jews in the woods

Where are the woods? This is hard to say, especially because we often must get lost along the way in order to arrive. – ari j

What does it mean to be in the woods? [to be] in contact with nature. At the edge of our comfort zones. Where the ordinary meets the sacred. – ben n

The woods represents the wilderness, the way things were before civilization destroyed the multiplicity of experience. JitW is a move towards embracing the multiplicity of Gd experience in a Jewish context. – zvi b

I translate “woods” into Hebrew as midbar, and then back into English as “wilderness.” We congregate outside of established Jewish institutional structures; outside of the rules, processes and assumptions that exist elsewhere. We create our own space. We find God in the midbar, as our ancestors did. – ilana s

The woods for me is a place far enough away from civilization that I can fully immerse myself in Shabbat and in nature without the distractions of the outside world. It is a place of natural smells, walking paths (or bush whacking), a place to be. – toni b

The “in the Woods” part of “Jews in the Woods” is actually a misnomer. It refers to the fact that we are “out of the city” and “surrounded by trees,” but shouldn’t be taken to mean that we are actually “in the woods.” Once upon a time, one Jew in the Woods actually did bring a tent and slept outside; that Jews in the Woods shabbaton should really have been called “Jew in the Woods….and Everyone Else Sleeping Inside.” – sasha b

The term ”the woods” is more a state of mind of retreat from the world than an actual location. (We meet in whatever retreat center is available.) – daniele k

Jews in the woods is a place in the hearts of all its members. Wherever there is a Fruity Jew dancing, or a Crunchy Jew camping, or a Tangy Jew Praying, the list could go on, that is where Jews in the Woods is. Today my friend Angelica and I contacted and through using one of the things I experienced at JitW, for those few minutes — JitW was here. Jews in the woods is about coming together for a weekend and taking this amazing energy and spreading it throughout the world, in a sense the whole world is JitW – greg r