Integrating Psychedelics, Religion & Judaism: Rabbi Zac Kamenetz

Rabbi Zac Kamenetz: Integrating Psychedelics & Religion, Episode 88, The Psychedelic Entrepreneur Podcast

Rabbi Zac Kamenetz is a rabbi, community leader, and aspiring psychedelic-assisted chaplain based in Berkeley, CA. He holds an MA in Biblical literature and languages from UC Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union and received rabbinic ordination in 2012. As the founder and CEO of Shefa, Zac is pioneering a movement to integrate safe and supported psychedelic use into the Jewish spiritual tradition, advocate for individuals and communities to heal individual and inherited trauma and inspire a Jewish religious and creative renaissance in the 21st century.

In this episode, Rabbi Zac Kamenetz and Beth Weinstein discuss…

  • Why Rabbi Zac created Shefa to help bring community support and the wealth of the Jewish tradition to Jews exploring psychedelics
  • The need for Jews working with psychedelics to have support in the areas of religious awareness and Jewish trauma
  • The Jewish Psychedelic Summit, which has arisen as a collaboration between multiple organizations including Shefa
  • The importance of asking, “Who are my ancestors? Where did they come from? What did they go through?”
  • The innate desire people have to want to know who they truly are
  • Beth’s own Jewish identity issues related to her family background and upbringing
  • The importance of geography and locality in understanding your Jewish roots
  • How can you feel safe and resourced enough to find or create a form of engagement with Judaism that brings meaning and value to your life as a Jew?
  • Challenges some Jews experience entering Jewish spaces and opening to the experience of true belonging
  • Shefa moving more from online-only programming to doing more in-person events
  • “Tikkun Olam”: how “Healing the World” as the overarching Jewish mission begins with you, your family and your community
  • How Judaism is a tradition that orients towards achieving expanded states of consciousness without the use of psychedelics
  • The possibility that through individual and communal medicine work you can transform how you see yourself, your life and the world

Rabbi Zac Kamenetz’s Links & Resources

Website ▶: http://www.shefaflow.org/

Instagram ▶: https://www.instagram.com/shefa_jewishpsychedelicsupport/

Facebook ▶: https://www.facebook.com/shefaflow/


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