About Rabbi Tirzah
Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, PhD
Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, Ph.D., is an author, Jungian psychotherapist, a leader in the international Jewish Renewal Movement, and a renowned Jewish scholar and teacher. Widely known for her groundbreaking work on Kabbalah, depth psychology, and the re-integration of the feminine wisdom tradition within Judaism, Rabbi Tirzah lectures and teaches internationally about spiritual and ancient wisdom practices that are honed to assist us at this critical time in world history. Her latest work, Wounds into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma (Monkfish, 2019) is the recipient of the 2020 Nautilus Book Award Gold in Psychology and the Jewish Women's Caucus of the Association for Women in Psychology 2020 book award.
Raised in an Orthodox home in St. Louis, Missouri, Rabbi Tirzah’s spiritual curiosity called her to search beyond the confines of her family’s strict Jewish upbringing. The younger sister of the groundbreaking radical feminist, Shulamith Firestone (The Dialectic of Sex, William Morrow & Co: 1970), Rabbi Tirzah left home to embark upon a life-changing spiritual odyssey, chronicled in With Roots In Heaven: One Woman’s Passionate Journey into the Heart of Her Faith (Dutton, 1998).
After immersing herself in a wide variety of spiritual practices and world-views, Rabbi Tirzah returned with fresh vigor to Jewish studies and became a rabbi in a pluralistic and egalitarian Judaism. Ordained by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi in 1992, she is the founding rabbi of Congregation Nevei Kodesh in Boulder, Colorado. Her studies in the feminine wisdom tradition and Jewish mysticism yielded The Receiving: Reclaiming Jewish Women’s Wisdom (Harper San Francisco, 2003). Her passion to share an inclusive and joyous Judaism led her to serve as a leader in the international movement for Jewish Renewal and on the board of Aleph: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. Rabbi Tirzah’s passion for human rights and for the prophetic vision of Judaism led her to Rabbis for Human Rights, North America, now known as T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.
Rabbi Tirzah earned a masters degree in counseling at Beacon College in Boston, Massachusetts in 1982, and a doctorate in depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California in 2015. Her cutting edge research on the impact and healing of collective trauma draws on the fields of neuroscience, psychology, Jewish literature and mythopoesis. Her groundbreaking work called Wounds Into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Trauma (Monkfish, 2019) employs interviews, case studies, and her own autobiographical narratives to demonstrate how trauma residue passes from generation to generation and how it can be transformed.
Now Rabbi Emerita of her congregation, Rabbi Tirzah maintains a private practice in depth psychology, and teaches internationally about Jewish mysticism, depth psychology, intergenerational trauma healing, and the re-integration of the feminine wisdom tradition within Judaism. In all of these topics, her emphasis is on honing ancient wisdom practices to assist us at this critical time in world history. Rabbi Tirzah lives in Colorado with her husband David.
In 2019, upon the release of Wounds into Wisdom, Rabbi Tirzah embarked upon a national book tour, facilitating workshops on intergenerational trauma healing from Philadelphia to Berkeley. Get in touch to schedule Rabbi Tirzah’s visit to your community. And, connect with her on Facebook and on Instagram @tirzahfire.
