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Pardes Levavot

Pardes Levavot, “Orchard of Hearts,” was formed in the spirit of creating conscious holy community. Our name expresses the spiritual blossoming of each individual heart within an inspiring and nurturing orchard.

For information on our congregation please call (303) 563-2110 and leave a message or send email to info@pardeslevavot.org. To join our congregation, please print a copy of our membership form, fill it out, and send it to our Synagogue.


Pardes Levavot gratefully acknowledges Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado for their support of our Circle of Family Education program. Thank you!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                      

CONTACT:      Debra Kolodny, Executive Director, ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal
DATE:             October 28, 2009   
Phone:            301-565-0719
Email:             DebraRuth@mac.com
Web site:        www.aleph.org

Dear All:

Below is the October 2009 ALEPH News Service. We hope you run the following articles and look forward to hearing from you if you do. This release contains:

1.         Jewish Spiritual Direction Subject of New Book Honoring Rabbi Shohama Wiener
2.         ALEPH Affiliate Ner Tamid hosts Gershon Baskin, Ph.D, Israeli CEO and founder of the
            Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI)
3.         ALEPH Represented at Trans-Denominational Continuing Rabbinic Education Conference
4.         Honoring Rav Kook

Kol tov,
Deb


Jewish Spiritual Direction Subject of New Book Honoring Rabbi Shohama Wiener

It gives ALEPH great pleasure to announce the formal publication of “Seeking and Soaring: Jewish Approaches to Spiritual Direction,” a festschrift (celebratory volume) in honor of Rabbi Shohama Wiener, the founder and director of Hashpa'ah: The ALEPH ordination program in Jewish Spiritual Direction.

“Seeking and Soaring: Jewish Approaches to Spiritual Direction” is the first publication of the newest Jewish renewal publishing house, Reclaiming Judaism Press, founded by Rabbi Goldie Milgram as part of ReclaimingJudaism.org. The volume is edited by Rabbi Milgram (Reb Goldie) with the introduction by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (Reb Zalman), and provides a fascinating opportunity to individually meet and appreciate many of the leading Jewish spiritual directors, teachers and scholars of our time.

Advances in the field of Hashpa'ah, Jewish spiritual direction, are carefully presented with special attention to key issues including session structure, boundaries, supervision, grieving, fear, impulse, addictions, middot and mussar (cultivation of personal ethical qualities) and serving as a doula to the dying. Teachings also present traditional and contemporary Jewish practices regarding intercession, angels, guides, and sacred stories. Unique populations addressed include Holocaust survivors, B'nai Mitzvah students, couples, and those seeking to renew their Jewish spiritual connection. User-friendly scholarly translations occur throughout, as well as guides to working with rare pieces of Jewish spiritual literature.

Chapter authors include Howard Avruhm Addison, Barbara Eve Breitman, Anne Brener, Mitchell Chefitz, Sandra Cohen, Wayne Dosick, Ellen Kaufman Dosick, Shulamit Fagan, Estelle Frankel, Elliot Ginsburg, Shefa Gold, Nadya Gross, Chaya Gusfield, Burt Jacobson, Raachel Jurovics, Ruth Gan Kagan, David Daniel Klipper, Goldie Milgram, Marcia Prager, Joyce Reinitz, Melinda Ribner, Carola de Vries Robles, Carol Rose, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Rami Shapiro, Hanna Tiferet Siegel, Shohama Harris Wiener, David Zaslow and Shawn Israel Zevit.

All sales go to benefit scholarships for students in the Hashpa'ah Program. While available through a variety of web vendors, purchase made via this link: <https://www.createspace.com/Customer/EStore.do?id=3387055> ensures that the majority of profits go to the scholarship program. Consider buying not only a copy for yourself, but also giving copies as Hanukkah and life cycle event presents, and also giving copies to your local clergy to help them consider the value of Jewish spiritual direction for themselves and those they serve.


ALEPH Affiliate Ner Tamid hosts Gershon Baskin, Ph.D, Israeli CEO and founder of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI)

Ner Tamid in Tucson will be hosting Gershon Baskin October 30-31 with a series of learning opportunities that are not to be missed! Participants will hear about the IPCRI and find out about pathways to peace in Jerusalem from someone who is working on the ground. The events are co-sponsored by PeaceWalk Tucson.  

