Sepora Mayim Jacobson

Birth: March 28, 1951 in Boston, Massachusetts

Died: March 13, 2026 in Victoria

Plot: Row J -Plot 22

Biography:
Sepora Mayim was a dancer and yoga therapist. She lead dance and movement classes and dance therapy sessions for people with Parkinson’s Disease.

On Sunday, March 15, 2026 Rabbi Eli gave the following eulogy:
Hesped for Sepora Mayim Jacobson z”l

How do I give a hesped, a eulogy, for someone like Sepora Mayim? Of the puzzle pieces of her life that I hold in my hands, my sense is that a fuller picture of her life is someone who devoted herself to relying on herself, and her own wisdom and understanding, to construct a life that included going on many adventures, of passion for dance and beauty, and a resistance to structures he found oppressive. In her younger years, Mayim was a serious hippie, committed to a counter culture that led her to live a wild and free life. She and her first husband lived off the grid. Ea, her first daughter was born in a cardboard box – it was a cabin that her father built out of salvaged materials and instead of sheet rock or wainscotting, the walls were covered over with cardboard.

Mayim was a trailblazer and, as I understand it, she approached faculty at the University she attended, wanting to study yoga. Yoga had only recently been introduced to the west and her advisors told her it was a ridiculous idea.

Her chosen lifestyle led her to live in famously granola places, Boulder, Colorado, Ukia, California, and Ashland, Oregon. In Boulder, Mayim studied at Naropa University. As a Buddhist-inspired, non-sectarian institution, Naropa is recognized as the birthplace of the mindfulness movement. There she studied somatic arts, incorporating her love of dance, movement, and yoga. She traveled to Africa to learn dance and there – “for some time” was “married” (but not really) to a Malian man named Yosef.

As I contemplate the puzzle pieces of Mayim’s life that I possess, I find myself in Shir haShirim, the Song of Songs. The Song of Songs is a set of erotic love poems between a man and a woman.

It may be, as Raphael Pattai has argued, that the Israelite tradition has always possessed a goddess figure. Pattai challenges the traditional narrative that ancient Israelite religion was strictly and consistently monotheistic. Instead, he uses archaeological, biblical, and Kabbalistic evidence to argue that a feminine divine element—a “Hebrew Goddess”—persisted in Jewish belief and practice for millennia. In fact, today Judaism maintains a goddess figure known as Shekhina. Shekhina is understood as the mouth of G-d, the earth and all of us, the people of Israel – both physical and spiritual, the letter hey, she is called Rachel and Leah, the Lower Mother, the Sister. She is the lover of YHVH, who is also called Tiferet.

But our tradition has long seen the Song of Songs as allegorical to the erotic relationship between the world and G-d, the earth and the sky, the Shekhina and YHVH.

In fact, we have two Goddess figures. Binah is the daughter, and lower mother, of Binah, who is the Mother of All Life and importantly – Binah represents absolute freedom.

Shir hashirim somehow made it into the TaNaKh, baruch Hashem. I think it is quite possible that many of us would not be here were it not for Shir haShirim being such an important text for our tradition. Rabbi Akiva famously says that all scripture is Holy, but Shir haShirim is the Holy of Holies. He asserted that, were there no Torah, a person could live by the Song of Songs alone.

My teacher, Rabbi Shefa Gold, took this approbation of R Akiva very seriously. She had a scribe write her a megillah of the text and, every day for 18 months, she chanted the whole of Shir haShirim. She has composed, or channeled, dozens and dozens of chants for individual verses of Shir Hashirim. Since, she has begun a 5 year long practice of “Love at the Center” based on on Shir haShirim and written a commentary on the book called “In the Fever of Love.”

In her commentary, Shefa makes many observations that resonate with Sepora’s life. First, the song of songs does not speak about G-d, the Torah, or piety. In fact, the lovers’ entire focus is on their liberatory love for each other.

