December2010

RABBINIC DIRECTOR'S LETTER: December 2010

Dear Friends of Jewish Renewal,

With the 2010 calendar year about to end, I wanted to take a few moments to write and bring you up to date on our progress since last August.

FINANCES: We are all so pleased at your response to our call for contributions and particularly for the sustaining gifts of chai ($18)/month. Your generosity is allowing ALEPH Canada and Canadians committed to Jewish spiritual renewal to play an increasingly important role in supporting some of ALEPH’s key projects. If you haven’t already and are so inclined, I encourage you to use the link to Canada Helps to make either a one time contribution or, even better, a regular monthly gift by credit card. Since Canada Helps does all the administrative work, including providing your tax receipt, giving this way frees up my time to concentrate on program and resource development.

Which brings me to our FIRST HIGH HOLYDAY RETREAT. We ended up being a small group of about 15 participants and I think the attendees agree that it was a wonderful and different kind of experience. I produced a machzor especially for these services and we had lots of time for discussion and sharing. You can read a more detailed summary of the retreat below. Noam Dolgin and I are already thinking about next Rosh HaShanah. I’m also hoping to schedule another a study retreat here on Hornby Island for late August.

In August, I wrote you of changes that were scheduled to take effect in October. These are now in effect and include:
•I am no longer providing administrative and fund-raising services to ALEPH “Central” (as one of our board members calls ALEPH in the States). Those services I now provide only to ALEPH Canada.
•My work for the Ordination Programs involves supporting the students, handling administrative needs, and facilitating a complete review of our programs of study, in addition to serving as Director of Studies for our Canadian students.
•In the area of resource development, I am adding to the larger machzor project, just completed the final formatting a Hassidic book which Reb Zalman has long wanted to make available (and which will be available on the ALEPH Canada website starting in a month or so), and we are hoping to put together a book of essays on conversion to Judaism by next Fall.
•Finally, our mechinah program is also doing well and, if you want to know more about it or be on the mailing list, please visit the Distance Learning page of the ALEPH Central website.

I encourage you all to visit the website of “ALEPH Central” where you will find the latest on the next Kallah in Southern California in July, the complete ReSources Catalog, and information on our various programs of study.

Once again, I want to thank the members of our board for their support and attention and you all for your support. Blessings and best wishes as we enter the next secular year!

