Benji Elson

Benji Elson, LMSW, is a clinical psychotherapist, teacher of Torah, Jewish environmental-educator, transformational experience-facilitator, musician, and author living in Jerusalem, Israel. Benji has taught and led transformative experiences around the world including in the US, Israel, Mexico, Canada, Turkey, and India. His unique approach to Torah and Self-Transformation stems from a unique variety of places: his many years spent studying in various Yeshivot in Jerusalem; his training and experiences as an EMT-Paramedic; his passionate work as a Jewish outdoor-environmental educator; his encounters as a Jewish meditation teacher; and his training and practice as a clinical psychotherapist.

In addition to his private therapy practice and his teaching in various Torah institutions in Israel, until Covid hit the world, Benji served as the Educational Director of Shebet Haaretz, an Israel-based organization that seeks to connect Jews back to the Earth and the Torah’s forgotten teachings about the importance of living in balance with Hashem’s earth, its resources, and its creatures. Through transformational expeditions into the deep deserts and jungles of the world, Shebet Haaretz encourages participants to discover the beauty in their lives, Torah, Judaism, and the World.  Shebet Haaretz’s expeditions also facilitate personal encounters between the participants and themselves, other Jews, and local native-indigenous communities.

Benji is also currently a senior psychotherapist and staff member at Genesis Jerusalem, a premiere mental health and addiction treatment center in Jerusalem.  Benji also continues to study in Kollel Beit Midrash Chukkim Chachamim in Jerusalem where he has already spent many years studying under the tutelage of Rav Elisha Anschelowitz, from whom he received semicha (rabbinic ordination).

Benji is thrilled to be coming to Infinite Light Fest to meet the community and share a bit about Har Sinai, Shavuot, and Sefirat Haomer from his new book titled Dance of the Omer.

Session Title:  Shavuot: Becoming Representatives of the Divine

** What really happened at Har Sinai 3000 years ago and what and who is that experience calling us to do and be today?