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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:          November 30, 2009   
Phone:        301-565-0719
Email:         DebraRuth@mac.com
Web site:   www.aleph.org

Dear Editor:

Below is the November 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.         ALEPH Project Directors Rabbis Victor and Nadya Gross co-lead Interfaith Spiritual Pilgrimage
            to Israel & Palestine / SPRING 2010

2.        A Weekend of Song, Torah and Nature with Rabbi Shefa Gold, Director of ALEPH’s CDEEP

3.        ALEPH Joins Three Jewish Climate Change Initiatives, Urges Communities and Leaders to do the    
           Same
 
Deb


ALEPH Project Directors Rabbis Victor and Nadya Gross co-lead Interfaith Spiritual Pilgrimage to Israel & Palestine / SPRING 2010

Supporting a New Paradigm for Healing and Peace
Sunday, Mar 21 - Thursday, Apr 1

This interfaith spiritual pilgrimage offers travelers the opportunity to witness and support healing for peace between Jews, Muslims, and Christians while experiencing the sacred sites of the Holy Land. Join us in Israel and Palestine for a journey that will be like none other yet taken.

Gandhi said, "If we were to create lasting peace we must begin with the children." Join Jewish Renewal Rabbis Victor and Nadya Gross, Imam Jihad Turk and co-founder of Salaam Shalom Educational Foundation Shepha Schneirsohn Vainstein on a soulful journey beginning with visits to communities of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian families who are transforming conflict through the Waldorf approach to education.

In 2009 an astounding 58% of graduates from Harduf Waldorf High School signed up to perform an extra year of community service to work with Jewish and Arab individuals who are homeless, drug addicted or orphaned. The national average of high school graduates in Israel who choose this additional year of service is 2%.

This pilgrimage begins in Galilee schools where together we will discover our power to co-create a new educational paradigm devoted to healing trauma in Jewish & Arab children while building bridges between them. We will also be soliciting your financial support for these schools.

Then, in a spirit of Abrahamic unity and devotion we will visit Jewish, Christian, and Muslim holy places in Israel and Palestine. We will learn from respected teachers, pray with religious leaders, participate in peacemaking circles, and meet with inspiring activists who envision a world based on respect and cooperation. We will celebrate an interfaith Seder in Jerusalem filled with storytelling and song. Our pilgrimage will conclude with a ceremony for peace at Rabin Square. We welcome those exploring Israel for the first time as well as experienced travelers.

PROGRAM SPONSORS

Rabbi Victor Gross (vngross@puaa.net) and Rabbi Nadya Gross (OneNeshama@puaa.net) ; Imam Jihad Turk (jihad_turk@yahoo.com) ; Shepha Schneirsohn Vainstein(shephav@earthlink.net)

Download full itinerary and fees here: http://www.authenticisrael.com/documents/WaldorfHolyLandPilgrimage.pdf



A Weekend of Song, Torah and Nature with Rabbi Shefa Gold, Director of ALEPH’s CDEEP

Rabbi Shefa Gold, the country’s leading figure in Jewish chanting and meditation makes a rare Bay Area visit at Congregation Ner Shalom in Cotati, January 29-31, 2010. The weekend will use chant, meditation and study to deepen our mindfulness of Earth and nature and our readiness to heal the planet. The weekend will include the following:

* Friday, Jan. 29 ~ 7PM: Kabbalat Shabbat service with a special focus on Shir Hashirim – the Song of Songs for Ner Shalom members and friends.
* Saturday, Jan. 30 ~ 10AM: Shabbat morning service for Ner Shalom members and friends at a private home focusing on Shirat Hayam – the Song of the Sea sung by the children of Israel after the crossing of the Sea of Reeds. Open to Ner Shalom members and friends.
* Saturday, Jan. 30 ~ 6PM: Tu Bishvat Seder, celebrating the New Year of the Trees, exploring the mysteries of earth and spirit (partial potluck).
* Sunday, Jan. 31 ~ 10AM: Six-hour chant and study workshop, “The Torah of Nature,” focusing on Perek Shira, a piece of morning liturgy inwhich the Earth and the plants and animals that live in it speak in their own voices. This teaching was developed by Rabbi Gold during her recent pilgrimage to the Galapagos.

Registration fees apply to the Tu Bishvat Seder and the Sunday intensive workshop. Times, fees, locations and registration forms can be found at <http://www.nershalom.org/Shefa2010.html> A discount applies to all registrations received before January 10, 2010.


ALEPH Joins Three Jewish Climate Change Initiatives, Urges Communities and Leaders to do the Same
With the UN Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen in early December, Jewish environmentalists are hoping to activate constituents in support of environmental protection measures to address the global warming crisis.

Not surprisingly, with environmental advocacy and action high on its priority list, ALEPH joined three of those initiatives in November, and we urge our Community Affiliates, spiritual and lay leaders to do the same.

On November 17, ALEPH became an organizational member of the Jewish Climate Change Campaign, spearheaded by Hazon. This campaign has a seven-year plan at its heart that will appear alongside plans from many of the world’s religions at the request of The Alliance of Religions and Conservation <http://arcworld.org/> , ARC. The hope of ARC and this campaign is to activate the world’s religions to shift human behavior through inspiration and guidance. Find out more about the campaign and sign the pledge at: http://jewishclimatecampaign.org/pledge.php

On November 30 ALEPH joined “Hanukkah for Humanity”, a campaign led by Rabbi Arthur Waskow and The Shalom Center. The campaign invites us to sign onto a statement that reads: ”The traditions of rabbinic Judaism have long celebrated the Hanukkah miracle in which one day's oil met eight days' need. In that spirit, we / I join in urging the world Jewish community to include in our Hanukkah celebration this year a call to all the peoples of the earth: That the human race deeply reduce our burning of fossil fuels as a step toward healing the climate crisis that threatens our future. The world's governments are convened in the Copenhagen conference as we light the lights of Hanukkah at a time of the darkness of the moon and sun. We especially call out to them, that together all humanity light the lights of a sustainable future in the midst of a dark and difficult passage through history.” You can find out more about this campaign and can sign on at: http://www.theshalomcenter.org/

On November 30 ALEPH also signed onto a statement to the UN Summit entitled, “If Not Now When? A Statement from Jewish Organizations of North America.” The opening paragraph of the statement reads: Responding to climate change is one of the most significant moral and spiritual challenges facing humanity today.  As people of faith, we look to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen with hope, and we urge our leaders to commit themselves to act courageously to protect us from the devastation of climate change. The statement will be delivered by Dr. Mirele B. Goldsmith and Rabbi Warren Stone. Rabbi Stone is a Jewish environmental leader, active with the National Religious Coalition on Creation Care and member of the Global Advisory Board of the Earth Day Network. Dr. Mirele B. Goldsmith serves on the boards of Hazon and the American Friends of the Heschel Center.