless inner state of the soul… [but to] engage in elucidating the self."
- Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
Reading Material
Throughout the season, we’ll be in conversation with the book A Passion for Truth by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel — a spiritual and philosophical encounter between Heschel and the Kotzker Rebbe. Participants are encouraged to acquire a copy of the book. Selected excerpts may be shared digitally for weekly reflection and discussion. (Amazon Link.) Other reading material will be shared digitally.
Optional 1:1 Spiritual Accompaniment
Rami is available for individual 30 and 60-minute sessions at an additional fee. These meetings offer spiritual accompaniment and may include learning, coaching, shared practice, and pastoral care.
Who is This For?
People with regular synagogue experience - Daroma functions as a para-synagogue - it recognizes that a shul experience with its regular practice and community is vital, yet often not nourishes deeper aspects of yearning or insight.
Those engaged in meditation, psychedelic practice, grief work, or Dharma paths — Jubus or HinJus seeking to weave their spiritual practice with their Jewish ancestral heritage.
If you come from a different ancestry or practice a different spiritual path, you are warmly welcome. Do know that Daroma is a Jewish-centered program, and will center Jewish themes, vocabulary, teachings, and culture.
Daroma is a non-political, Israel-loving, and Israeli-welcoming space. It affirms that the land of Israel — its mountains and rivers, plains and forests, flora, fauna, sky and seas — has long been an inherited and lived dimension of the ancestral path across generations of Hebrews, Israelites, Judeans, and, today, Jews — regardless of politics, along with other peoples who share the love for it, and acknowledging sharing this love has proven tragic and brutal at times. Rami is Israeli. To come to Daroma is to feel some resonance with that.
Peace-building Impact
A percentage of proceeds will be donated to a peacebuilding initiative in Israel and Palestine.
Registration
To join the Winter Season of Temple of One, Use the form below to share your intention to participate. I’ll follow up personally with payment options and next steps. If this is your first interaction with me or with Daroma, feel free to share a bit about yourself — 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.
This step helps ensure resonance, allows for sliding scale access, and preserves the relational spirit of the offering.
Please register asap as a minimum number of pledges will be needed to launch the program. To keep the container intimate, new participants would not be able to join once the program starts. Please indicate your level of payment pledge as a minimum of full paying participants will be needed to launch the program and make scholarship available for others.
Daroma: Fellowship for Jewish Contemplative Arts was founded in 2024 in response to the 10/7 war to nurse and fortify Jews and allies.
The graphic of the menorah for Daroma at the top is inspired by a rare etching of the Menorah discovered in 2011 “in the drainage channel beneath the 2,000 Pilgrimage Road in the City of David, adjacent to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Israel. The discovery represented what may be among the earliest renderings of the Menorah ever found. “