Rabbi Daniel Siegel

ALEPH SUSTAINABILITY CAMPAIGN A LETTER FROM RABBINIC PASTOR SHERRIL (SHIFRAH LEAH) GILBERT, PARADISE, NEWFOUNDLAND	ALEPH CANADA IN CANADA ROSH HASHANAH & YOM KIPPUR RETREAT	ALEPH CANADA: THE ALEPH BET MIDRASH ALEPH ORDINATION PROGRAMS
JOIN MY TEAM Dear beloveds, I am writing to ask you to join my team. What do I mean? Well, many or even most of you know that I am able to come lead services at Havurah Har Kodesh in Montreal, and do all the other holy work I do in the world, because of all the ways ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal has supported me in becoming who I am: an Associate Rabbi and Rabbinic Chaplain ordained by thirteen rabbis and spiritual leaders in the ALEPH Jewish Renewal movement. Reb Sherril. What that means is that all the work I do, including… ·Serving as a director on the Board of ALEPH Canada ·Serving as the sole Jewish clergyperson in Newfoundland and Labrador for all denominations, the only one licensed to perform marriages ·With Rabbi Daniel Siegel, succeeding in getting Judaism formally recognized by the province as a religion for the first time ·Performing the first conversion on Newfoundland and Labrador soil ·Spiritual-leading my own congregation, Mishkan HaLev, in St. John’s NL, which I founded three years ago ·Joining the Jewish Community Centre of the Eastern Townships (Montreal) as their Associate Rabbi, a co-leadership position with R’ Jan Salzman of Vermont ·Advising the provincial government on implementing the first religious accommodation policy in Newfoundland and Labrador ·Continually upgrade my learning; now with a second ALEPH ordination pending in a little over a year as a Mashpi’ah / Spiritual Director, to be followed by entry into a Doctor of Ministry program at New York Theological Seminary. ·Plus all the teaching, spiritual guidance, pastoral counseling, service leading, advising, consulting… …all of this is possible because I am supported by the remarkable paradigm-shifting organization that is ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. Right now we are embarking on a campaign in which every clergyperson ordained by Reb Zalman, and any clergyperson who wants to be part of this campaign, is being asked to recruit a minimum of ten friends to become CHAI (18.00/month) level members of ALEPH. This minyan-plus of CHAI donors honours that clergyperson with this CHAI commitment in recognition of the contribution that person has made to their lives. A CHAI donor has $18 per month put on your credit card. That is the cost of a movie and popcorn, but sure buys a lot more! Doing this is easy. For Canadian contributions, please open an account at Canada Helps in the following manner: · Go to CanadaHelps. · In the search box, type in ALEPH. · You will see two choices. Select the first. · Choose the button that says “monthly” and fill in the remaining boxes. I want to thank you in advance. I really hope I can meet my commitment with a flood of "YES! I did that!" responses. (And I know that not everyone can do this easily right now, and we all do what we can... AND I hope you can.) Thank you for allowing me to reach out to you in this way to help keep ALEPH financially secure for the coming years. We need (really!) 2000 people around the world to say "yes!" for this possibility to be a reality. We can do it! Love and brachas to you. Reb Sherril Gilbert Paradise, NL	Wednesday-Sunday 8-12 September 2010 Friday-Sunday 17-19 September 2010 Hornby Island, BC Led by Rabbi Daniel Siegel and Noam Dolgin It was amazing to share an intimate High Holyday experience as we combined traditional liturgy, creativity, and study to create a unique connection among the deep meaning of these special days, our people’s traditions, and our contemporary commitment to a Judaism which embodies the universal as well as the particular. We ate amazing meals coordinated by the mother and son team of Ruth and Noam Dolgin. Noam led us in an outdoor shacharit on the second day of Rosh HaShanah (see photos below). On the first day, we used the new machzor created for this experience, limiting our indoor davvenen to just over three hours which included time for discussion and questions. Personally, I was pleased to discover that sharing the High Holydays with a small group of people committed to being present was so meaningful. We spent all of Yom Kippur together, finding time to engage each other in deep conversation even as we followed the liturgy. Our Shacharit Shul.	ALEPH launched a MECHINAH / PREPARATORY program of study for those who •have initiated a serious inquiry into an ALEPH Ordination Program; •might be thinking of initiating a serious inquiry into an ALEPH Ordination Program; and/or •are looking for a higher level of the study of Torah Lishma, Torah for its own sake. This Fall (2010), we began the second cycle of Mechinah courses with Biblical Hebrew. This course is so popular that we are offering it again beginning at the end of January, 2011. A compete review of the curricula in the ordination programs has been completed. This, in turn, leads to greater clarity for the existing course structure of the Mechinah program and guidance for the emerging program in Continuing Education. The Machzor Kol Koreh project, a new kind of High Holyday prayerbook, has now completed its first upgrade, and was available in time for this year's holydays. This upgrade included the addition of acknowledgements pages and a fuller n'ilah service. A description of this project and how to participate can be found on the digital downloads page of this website. I recently completed the formatting of a Hassidic book on Kabbalah written between the two World Wars by a young man who perished during the Sho'ah. It includes a commentary by Reb Zalman and will soon be available on this website. Finally, we have added a shopping cart to the electronic downloads store. Please watch for more offerings to be added to those already available. Return to the ALEPH Canada Home Page

ALEPH SUSTAINABILITY CAMPAIGN A LETTER FROM RABBINIC PASTOR SHERRIL (SHIFRAH LEAH) GILBERT, PARADISE, NEWFOUNDLAND

ALEPH CANADA IN CANADA

ROSH HASHANAH & YOM KIPPUR RETREAT

ALEPH CANADA:

THE ALEPH BET MIDRASH

ALEPH ORDINATION PROGRAMS

JOIN MY TEAM

Dear beloveds,

I am writing to ask you to join my team.

What do I mean?

Well, many or even most of you know that I am able to come lead services at Havurah Har Kodesh in Montreal, and do all the other holy work I do in the world, because of all the ways ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal has supported me in becoming who I am: an Associate Rabbi and Rabbinic Chaplain ordained by thirteen rabbis and spiritual leaders in the ALEPH Jewish Renewal movement.

