M A R C H 2 0 1 0 E D I T I O N

MIRIAM’S CYBERWELL
PO BOX 3931, THOUSAND OAKS, CA 91359 PH. 310.281.3016
H T T P S : / / W W W. M I R I A M S C Y B E R W E L L . C O M M I R I A M @ M I R I A M S C Y B E RW E L L . C O M

IN THIS ISSUE:
TIKKUN MAGAZINE
WANDERING IN THE TO FEATURE ARTICLE BY RABBI MIRIAM IN
NOW: THEIR UPCOMING MARCH/APRIL ISSUE...
A Special Pre-Passover Event with LOOK FOR IT ON THE STANDS!
Rabbi Miriam
continued on page 2

EXPERIENCE
PASSOVER ANEW, THE
OLD WAY
continued on page 2

JEWISH SHAMANIC
HEALING
Dates now set for Walking Stick
Foundation’s Fourth 2-Year, 4-
Week Program
continued on page 3

ADAR: THE
COMPLICATED MOON Rabbi Miriam Maron, B.S.N., R.N., M.A.
Lecturer, Composer, Singer/Songwriter, Workshop and Retreat Leader,
OF JOY Private, Healing and Mentoring, Ritual and Life-Cycle Ceremonies,
continued on page 4 Jewish and Interfaith Services
 Wandering in the Now:
A Special Pre-Passover Event of Learning, Music, and Story
with Miriam Maron, and Gershon Winkler with the musical accompaniment of Bogdan
Knezevich and Ryan Emhoff
Thursday evening, March 25, 2010 at 6:30 PM
Temple Beth Torah
7620 Foothill Road, Ventura, CA

Passover is not so much a celebration of the Jewish
exodus from Egyptian bondage some 3300 years ago
as it is a commemoration of the most crucial phase in
the evolution of the Jewish people: the subsequent
forty-year walkabout in the desert. So vital is the story
of the desert trek that it occupies 75% of the narrative
of the Torah, the most important body of sacred
wisdom for the Jewish people. More space is allotted
for the account of the ancient Israelites being led
through that vast barren wilderness than for the
numerous miraculous feats performed on their behalf
in preparation for their redemption from slavery.
Obviously, what appears as a more important story
and lesson, wrote the famous Jewish philosopher
Rabbi Martin Buber, “is not the history of the exodus,
but the history of the wandering in the
desert” (Biblical Leadership, published in Israel and the
World: Essays in a Time of Crisis [Schocken:1948], p. 125).

Experience Passover Anew, the Old Way

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Rabbis Miriam and Gershon
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for an enlightening Passover Seder
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Monday evening, March ium improb fugiend.
29, 2010 at 7 PM
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A unique and meaningful
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spirited chant, deep laughter, user-friendly Kabbalah, and -- of course – delightful food.
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Center for Energetic Healing,
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Congue tortor cursus foothills of the Santa Susana
nestled in the scenic
Mountains of Simi Valley, California
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Rockycom.
Road, Simi Valley, CA 93063)

