3-Week Freedom & Cleansing Pre-Pesach Program

Sunday March 12 – Wednesday March 29, 2023

19th of Adar – 7th of Nisan 5783

Learn & Earn: Learn in our afternoon/evenings Midrasha program, and find seasonal work with local families for Pesach Holiday preparation

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 Join us for an intense mini-program with a special focus on the secrets of the freedom of Passover!

Midreshet B’erot Bat Ayin: Holistic Torah for Women on the Land is for women who seek to delve deeply into their soul through intensive textual study and creative expression. We engage women of all ages and nationalities in intense Torah study. We offer classes suitable for both frum-from-birth as well as students whose interest in Torah has recently been ignited.

Do you want to fill the gaps in your basic Torah knowledge? And/or are you ready to reignite your personal Torah connection through discovering inner dimensions of the Torah? Then Midreshet  B’erot Bat Ayin is the right place for you. Our program offers learning for mind, body and soul!

Whether you are new in Torah, or you are seeking a wider perspective, Midreshet B’erot Bat Ayin offers the opportunity to improve your learning skills while strengthening your commitment to Judaism within the parameters of halacha. The open-minded atmosphere at Midreshet B’erot Bat Ayin will allow you to discover the rich variety of Torah approaches, while forming your own outlook and learning from the views of others.

 Rebbetzin Chana Bracha Siegelbaum, Director
Rebbetzin Chana Bracha Siegelbaum, a native of Denmark, is founder and director of Midreshet B’erot Bat Ayin: Holistic Torah for Women on the Land. She holds a Bachelor of Education in Bible and Jewish Philosophy from Michlala Jerusalem College for Women, and a Master’s of Art in Jewish History from Touro College. Rebbetzin Chana Bracha creates curricula emphasizing women’s spiritual empowerment through traditional Torah values. She has published the following books: Women at the Crossroads: A Woman’s Perspective on the Weekly Torah Portion; Ruth: Gleaning the Fallen Sparks; The Seven Fruits of the Land of Israel with their Mystical & Medicinal Properties; Parasha Meditations for Spiritual Renewal and Strengthening Communication with the Creator and My Memoir: The Story of a Danish Jew who Fled the Nazis. Rebbetzin practices EmunaHealing as a gifted spiritual healer through Emunah, tefilah and energy work. Chana Bracha has a married son and several granddaughters, and lives with her husband and younger son on the land of the Judean hills, Israel. 

Women of Redemption A Textual, Mystical & Creative Exploration of Women Who Built the House of Israel
Chana Bracha Siegelbaum has been researching and teaching women in Tanach for about thirty years. Her teachings always empower women while bringing new sources and a fresh perspective highlighting the importance the Women’s role in the Torah. Women of

Rebbetzin Chana Bracha Siegelbaum offers presentations through selected texts. We will learn and discuss selected texts from the Torah, Midrash, Chassidut and Kabbala to weave together and amplify the personalities of these holy women. Creative writing, art, & drama will help make the struggles and aspirations of these inspirational role-models come to life. A comprehensive source sheet in Hebrew/English accompanies the textual study of each of the classes integrating, Bible texts, Midrash, Chassidism and sometimes Kabbalah.

Netivot Shalom on the Parasha
Rav Shalom Noach Berezovsky, the Slonimer Rebbe, expresses a rare combination of gifts in his master piece the Netivot Shalom. Blending the warmth of the Chassidic approach with the sharp clarity of the Lithuanian yeshiva, the Slonimer Rebbe responds to relevant issues that pertain directly dilemmas we struggle with today. His inspiring teachings foster ethical and spiritual growth to those who aspire to get closer to Hashem, as Rav Berezovsky addresses issues such as  spiritual estrangement, wrestling with base desires and temptations, and serial failure. For each challenge of modern life, the Rebbe offers both prescriptions and encouragement.  In this class students will practice reading and translating the relatively easy Chassidic text, as well as discussing its concepts and how to apply them in life.

