Mitsui Foundations

Join Mitsui Collective for our new 3-day Foundations course!

REgister Here


This 3-day course lays the foundation for ongoing embodied Jewish learning and practice using Mitsui methodologies for Jewish embodiment. Both iterative and emergent, the Foundations course offers a Jewishly grounded and integrated approach to cultivating awareness, interrupting oppression, and embodying liberation across all aspects of body, mind, and soul.

ABOUT

What to Expect — Questions we explore in our Foundations course: 
  • What is Jewish Embodiment and what’s our particular approach at Mitsui Collective? 
  • How does our individual, internal work impact how we show up in the world at large? What’s the connection between personal practice and dismantling systemic oppression? 
  • How might we utilize embodied practice to interrupt ongoing patterns of oppression both for ourselves and others? 
  • What does it look like to cultivate authentic spiritual practice alongside antiracist and counter-oppressive work in and through our communities? How do we commit to deep personal work and liberatory practice without getting caught up in spiritual bypassing? 
  • What is your personal embodied kavanah (intention) for showing up in full liberatory alignment of body, mind, and soul?
Foundations Day One: Cultivating Awareness

In our introduction to Jewish Embodiment and the Mitsui Method, we focus on identifying areas of alignment and misalignment with liberatory Jewish values and introduce our core practices and frameworks for building greater skill and capacity. 

What to expect
  • Playing with multiple modalities of Jewish embodied practice — breathwork, movement, song & vocalization, etc. — that help to cultivate greater awareness and presence 
  • Essentials of the body, soma, and nervous system and how they interact to affect our perception of and response to both the external world and our internal selves
  • Jewish concepts and frameworks for understanding and presencing in awareness to our internal and external states, — including Jewish text, Kabbalistic (Jewish mystical) concepts, Jewish ritual, and Jewish conceptions of time and space (aka The Jewish Spacetime Continuum)
  • Homework on cultivating your personal embodied kavanah (intention)
Foundations Day Two: Interrupting Oppression

Building upon Foundations Day One, we focus on identifying how racialization and other forms of oppression show up in the body in order to better embody antiracist and counter-oppressive values. 

What to expect
  • Revisiting the role of presence and awareness in body and soul
  • A blend of theory and practice to both strengthen our cognitive understanding of important concepts and bring the learning into the body for deep experiential understanding
  • Personal and cultural identity mapping to more fully understand how our constructed selves map onto historically centered and marginalized identity ecosystems
  • Differentiating aspects of our identities in the context of how they express themselves in and through our physical bodies 
  • Revisiting and revising (as needed) your personal embodied kavanah
  • Homework for continuing to build awareness and discernment around the impact of racialization and other oppressions on your physical and spiritual self
Foundations Day Three: Embodying Liberation

Building upon Foundations Days One and Two, we focus on articulating and aligning with purpose (kavanah), and on cultivating ongoing personal & collective embodiment practices for greater wholeness and liberation.

What to expect
  • Revisiting core concepts and practices
  • Deeper exploration of your personal cosmology map — ie your relationship to Jewish spacetime, inherited and chosen lineage, and connection to past, present, and future self
  • Personal and collective exploration of multi-cultural Jewish practice and lineage that creates a simultaneously secure and porous container for ongoing learning and practice in dialogue with the multitude of cultural and ancestral lineages that make up modern Jewish life and identity 
  • Expanded learning and practice with Mitsui methodologies for liberatory Jewish embodiment for both active meaning-making in the moment and as a foundation for continued practice 
  • Honing and deepening your personal embodied kavanah as an iterative guide for your ongoing practice over the next 6-12 months 

Whether you are new to Jewish Embodiment and Liberatory Practice or have been exploring this path for some time, our Foundations course offers a unique opportunity to deepen your practice and connect with a supportive community of fellow learners. Join us for this journey!

Register for Foundations

FAQ

Q: Is Foundations open to everyone?
A: Yes, everyone is welcome to participate. Foundations is designed to be accessible and inclusive, regardless of your level of experience or background. You do not need to be Jewish to participate in these workshops — though some level of prior Jewish learning and knowledge will be very helpful. Whether you are Jewish from all sides, Jewish alongside multiple other cultural and spiritual lineages, or have no direct Jewish lineage, our work creates the space for both Jewish particularism and for reflection and exploration of all aspects of embodied selfhood and identity.

Q: Do I need to attend all three sessions?
A: Yes, the sessions build upon one another.

Q: How long is each Foundations session?
A: Each session is 3 hours on Zoom. 

Q: What do I need to bring to Foundations?
A: You will need a comfortable place to sit and move, and a readiness to participate. Please wear clothing you are comfortable moving in. We also recommend having a journal or notebook to reflect on your experiences.

Q; Will I be certified in Mitsui’s method by the end of Foundations?
A: Our Foundations course is not a certification or training course. However, we will be offering Certificates of Completion. These certificates are based upon active participation and a follow-up reflection. 

Q: How much does Foundations cost?
A: Mitsui Collective deeply values offering learning opportunities that are accessible to all who desire to access them. We also value the importance of properly compensating our staff and teachers for the years-long work of learning, design, and preparation at the foundation of these offerings, as well as the direct teaching and facilitation time of the workshops themselves.
The prices listed here reflect our dual priorities of accessible learning and resource redistribution, while also offered at a range that as a whole is offset by grant-funding and other revenue sources — and in this first iteration also reflects that we are piloting these as new offerings. We ask that you select the tier most appropriate for your own level of financial resource and ability, while also recognizing that the true cost of developing, planning, and implementing this work is significantly greater than the pricing reflected here.

Foundations Course:
  • $72 early / $96 — Supported Access — I currently have limited financial resources and would benefit from access supported by the community.
  • $144 early / $180 — Supplemented Access — I have sufficient financial resources and can pay the basic supplemented value for my participation and learning in this experience.
  • $180 early / $240 — Rebalancing Access — I have the financial resources to cover my own participation and to partially support access for others.
  • $240 early / $360 — Restructuring Access — I have more than enough financial resources and a desire to help address systemic inequity by fully supporting access for others.

Further questions? Please reach out to Mitsui Collective’s Program Manager, Ariana Starkman (she/her), at ariana.starkman@mitsuicollective.org