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Typi Habent
Mauris amet in semperSuggested Donation: $50 (more if you can, less if you can't –
no one is turned away for lack funds).
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pariatur et dolor. Risus Limited overnight lodging available on premises.
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For reservations and directions, velitArna
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Institute for the Wisdom of the Masters Name
Jewish Shamanic Healing
with Rabbi Miriam Maron, B.S.N., R.N., M.A and Rabbi Gershon
Cost: $1425 per Week
($1200 for returning JSH
students who have completed
all four sessions) Cost includes
private a/c room with your own
bathroom, all-kosher meals, and
tuition.
Commuter Cost: $750
(includes tuition and meals
only) Easy commute from Los
Angeles and Santa Barbara
(LAX or Burbank Airports)
Payment: by Credit Cards
accepted via CCNow on
www.walkingstick.org Events
page.
A 9% additional charge applies.
Dates: first two weeks:
- Sunday, June 6 @ 6pm
through Friday, June 11, 2010 @
1pm.
- Sunday, October 10 @ 6pm
through Friday, October 15,
2010 @ 1pm
To register, send a check or
money order for $800
($500 is your basic deposit and
$300 is your deposit toward the
remaining 3 sessions) to:
Walking Stick Foundation
1336 North Moorpark Road,
Suite 289,
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
Please indicate your email
address, phone number,
and any dietary restrictions
For more information, email:
elkmesa@walkingstick.org
or call 805-795-2996
Our 4th 2-Year, 4-Week Program on
AT THE BRANDEIS-BARDIN INSTITUTE, SITUATED ON 3,000
ACRES OF PRISTINE WILDERNESS IN THE SCENIC SANTA
SUSANNA MOUNTAINS OF SIMI VALLEY, IN SOUTHERN CA
Ancient Jewish mystery
wisdom considered
illness a major
opportunity for personal
life shifting and
unfolding. Healing is not
about fixing but about
directing the flow of the
ailment toward the
restoration of balance in
the dynamics between
soul and body. Rituals
include prayers and
incantations that called
upon forces active in the
spirit realms, various
plants, incense smoke,
the ram’s horn, planetary
influences, and stones.
Some ceremonies also
involve drawing a circle
on the earth with specific
mystical symbols, and
many such rites require
chanting and drumming.
Often, the purpose of
these rites is to clear the
body’s own channels of
impediments and
resistance to enable the
smooth flow of the life
force within each of us.
TM
of the Walking Stick Foundation Presents:
During this rare “The work that I did with
opportunity to explore Miriam through the Jewish
the lesser-promulgated Shamanic Healing Training
body of Jewish tradition,
Rabbis Miriam Maron Program has been deeply
and Gershon Winkler transformative for me. She is
will familiarize a role model for me as a
participants with ancient healer and an educator. Her
and medieval Aramaic work brings into embodiment
and Hebraic source texts
our ancient teachings.  She
as well as oral traditions
from which this long- has deeply touched me and I
neglected body of am proud to have her as my
wisdom originates. teacher.”
-- Shoshana Simons,
These two mavericks of Ph.D.
contemporary Judaism
will also guide us
through practica of
ceremony, guided
imagery, chant, and
movement toward
experiencing these
teachings and drawing
them deeper within
ourselves, beyond the
intellect, and into actual
practice. The program
“With wit and wisdom,
includes studies in
Rabbi Gershon renders user-
realms of the Jewish
mystery wisdom about friendly the more cryptic
teachings of lesser-known
animal, tree and stone
spirits, totems, the four Kabbalistic source texts and
winds (or four oral traditions in order to
directions), and
inspire and infor m our
shamanic journeying –
lives.”
Jewish-style. —Andrew Weil, M.D.,
author of Spontaneous Healing
and Eating Well for Optimum
Adar: The Moon of Complicated Joy
Copyright 2010

~ A Teaching by Rabbi Miriam

We are now journeying through the Hebrew moon of Adar, the final month in the Hebrew
calendar, the closing of Winter. The tribe associated with this final month is that of the Hebrew
ancestor Jacob’s final child, Ben’yamin. And the totem for this youngest of the tribes, is Wolf
(Genesis 49:27), with the qualities of loyalty and individuality, preserving one’s unique selfhood,

one’s individuality, while also relating to and caring for the family or community. Wolf is the
keeper of moon medicine, of the gift that moon brings to us in each of its phases of unfolding,
of waxing and waning. And wolf calls to it, sings to it, knows when to welcome which moon gift
for which phase. Wolf is alone, yet very much connected with its pack.

The Benjamin archetype is a complicated one. He is born at the expense of his mother’s life.
Rachel unfortunately dies moments after giving birth to him, and with her last breath names
him “Son of my suffering” or – in Hebrew: Ben O’nee. His father, Jacob, immediately changes
his name to Ben Ya’meen, Hebrew for “Son of my right hand” referring to his deep admiration
of his beloved Rachel (Genesis 35:18)...

This turnabout quality of Ben’yamin’s month was most notably

demonstrated in the reversal during Adar of the near-annihilation
of world Jewry some 2500 years ago to its miraculous rescue and
restoration, an event we celebrate to this day as Purim. Purim
occurs under the full moon, and this year falls on Sunday,
February 28. Adar is also the month in which Moses was born, the
man who would be instrumental in reversing bondage to
liberation, waters to dry land, solid (stone) to liquid (water),
Divine Will to mortal practice (Torah).

The archetype of Ben’yamin reflects the connotations of both

names and the intentions behind them: suffering and redemption,
failure and triumph. His descendants would later deviate from the
morality of the other tribes and adopt some very abusive practices
from neighboring cultures, resulting in an intertribal war that cost
tens of thousands of lives and nearly wiped out the tribe of Ben’yamin altogether (Judges, Chapters 19
and 20). The first chieftain of all the tribes of Israel – Sha’ul -- came from the tribe of Ben’yamin

(First Samuel 9:16-17). He failed abysmally. This archetype would then seem to be about failure alone.

Yet, Ben’yamin makes an incredible comeback through the heroic acts of Esther and
Mordechai, two Ben’yaminites (Esther 2:5) who in the 5th century B.C.E. save the entire Jewish
population from total annihilation. In the end, the lone wolf returns to rescue the entire pack
and reintegrate itself into the family of the tribes. Ben’yamin teaches us that it is never too late.
Never. Regardless of your past. And that you can transform any situation, from suffering to
ecstasy, from sadness to joy, from hopelessness to faith, from failure to success (Esther 9:22).
 M A R C H 2 0 1 0 E D I T I O N

MIRIAM’S
CYBERWELL

RABBI MIRIAM MARON

PO Box 3931
Thousand Oaks, CA
91359
https://www.miriamscyberwell.com
miriam@miriamscyberwell.com