Reb Sherril. What that means is that all the work I do, including…
·Serving as a director on the Board of ALEPH Canada
·Serving as the sole Jewish clergyperson in Newfoundland and Labrador for all denominations, the only one licensed to perform marriages
·With Rabbi Daniel Siegel, succeeding in getting Judaism formally recognized by the province as a religion for the first time
·Performing the first conversion on Newfoundland and Labrador soil
·Spiritual-leading my own congregation, Mishkan HaLev, in St. John’s NL, which I founded three years ago
·Joining the Jewish Community Centre of the Eastern Townships (Montreal) as their Associate Rabbi, a co-leadership position with R’ Jan Salzman of Vermont
·Advising the provincial government on implementing the first religious accommodation policy in Newfoundland and Labrador
·Continually upgrade my learning; now with a second ALEPH ordination pending in a little over a year as a Mashpi’ah / Spiritual Director, to be followed by entry into a Doctor of Ministry program at New York Theological Seminary.
·Plus all the teaching, spiritual guidance, pastoral counseling, service leading, advising, consulting…

…all of this is possible because I am supported by the remarkable paradigm-shifting organization that is ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal.

Right now we are embarking on a campaign in which every clergyperson ordained by Reb Zalman, and any clergyperson who wants to be part of this campaign, is being asked to recruit a minimum of ten friends to become CHAI (18.00/month) level members of ALEPH. This minyan-plus of CHAI donors honours that clergyperson with this CHAI commitment in recognition of the contribution that person has made to their lives.

A CHAI donor has $18 per month put on your credit card. That is the cost of a movie and popcorn, but sure buys a lot more!

Doing this is easy. For Canadian contributions, please open an account at Canada Helps in the following manner:
· Go to CanadaHelps.
· In the search box, type in ALEPH.
· You will see two choices. Select the first.
· Choose the button that says “monthly” and fill in the remaining boxes.

I want to thank you in advance. I really hope I can meet my commitment with a flood of "YES! I did that!" responses. (And I know that not everyone can do this easily right now, and we all do what we can... AND I hope you can.)

Thank you for allowing me to reach out to you in this way to help keep ALEPH financially secure for the coming years. We need (really!) 2000 people around the world to say "yes!" for this possibility to be a reality. We can do it!

Love and brachas to you.
Reb Sherril Gilbert
Paradise, NL

Wednesday-Sunday 8-12 September 2010

Friday-Sunday 17-19 September 2010
Hornby Island, BC
Led by Rabbi Daniel Siegel and Noam Dolgin

It was amazing to share an intimate High Holyday experience as we combined traditional liturgy, creativity, and study to create a unique connection among the deep meaning of these special days, our people’s traditions, and our contemporary commitment to a Judaism which embodies the universal as well as the particular.

We ate amazing meals coordinated by the mother and son team of Ruth and Noam Dolgin. Noam led us in an outdoor shacharit on the second day of Rosh HaShanah (see photos below). On the first day, we used the new machzor created for this experience, limiting our indoor davvenen to just over three hours which included time for discussion and questions.

Personally, I was pleased to discover that sharing the High Holydays with a small group of people committed to being present was so meaningful. We spent all of Yom Kippur together, finding time to engage each other in deep conversation even as we followed the liturgy.

Our Shacharit Shul.

ALEPH launched a MECHINAH / PREPARATORY program of study for those who

•have initiated a serious inquiry into an ALEPH Ordination Program;
•might be thinking of initiating a serious inquiry into an ALEPH Ordination Program; and/or
•are looking for a higher level of the study of Torah Lishma, Torah for its own sake.

This Fall (2010), we began the second cycle of Mechinah courses with Biblical Hebrew. This course is so popular that we are offering it again beginning at the end of January, 2011.

A compete review of the curricula in the ordination programs has been completed. This, in turn, leads to greater clarity for the existing course structure of the Mechinah program and guidance for the emerging program in Continuing Education.

The Machzor Kol Koreh project, a new kind of High Holyday prayerbook, has now completed its first upgrade, and was available in time for this year's holydays. This upgrade included the addition of acknowledgements pages and a fuller n'ilah service. A description of this project and how to participate can be found on the digital downloads page of this website.

I recently completed the formatting of a Hassidic book on Kabbalah written between the two World Wars by a young man who perished during the Sho'ah. It includes a commentary by Reb Zalman and will soon be available on this website.

Finally, we have added a shopping cart to the electronic downloads store. Please watch for more offerings to be added to those already available.

Return to the ALEPH Canada Home Page