Gershon Baskin initiated the founding of IPCRI in 1988 following ten years in the field of Jewish-Arab relations within Israel, at Interns for Peace, the Ministry of Education and Executive Director of the Institute for Education for Jewish-Arab Coexistence. Gershon has published books and hundreds of articles in the Hebrew, English and Arabic press about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict including: A Model Interim Agreement, Aspects of Internal Security in During the Interim Period, The Future of Jerusalem, How to Conduct Business in the Palestinian Territories, The Future of the Israeli Settlements in Final Status Negotiation, and more. Gershon meets regularly with Israeli and Palestinian policy makers as well as international diplomats and organizations. Gershon was a member of the Jerusalem Experts Committee established by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office during the Final Status Negotiations in 2000-2001.

IPCRI is a joint institution of Israelis and Palestinians dedicated to the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of “two-states for two peoples” solution. IPCRI recognizes the “two-states for two peoples” solution as the ultimate fulfillment of the national strategic and security interests of the two peoples. IPCRI therefore recognizes the rights of the Jewish people and the
Palestinian people to fulfill their national interests within the framework of achieving national self-determination within their own states and by establishing peaceful relations between two democratic states living side-by-side.

Dr. Baskin’s schedule includes Friday Noon prayers at the Islamic Center of Tucson (ICT).
Shabbat activities at Ner Tamid include: Friday night 6:15 PM Dinner and 7:30 Shabbat Services including a talk by Gershon; 10 AM morning services followed by a light lunch and a 1 PM class. Shabbat events with Ner Tamid are free and open to the public, but donations will be thankfully accepted for Gershon and his work with IPCRI.

A dinner and reception, for which reservations are required is on Saturday at 5:45 PM: Donor/Sponsor Reception; Saturday 6:30 PM: Dinner: $26 donation

All Ner Tamid events, the reception and dinner are at the LODGE: 1944 E Allen.
For more information and reservations, please contact: Rabbi Shafir Lobb 520-247-4741 or rebshafir@earthlink.net Please also contact Rabbi Lobb to arrange other meetings with Gershon. IPCRI website: http://www.ipcri.org/


ALEPH Represented at Trans-Denominational Continuing Rabbinic Education Conference

The ALEPH Rabbinic Program was represented by Rosh Hashpa'ah Rabbi Shohama Wiener at the 2nd annual Conference on Continuing Rabbinic Education in New York City. Participants came from all the major seminaries in the United States, including the Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox, as well as nondenominational seminaries such as The Academy for Jewish Religion, Hebrew College, and of course, ALEPH. In addition, ALEPH Vaad member Rabbi Steve Silvern was present, as Program Director of the Isabella Freedman Retreat Center.

The thrust of the conference was to encourage and advance continuing education for rabbis. ACRE hosts a website for this purpose and ALEPH's Beit Midrash (Torah Study for all) and Hashpa'ah Certification & Ordination (Spiritual Direction training for rabbis and student clergy) are now listed on it. The networking was invaluable; we look forward to furthering the connections made, and to the next ACRE conference scheduled for Oct. 13, 2010.


Honoring Rav Kook

In Elul 5769/late August 2009, Rabbi Itzchak Marmorstein with crack New York jazz band, Greg Wall's Later Prophets toured Israel debuting their recently released and critically acclaimed Tzadik Records CD, "HA'OROT-The Lights Of Rav Kook."

The concerts were in honor of Rav Kook's', TZ'L, 74th Yaartzeit (Elul 3) and gave many Israelis their first taste of Rav Kook's illuminated poetry. The tour began with a sold out benefit concert at Rav Kook's house in Jerusalem. The guest of honor at this very special evening was R. Shaar Yashuv Cohen, Shlita, the Chief Rabbi of Haifa and son of R. David Cohen, TZ"L,-The Nazir, who was Rav Kook's primary student and an extraordinary kabbalist/scholar. In his opening remarks, he gave a very strong blessing to this creative endeavor and explained why Rav Kook would be very much in favor of this "bold effort to bring R. Kook to a new generation".

The evening included jazzy renditions of nigunim composed by Rav Kook as well as a nigun by the Nazir that the band learned specifically for this evening. The tour continued with very well received concerts in Tel Aviv (on R. Kook's actual Yaartzeit), Beit Avi Chai in Jerusalem, Yaffo, Haifa and Tsfat.
Clips from the concerts can be seen here:  http://www.youtube.com/user/HAOROTRAVKOOK#p/u/4/U73G-0r8pW0

This year is the 75th year since Rav Kook's passing and HA'OROT is dedicated to sharing his universal and wholistic vision widely. If your community is interested in hosting a performance and workshop, please contact Itzchak at haorot@gmail.com.

The CD, has been receiving very positive reviews (especially in European jazz magazines/websites) and offers an excellent way to get to know the depth and breadth of Rav Kook is available through  <http://www.haorot.org>.