Category: Events

We invite you to join us for a special upcoming service/spiritual encounter for Tisha B’av, on Saturday night July 17, 2021, from 9-10:30 PM. Tisha B’av, the 9th day of Av, marks the end of a 22-day period of living close to the bone—without excess or self-puffery.

It represents the “low point” of the Jewish spiritual year, a time when the earth (in the Land of Israel) grows dry and parched. On the spiritual level, we might think of Tisha B’av as the moment when both God and the People Israel blink, at exactly the same moment, neither seeing the other. Tisha B’av is a time for dedicated reflection: of holding, with care, some of the shatteredness of the world. We break the heart open to both be with this fragility and begin to collectively envision a new, more attuned, more holy way of being.

Tisha B’av has been a magnet for moments of meaningful loss: variously signifying the Destruction of the first and second Temples—the loss of the Sacred Center—and the attendant grief of Exile, of Homelessness, famine and dislocation. We sit on the ground, in a setting stripped of finery, as though in shivah, to be together in our shared grief. It is a grief that must not shut us down but rather open us out to the cry of the world. In our contemplation and in our rituals, we hold our ancestral history of being decentered, of being a refugee, of living amidst famine and plague. We stand (and sit) in solidarity with those treated as Other.

And yet, this day of mourning, with its haunting melodies and poems and the keening eloquence of Eicha, the book of Lamentations, also brings about a stirring power, and a spiritual intimacy. The fierce love of a mother for her starving children morphs into the image of Mother Rachel paving the way to a restoration. Paradoxically, love blossoms out of the ashes.

For many of us in the world of Jewish Renewal, the lament of losing our Bayit, our Home, has been expanded to include an Eco-Lament for the Earth, our most expansive and inclusive home. We sit in both grief and on the knife’s edge of resolve and hope, as we fast (refrain from taking in parts of the earth that usually sustain us) and move more slowly. At Mincha, in the mid-afternoon, the energy shifts, as hope begins to rise. We put on the tefillin of prayer, we glimpse the arrival of a Messianic future (for it said that the Messiah is born on Tisha B’av.)

I remember some years back when I co-ordinated a Tisha B’av spiritual practice for Mincha time with the late Bernie Glassman, the activist Zen Peacemaker, who was also a proud and engaged Jew. As I chanted from the Torah, he did a Zen form of a Tonglen practice, breathing in the suffering of the world and breathing out peace. Breathing and chanting together with those assembled, we opened a space in our hearts for the healing of the Planet, a prayer for Homecoming, in its many registers.

And so: this year at Pardes Hannah, we will chant from the Book of Lamentations, meditate and pray from the place of breaking the heart open, come this Saturday night, July 17. Visioning the world we wish to live in, co-create and share. Our prayers are heartfelt and tuneful, our discussions real and deep. We are grateful to be here, sharing with other Jews and planetary citizens, in the work of the hour.

Blessings and shabbat shalom,
Reb Elliot

Dear all,

May this Pesach bring us joy, good health, spacious insights and glimpses of a deeper, more inclusive liberation…May we have the occasion to think what are the “Mitzrayim”‘s, the constricted places in our lives: that we hold within, in our intimate relations, in our work, play and ways of thinking, in our spiritual practice…and how can we peel off some of those patterns that hinder and stymie us…Breathe in expansiveness and breathe out Possibility. And may we not only have occasion to contemplate this, but may we eat food of sustenance and delight, and share conversations that enliven and bring joy!

A gitn shabbes un a zissn pesach, Shabbat shalom ve-Pesach sameach (ok, for you exacting grammarians, u-Fesah same’ah!!!) May Spring spring, may we delight in the greening of our neighborhoods and homes! Stay tuned for our various Pardes Hananh offerings over the next weeks, including our Monday night Omer Counting!!

Reb Elliot

P.S. I’m sharing links to some fun ((and varied) Seder/Pesach songs:

• Moyshe Oysher’s Ashkenazic Cantorial Hit, Chad Gadya
• Linda HIrschhorn, Miriam’s Snake Song
• Vanessa Paloma, Moses Salio De Misrayim (Ladino)
• Selections from Song of Songs (chanted on Shabbat of Pesach)
  • Song of Songs trope as chanted by Moshe Habousha in Jerusalem Sefardi Tradition
  • Two songs from Nava Tehila’s Shir ha-Shirim collection and the beautiful Yonati (My dove in the cleft)
• Shefa Gold, Who is that Rising in the Wilderness (Song of Songs)
• and a Traditional one, David Broza singing Eliyahu ha-Navi (quite beautiful)

Enjoy!!

Rabbi Shefa Gold, the inspirational composer and performer of spiritual music and leader in the Jewish Renewal Movement, will lead a Chant Ritual on Saturday, May 10 at 8:00 pm in honor of the 20th Anniversary Celebration of Pardes Hannah.  Rabbi Gold is director of C-DEEP, The Center for Devotional, Energy, and Ecstatic Practice in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. Her deep spiritual friendship with Rabbi Elliot Ginsburg, who will be honored at this weekend’s Shabbaton, brings her to Ann Arbor to help the Pardes Hannah Renewal Community celebrate.