Herbal Workshop, Torah & Healing
The Herbal Workshop integrates vast information of the ancient wisdom of our Torah about plants, herbology, nutrition and health with traditional folk medicine and medical research. The course delves into textual Torah sources on herbs and healing, as well as general knowledge of the use of herbs. We will focus on the seven holy fruits of the Land of Israel with their mystical and medicinal properties. A comprehensive source sheet in Hebrew/English accompanies the textual study of each of the classes integrating, Bible texts, Midrash, chassidism kabbalah, folk medicine and medical research.

Inner Torah on Pesach & the Haggadah
We will learn various selected texts from the Haggadah such as The Bread of Poverty, Mah Nishtana, Avadim Hayinu, the Four Sons and more through textual analysis, and spiritual insight. The course will culminate with The Four Cups during the Seder & the Four Mothers from a textual and psychological perspective, exploring the process of leaving Egypt both on a national and personal level. A comprehensive source sheet in Hebrew/English with textual and mystical commentaries accompanies the each of the classes.

Rabbi Mechael Siegelbaum, MD, Rabbi of B’erot
Rabbi Dr. Siegelbaum holds a BA in Philosophy and Psychology from Yale University, and an MD from Rutgers Medical School, New Jersey. Rabbi Mechael received his rabbinical ordination from Toras Zekeinim, Jerusalem in 1987.  In addition to teaching halacha in B’erot Bat Ayin, Rabbi Siegelbaum learns Torah part time, is active in the Bat Ayin central synagogue, where he serves as the Gabbi and practices medicine in Bat Ayin and various other clinics.

Halacha
Rav Siegelbaum will discuss the halacha pertinent to the High Holidays. In addition, to learning the “how” of the mitzvot, the student will come to appreciate the process of the development and transmission of halacha from the written and oral Torah till contemporary halachic responsas.

Morah Tsipi Egert  
Tsipi Egert grew up in Israel where she attended high school. She received her B.A. in Jewish History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Tsipi has been teaching Nevi’im (The Prophets) at Midreshet B’erot Bat Ayin since 1998 and has a Master’s in Education in Tanach from H*erzog College. She is currently obtaining a MA at Hebrew University towards a PhD in Tanach. Tsipi lives with her family in Efrat, Gush Etzion.

From Exile to Redemption
This class will focus on the redemption from Egypt and its relevance to us today. Our class will be based on the pesukim at the end of Bereishit and the beginning of Shemot and use classical and modern commentaries to understand the redemption process and how to apply it in on our own process of emerging from slavery to redemption.

Rabbi Hillel Benchimol 
Born and raised in Gibraltar in southern Spain, Rabbi Benchimol at age 16 learnt in Sunderland Yeshiva, England and Beer Yakov, Israel. He received Semicha from Rabbi Shalom Messas זצ״ל, Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu זצ״ל and Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach זצ״ל. Served as Rabbi of the Turkish, Iranian and Iraqi communities in Miami and Los Angeles for over 20 years. A certified active Mohel since 1992, Rabbi Benchimol is married to Keter, has 6 children and lives in Moshav Aviezer in the Ella valley Israel. 

Parashat HaShavua
Rabbi Benchimol will be teaching our Parashat HaShavua from an inner dimension viewing the weekly Torah portion as part of a bigger plan – part of the jigsaw puzzle and tapestry of life. You will receive a broad perspective as to how the parsha is lived today and how it pertains to your life today.

Rabbi Avraham Iskowitz   
Rabbi Izkowitz spent the first 16 years of his life on American army bases in Europe and the United States while attending litvish yeshivot, after which he made aliyah with his family to Jerusalem. After high school, he pursued his hobbies as a rock keyboardist and songwriter, creative writer, and BMX biker, while tutoring at Yeshivat Ohr Sameach and working in the optometry industry. His hobbies led him to Manhattan where he almost signed a record contract with Atlantic Records, but Hashem had other plans for him. Avraham returned to Jerusalem, worked as a landscape artist whilst studying psychology and anthropology at the Hebrew University. At the age of 27, he ‘retired’ to study full time at the Bat Ayin Yeshiva for seven years. Avraham, his wife and 5 children live in Bat Ayin, where he teaches, practices safrut and therapy.

