Ancestral wisdom – Jews of Color Sanctuary

The Bilhah Zilpah Project, which started in 2020 as an independent study project, has become our biggest event of the year since finding a project home at Jews of Color Sanctuary. Homecoming is a series of events open to the entire Jewish community which usually begins on the Sunday before the Shabbat of parashat Vayeitzei, when Zilpah and Bilhah entre the Torah, coinciding during the week Sigd is celebrated as a national Israeli holiday preserved in the history of the Beta Israel people… and is the anniversary of Jews of Color Sanctuary.

After three years of weekly chevruta study, and at numerous events with folks like you, focusing on the lines of Torat Bilhah Zilpah and character exploration, the past year’s study expanded to include relevant midrash and commentary of these matriarchs. This has introduced exciting insight into ancestral connections, divine power, and generational wisdom for survival which will be interspersed throughout and featured at the closing session of this year’s Bilhah Zilpah Homecoming.

However, first, we will welcome Zilpah’s and Bilhah’s return to the Torah through the twenty-four lines that invoke them and explore the ritual dreaming that has percolated up through the spirited engagement of collaborative sessions. Homecoming’s second session will link the wisdom of Bilhah & Zilpah to women throughout history who have navigated kindred silences and lack of bodily autonomy to inspire our community building and care work today.

Today is Sigd, and the Bilhah Zilpah Homecoming begins this Sunday… amidst all of the change happening, these are frameworks that center longing for and returning home, and giving voice to the voiceless… Torah we desperately need right now, and always. There is still time to register. Invite those you are working alongside building up the world to come, to join us as we welcome these matriarchs at three interactive online sessions of ritual dreaming and deepening relationship with the wisdom of Bilhah and Zilpah:

BILHAH & ZILPAH ENTER – 12-1:30pmET November 23: A Homecoming Celebration to welcome Bilhah & Zilpah as they enter the Torah in parashat Vayeitzei. This interactive session will deepen your relationship with the wisdom of these matriarchs, continue ritual dreaming, and mark the anniversary of Jews of Color Sanctuary.

MODERN MATRIARCHS – 3-4:30pmET December 7: Link the wisdom of Bilhah & Zilpah to women throughout history who have navigated kindred silences and lack of bodily autonomy. Explore how their voices can help us understand our modern lives, find community, survive marginalization, and realize abolition.

BILHAH & ZILPAH: ANCESTRAL STORIES – 3-4:30pmET December 21: Catch up on a year’s worth of learning focused on Bilhah & Zilpah through midrashic tales of ancestral connections, divine power, and generational wisdom for survival.

The celebration of Sigd is powerfully conveyed in the words of Beit Israel scholar Shula Mola in The Sound of Səgd (ስግድ): Reclaiming Language, Memory, and Belonging which invites us into a journey of the power of naming in sacred conversation with a foundational theme of the Bilhah Zilpah Project. May your Sigd be filled with meaning and joy.

Chag Sigd Sameach

Jews of Color Sanctuary began as a long-ago seed, many years before its earliest documented memories of 2015. After a multiple year germination, Jews of Color Sanctuary was birthed on Sigd in November 2019. On November 19 of 2025, Jews of Color Sanctuary turns six years old as the entire Jewish community celebrates the Beta Israel preserved, now national Israeli holiday of, Sigd.

It was important to anchor Jews of Color Sanctuary’s beginnings in a way that connected with the Jewish history of people of color. This priority has anchored centering Jewish people of color through holidays, creative practice, text study, and social engagement. Jews of Color Sanctuary strives to be a place where Jewish people of color can turn down the noise of the outside world and ground how we imagine and curate our Jewish identity and journey for ourselves. Whether in affinity or ally-welcome space, we feature the voices, identities, and lives of Jewish people of color.

Jews of Color Sanctuary has engaged more than 596 individuals and collaborated with 22 mission aligned organizations to nurture Jews through hundreds of programs and events. This adds up to a lot of good for the Jewish people.

The Bilhah Zilpah Project grew from independent study that began in December 2020 into a flagship program of Jews of Color Sanctuary with the first annual Bilhah Zilpah Homecoming in 2023. This celebration of silenced Jewish matriarchs has become our biggest event of the year and our fundraising anchor. Bilhah and Zilpah enter the Torah each year in parashat Vayeitzei, which falls on the Shabbat after the Shabbat of the week of Sigd. Homecoming is scheduled before Vayeitzei to foster conversations about the many intersecting topics of this scholarship at institutions across the landscape of participant communities; this often means alignment between the Beta Israel holiday, Jews of Color Sanctuary’s anniversary, and centering Bilhah and Zilpah, a coincidence which feels deeply meaningful.

Registration for the Bilhah Zilpah Homecoming is open. Join us to welcome these matriarchs at three interactive online sessions of ritual dreaming and deepening relationship with the wisdom of Bilhah and Zilpah:

Tag: Ancestral wisdom

BILHAH & ZILPAH ARE COMING HOME

SIGD, ANNIVERSARY, AND THE RETURN OF BILHAH & ZILPAH