Shefa brought her love of music and musical ability to her rabbinical studies and received her ordination from both the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. In describing her pathway into chant, she explains,  “I want to study the sacred text with mind and heart, and with the body as well. Chant is very much a heart practice, a devotional practice. I’ve been doing it for many years because it’s my way in. I love it so much. Traveling about half the year doing retreats and seminars and teaching groups the power of Hebrew chant–as well as training chant leaders in Kol Zimra, a two-year program for rabbis, cantors, and lay leaders—is ‘my rabbinate.’ “

Shefa’s love of chant is also evident in her ten albums and liturgies that have been incorporated into several new prayerbooks and into the services of synagogues throughout the country. Her book, The Magic of Hebrew Chant: Healing the Spirit, Transforming the Mind, Deepening Love, presents the fundamentals of chant and elevates chant as a transformational tool, in meditation, in prayer, in healing. Rabbi Rami Shapiro comments, “I have chanted daily for decades and Shefa was my teacher.  Let her be yours as well.”

In addition to her exceptional talent in music, her book Torah Journeys: The Inner Path to the Promised Land, illustrates the depth of her mystical reading of Torah and the creative ways she has evolved to help others find meaning in a weekly meditation upon the Torah parsha.   She has also written, In the Fever of Love: An Illumination of the Song of Songs that Rabbi Lawrence Kushner says, “offers American Jews seeking to rediscover the melody of meditation the perfect primer and inspiration.”                          

Shefa is on the faculty of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and includes her understanding of Buddhist, American Indian, Christian, and Islamic spiritual traditions in her teachings, finding the underlying core of devotional energy in each faith system. For more information on Rabbi Gold, see www.rabbishefagold.com.

Rabbi Shefa Gold will be presenting a Chant Ritual with music and story to honor Rabbi Elliot Ginsburg and the 20th Anniversary of Pardes Hannah at 8 pm at the home of Linda and Richard Greene.

–Lucinda Kurtz

Rabbi Elliot Ginsburg has been the prime mover, rebbe and spiritual explorer, behind the growth and flowering of Pardes Hannah, the Jewish Renewal community in Ann Arbor.  Twenty years ago this year, Reb Elliot and a few pioneering souls created an intimate setting where people could enter deeply into prayer with chanting, kabbalistic meditation, and openhearted wrestling with Torah.   This community has attracted members committed to drinking deeply from the wellsprings of tradition while exploring new avenues of spiritual expression and experience. 

Pardes Hannah members, students, rabbis, and friends from across the country are  gathering together the second weekend of May, 9-11, to celebrate the 20 year Anniversary of Pardes Hannah and acknowledge Reb Elliot’s  inspiring role as rabbi and teacher. As a professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, a scholar in residence in numerous academic and community settings, and a teacher and mentor of rabbinical students, Reb Elliot has touched hundreds of young and older people yearning to find the balance between the forms of tradition and the spontaneous ebb and flow of lived life. 

It is fitting that the focus of this special weekend is on the teachings of Reb Elliot’s most beloved Hassidic masters, the ones who have most influenced him on his spiritual path.  Former students, now rabbis and teachers themselves, will be preparing offerings during the weekend from the writings of such learned teachers  as Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, the Sefat Emet, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi.  Reb Zalman is considered the “grandfather” of the Renewal movement and has been called, “one of the most important and creative spiritual teachers of the second half of the 20th century.” Coming from a pre-war Hasidic home in Vienna, Reb Zalman is a powerful blend of qualities reflects Reb Elliot.  “He is someone who is wide open to experimentation, to dialogue across the traditions, to trying out things although they may not always work. In Zalman I see someone who is fearless and with a great big heart.  This ability to stretch wide moves me and touches me deeply.”

Jewish Renewal reflects this breadth of vision grounded in tradition and is what attracts Reb Elliot to this community.  He comments, “ One of the things I find so powerful in my experiences with Renewal is the open hearts that people bring to their path, their search.  It’s a combination of intellectual and emotional honesty—the unwillingness to shut down the heart, on one hand, and the willingness to grapple with issues of ultimate meaning, on the other.  How can I live in a way that is honest, that is open to the critical issues of the world, to the agonies and suffering of the world?  How can I be open to new models of understanding of how the world works, what it means to be a planetary citizen?  And at the same time to allow these questions to be permeated by the wisdom and creativity of the tradition that I am heir to.  For me, that’s at the core of this.”

When Pardes Hannah began as a small minyan 20 years ago, it was an intimate gathering, based on a havurah model of prayer.  Rabbi Dobrusin was always very supportive, and Beth Israel invited the community to use a room in their 2010 Washtenaw Avenue building for services, the location the group still meets on the first Shabbat morning each month as well as at other times for Reb Elliot’s teachings.

This is the location of Shabbat services, lunch, and teachings on May 10, led by a variety of rabbis and teachers from across the country.  There will also be a Kabbalat Shabbat pot-luck dinner and service on Friday evening to welcome Shabbat and guests.

A highlight of the weekend will be a Saturday evening Chanting Ritual led by Rabbi Shefa Gold, one of the most well-known and respected chant leaders in the American Jewish community who lives and teaches in New Mexico.  Rabbi Gold is founder of C-DEEP, and leads the Kol Zimra Chant Leaders Training Program  – the only one of it’s kind in the nation.    All these events are open to interested participants.  More information will be available about the Shefa Gold Chanting Ritual, which will be an opportunity for Pardes Hannah to fundraise to support its growing community.  

–Lucinda Kurtz