Derech Hashem – The Way of G-d
The classic work of the 18th century master Kabbalist and Talmudist, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (The Ramchal), enables the exploration of such questions as: “Why Hashem created the world,” ‘The principles of Hashem’s Providence over Human Affairs,” “The Suffering of the Righteous vs. the Success of the Wicked,” “The Relationship between the Soul & the Body,” and “The Relationship between Israel and the Nations.”  Emphasis is placed on resolving some of the most basic contradictions and dualities which we tend to encounter as Jews, thus giving the student the clarity to strengthen her faith.

Morah Devorah Konikov

Devorah is a mother and grandmother, raising growing family in Bat Ayin for 21 years. She is striving and thriving with life skills ingrained from learning chassidut. Devorah is a long-time student of Rav Yitzchak Ginsburgh shlita.

Free to be Me/ Infusing the energizing power of Liberation into our Being | (Based on Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh)
We will learn about the concept of freedom, emancipation from slavery , and how that enables us to gain self-awareness and actualize our potential. Our sources will be from several Chasidic resources, especially Pesach discourses by the Alter Rebbe of Chabad, and Rabbi Ginsburgh.

Morah Sarah Goldstein
Sarah has an extensive Torah education from various perspectives – from Old Gateshead seminary to B’erot Bat Ayin, Orayta summer program and learning at Shiviti. She has a BSc in psychology from BPP University in London. Sarah has been on her own internal journey to discover and receive the light, transformational wisdom and Divine connection available in the Torah. A lover of everything connected to the Torah of early chassidut, with a focus on the Torah of Rebbe Nachman and the writings of Rav Kook, she delves deeply into the texts of our tradition, while facilitating others to find their own connection and transformation as well.

Transforming Inner Constriction to Expansiveness
Sometimes our greatest fear is not of failure but of success, of truly knowing, owning, believing in, loving and expressing the inner depths of who we are. In this course we will explore sources from Rav Kook and chassidut on how to love ourselves as created in Hashem’s image, how to truly tap into our authentic selves, into the greatest most expansive possibility that lies within, and how to begin expressing that in the world. To return to who we know we are when we are truly connected to our ultimate Divine roots.

Morah Miriam Raphael

Miriam grew up in Israel and has been involved in Jewish education for 20 years. She lives in Bat Ayin Bet with her husband and four children.

Interpersonal Relationships in the Torah
n this study group we will focus on sources from the Torah, midrash and chazal about interpersonal relationships. Each class will present texts on a different type of relationship within the family, between man and a woman, children and parents, between siblings and within the greater society. We will discuss how to build our personality from what we learn and how the Torah stories inspires a higher level of ethics and morality in our interpersonal relationships.

Morah Yedida Levy
Yedida Miriam grew up in UK and made aliyah early on. With a passion for education, and a background in theatre, she spent ten years teaching in Jerusalem, before returning to Bat Ayin in 2018. Her passion is ‘tutoring’, teaching the Holy texts, and Hebrew ~ making it accessible to students.

Creative Expression
This class will focus on bringing Torah texts to life through various forms of artistic expression. In a warm classroom setting, we’ll use Torah texts to connect deeply from inside-out, expressing our insights through the lens of our personal journey. We will explore techniques such as, brainstorming, meditation, memory scanning and opening the heart to develop our creative, spiritual and perceptual abilities.  We will also place a special focus on celebrating and bringing out each student’s own style and unique way of seeing the world!
Each class combines a segment of theory, practice and analysis of our works in a warm, encouraging and noncompetitive atmosphere.