Limmud Bay Area Festival 2018

What happens when a group of 10 or more people come together?  Embedded in Judaism is the biological, social and spiritual wisdom of Minyan, that magic number at which a collection of individuals becomes something more and a new essential quality or behavior emerges.  Birds flock. Jews use language - praying, saying, swaying, healing, sharing, communing.  This workshop builds on Stan Tenen's finding that from ancient times the Hebrew alphabet - the names, shapes, meanings and gestures associated with each of its letters, its 3-letter roots and its foundational utterances - was designed with just such wisdom in mind.  Using these gestures, we will each establish our individual expression for the three root letters of a chosen Hebrew word, and then move in guided improvisation, honing our leading and following skills in order to create an ensemble experience, an unfolding of the spirit of Minyan.  At the same time, the letter-gestures themselves may reveal insights into the otherwise concealed meaning of the text.  And of Minyan itself.