יִשָּׁקֵ֙נִי֙ מִנְּשִׁיק֣וֹת פִּ֔יהוּ כִּֽי־טוֹבִ֥ים דֹּדֶ֖יךָ מִיָּֽיִן׃
Oh, give me of the kisses of your mouth,
For your love is more delightful than wine.

R Shefa Gold: This sets a tone of mutual pursuit where she is an active participant in her own romance, not a passive object.

יָפָ֨ה אַ֤תְּ רַעְיָתִי֙ כְּתִרְצָ֔ה נָאוָ֖ה כִּירוּשָׁלָ֑͏ִם אֲיֻמָּ֖ה כַּנִּדְגָּלֽוֹת׃
You are beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah,
Comely as Jerusalem,
Awesome as bannered hosts.

Her presence is described not just as beautiful, but as formidable. The comparison to a bannered army suggests a beauty that is overwhelming, majestic, and commands respect.

מִי־זֹ֥את הַנִּשְׁקָפָ֖ה כְּמוֹ־שָׁ֑חַר יָפָ֣ה כַלְּבָנָ֗ה בָּרָה֙ כַּֽחַמָּ֔ה אֲיֻמָּ֖ה כַּנִּדְגָּלֽוֹת׃ {ס}
Who is she that shines through like the dawn,
Beautiful as the moon,
Radiant as the sun
Awesome as bannered hosts?

אֲנִ֣י לְדוֹדִ֔י וְעָלַ֖י תְּשׁוּקָתֽוֹ׃ {ס}
I am my beloved’s,
And his desire is for me.

This quote shows her confidence in the mutual nature of their bond. She owns her identity within the relationship with a sense of security and peace. And if we understand that the male lover is the Creator G-d, Havayah, who is both the source of all life and life itself, this verse expresses a confidence and security in the blessings of life, that life wants us to live, the G-d wants us to live and love.

Thou shalt explore intimacy, allowing thyself to be drawn by Mystery and be open to the power of yearning for God. (For an interpretation, see SHS Commandment 1.)
Thou shalt be fully engaged, enjoying what is before thee now, and learn to perceive the perfection beneath it and behind this seemingly imperfect world. (For an interpretation, see SHS Commandment 2.)
Thou shalt cultivate generosity in appreciation of the beauty that is before thee. (For an interpretation, see SHS Commandment 3.)
Thou shalt truly experience pleasure and surrender to the intoxication of Love, occasionally losing ‘control.’ (For an interpretation, see SHS Commandment 4.)
Thou shalt experience and know thy complete purity and innocence and yet pay seasoned and careful attention to the timing of Love. (For an interpretation, see SHS Commandment 5.)
Thou shalt be in conversation with Nature and through that conversation explore the Mystery of Love and Death. (For an interpretation, see SHS Commandment 6.)
Thou shalt treasure, protect and Honor the gifts given to thee and allow thyself to be addressed personally by God through the gifts of this world. (For an interpretation, see SHS Commandment 7.)
Thou shalt invite all the winds of the world to blow upon thee and receive each gust of change as a summons to strengthen your commitment to fully waking up. (For an interpretation, see SHS Commandment 8.)
Thou shalt discern the uniqueness in each opportunity for love and risk everything in order to rise to the challenge of Love. (For an interpretation, see SHS Commandment 9.)
Thou shalt play… with enthusiasm and curiosity… while listening attentively for the voice of the Shechinah. (For an interpretation, see SHS Commandment 10.)

It opens:

R Shefa Gold: This sets a tone of mutual pursuit where she is an active participant in her own romance, not a passive object.

I want to close by saying that I am blessed and honored to have connected to Mayim, and her family, at the end of her life. We should all be so lucky as Mayim to die surrounded by love. Mayim died in the presence of her two loving and graceful daughters, Ea and Sita, her sister Isa, her niece Anna, and her dear friend and daughter-in-law, Megan. Everyone was able to say goodbye, to kiss her and tell her they loved her, and hold her hand as she left her body.

Sibling:
Isa Milman

Children:
Ea
Sita