Something in you has been waiting for a circle like this one.
Not a workshop. Not a weekend.
A real arrival: held by real land, in the company of men willing to go there with you.
The month of Elul asks one thing: appear before the new year knowing who you are becoming.
This is where eight men go to find out.
Are you ready to go inside?
On Rosh Hashanah, the gates open. The Book of Life is open. The tradition does not ask you to grovel — it asks you to appear. To show up. To stand in your life and say, clearly, who you are choosing to become in the year ahead.
That is harder than it sounds. You cannot write a new chapter from inside the old one. You need distance. You need stillness. You need the kind of honest conversation with yourself that ordinary life rarely makes room for.
This retreat is that room. Six days on living land in the mountains of Western North Carolina — in the final days of Elul, the Jewish month of return — moving through fire, water, earth, and air in the company of eight men willing to do the work the season has always asked of us.
The gates of the new year for Rosh Hashanah open on September 11th. This retreat is the preparation for walking through them as a man who knows what he is carrying — and what he is walking toward.
No prior experience with ceremony is necessary. What is necessary is a genuine willingness to go inside — to slow down enough to let the land speak, and to be moved by what it says.
The shape of the retreat
Six days. Each one building on the last.
We arrive as the sun goes down and gather around the first fire. This is where it begins — not with an agenda, but with a flame and the particular quality of attention that comes when men decide, together, to be honest about where they actually stand.
The second day is given to water and to building — hands in the earth, constructing the vessel that will hold our prayers before the threshold. By firelight that night, each man speaks what he is clearing to make room for what is coming. The old chapter closes here so the new one can begin.
At dawn on the third day, each man goes out alone. He carries one question about the year he is stepping into. He will not speak, will not eat, will not perform. Only the land — and whatever arrives when the noise finally stops and the answer has nowhere left to hide.
He returns to brothers. To rest. To Shabbat entering at sundown — received by men who have just spent a night alone with the most important question of their year.
The final days are for story, for ceremony, for speaking aloud — in the company of brothers — the intention that was born in solitude. The shofar sounds on the last morning. Not as farewell. As arrival.
Five days later, when Rosh Hashanah comes, you will already know what you are walking toward. The gates will open and you will be ready to step through them.
Registration
Dates: September 1-6, 2026.
Space is limited to eight men. Registration opens after a brief conversation with our team — submit your interest and we will be in touch before sending the registration link.
The first three nights are spent camping in the woods — tents are provided. The final two nights move to The Horse Shoe Farm, where on-site lodging is available. Full accommodation details and pricing will be included with your registration information.
This is a digital-free retreat. Phones and devices will be held at the beginning and returned at the end.