Kohenet Training: Week 7

The final week of Kohenet was a whirlwind.   The training weeks are a total immersion in liminal space.  Each day feels like a week, and yet by Thursday — you can’t believe it’s almost over.  The experience was even more amplified this time because it was my last training week and Shabbat meant smicha.  The week wasn’t just a wrap-up either.  Each day offered up classes I wanted to be fully present for and absorb as much as possible.  Here’s a taste of what we covered this last week:
Kohenet Bet Schedule (exerpts)

• Davvening (Morning Prayers)
• Bnai Mitzvah Ceremonies
• Kohenet Vocabulary Class
• Spirit Journey
• Home Blessings
• Green Energy of Prie$te$$ing (how to make a living and issues around money)
• Jethro as Model for Priestessing (text and Talmud study)
• Healing and reclaiming women’s sexuality
• Jewish views of the soul

All this was mixed in with Smicha preparations and a variety of other activities.  Emotions for everyone seemed to run high.  We were all aware that this was the end of one aspect of our journey together, and everyone was taking that very seriously.   For myself, I realized mid-week how sad I was that I hadn’t asked to lead morning prayers this session.  It’s not something I have the opportunity to do ever outside of Kohenet (yet), and I really enjoyed it.  My intertwined worlds don’t provide me many opportunities (yet) to lead Jewish services, and I missed an opportunity that probably would have been offered if I had spoken up.

I hope in the future we can have advanced training weeks dedicated to a single topic where we are able to spend a whole day on one area.  I’d love to have a full day of Talmud study with Shoshana, a day of Text study with Jill, and a day of experiential immersion with Holly.  It would really give us a chance to dive in deeply, instead of scraping the surface to unearth possibilities for our own later exploration.

But for now, I’m sitting with what’s happened and letting myself discover what it all means.