Something in you has been waiting for a circle like this one.
Not a workshop. Not a weekend.
A real arrival: onto living land, into sacred time,
and into the company of men willing to go there with you.
Where is there? The place you have been resisting to go to most.
The month of Elul asks something simple and demanding: before the gates of the new year open, wake up to the life you are actually living and the life that is calling you forward.
This is where eight men come to listen.
Are you ready to go inside?
On Rosh Hashanah, the Book of Life is open.
Jewish tradition does not ask us to arrive perfect. It asks us to arrive present.
To stand before the mystery of another year and ask:
Who am I becoming?
That question cannot be answered through busyness, distraction, or force of will. It requires another kind of attention.
Ancient Jewish wisdom teaches that the world is richer and more alive than it first appears. The mountains, forests, rivers, animals, and even the ordinary events of our lives are not merely scenery. They are participants in a conversation that has been unfolding since the beginning of creation.
The challenge is that most of us have forgotten how to listen.
This retreat is an opportunity to remember.
For six days in the mountains of Western North Carolina, during the final days of Elul, we step away from ordinary routines and enter a landscape of fire, water, earth, air, story, silence, prayer, and brotherhood.
Guided by ancient Jewish wisdom and other traditional teachings, we explore a different way of seeing. Together we learn to recognize the deeper patterns moving through our lives, the medicine hidden within our struggles, and the guidance that emerges when we stop demanding certainty and begin trusting mystery.
Through the wisdom of the four directions, each man will explore the season of life he is living and the particular invitation that season is offering him. Through time alone on the land, through ceremony, through community, and through deep listening, we begin to remember our place and belonging within the larger web of life.
No prior experience with ceremony or in nature is necessary.
What is necessary is a willingness to slow down.
To listen.
To allow yourself to be taught by the land, by your own soul, by your brothers, and by the mystery moving through them all.
The shape of the retreat
Six days. Each one building upon the last.
We arrive as the sun goes down and gather around the first fire. Here we begin cultivating the quality of attention that makes transformation possible: the willingness to see clearly and speak honestly.
The second day is devoted to water and to building. Together we construct the vessel that will hold our prayers before the threshold of the new year. That evening, by firelight, each man names what he is releasing and what he is making room to receive.
At dawn on the third day, each man walks alone into the forest carrying a single question.
He will not speak.
He will not eat.
He will not perform.
He will simply enter into relationship with the land and with whatever emerges when the noise falls away.
For some, guidance arrives through silence. For others, through memory, dream, grief, insight, animal encounter, or mystery. The task is not to force an answer but to listen deeply enough to recognize what is already speaking.
He returns to brothers and to Shabbat.
The final days are devoted to weaving the threads together: story, ceremony, integration, and the speaking aloud of what has been discovered. We listen for the deeper truths and true names that are asking to guide us into the coming year.
On the final morning, the shofar sounds.
Not as a farewell.
As a summons.
As a reminder.
As an 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.
To begin, click Register Now and complete the application. Rather than paying immediately, you’ll first answer a few questions so we can learn more about you and ensure this retreat is a good fit. Once your application has been reviewed and approved, you’ll receive instructions to complete your registration and payment.
This retreat includes five nights. The first two nights will be spent camping on the sacred land of The Horse Shoe Farm. On the third night, you’ll venture into a guided solo experience in the wilderness on nearby protected land. Upon returning, you’ll spend the final two nights camping once again at The Horse Shoe Farm. Single tents are provided
If you prefer additional comfort after your nature solo, you may choose to reserve one of our private guest rooms for the fourth and fifth nights for an additional fee, based on availability.
This is a digital-free retreat. Phones and devices will be held at the beginning and returned at the end.
About the Leaders
Jordan Turchin
Jordan Turchin is the Owner and Steward of The Horse Shoe Farm, guiding its transformation since 2017 from a historic 1950s cattle farm into a sanctuary devoted to holistic wellness and intentional living — rooted in the Turchin family’s lineage of soulful hospitality.
His approach to the land is ceremony-informed. Trained through the Rites of Passage Council’s Ceremonial Guide program, Jordan works with nature, ritual, and sacred space as active forces — listening to the land, honoring its elements, and creating experiences that support personal transformation and reconnection with the natural world. This sensibility can be felt throughout the farm, where meditation spaces, healing environments, and elemental rituals emerge organically from his ongoing partnership with the land itself.
Drawing from a background in creative development, operations, and place-based hospitality, Jordan has shaped The Horse Shoe Farm into a living organism tended with heart and a deep commitment to its sacred potential. He is also the founder of GIFE, an earth technologies practice based in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where this work extends beyond the farm.
Adam Teitelbaum
Adam Teitelbaum is the founder and CEO of Level III Industries, a strategy and storytelling firm advancing Jewish life and resilience. He now—somewhat to his own surprise—calls Cincinnati home with his wife and children.
Joshua Marcus
Josh’s approach to ceremony has been shaped by years of tending the land, working in agriculture, learning from diverse mentors, immersing himself in myth and story and exploring the intersection of psychology and spirituality. Through these paths, he has come to see that when inner work is woven together with direct, embodied experience, ceremony becomes a way of deepening relationship—with ourselves, with one another, with the more-than-human world, and with the unfolding of our own path and purpose. Some of his current roles include being the Co-Director of Orkestai Farm and the father of a 9-year-old girl. He lives with her and his wife in Upstate New York.