Identity, Religion

Celebrate Ecstatic and Contemplative Shabbat

This Shabbat will be the first meeting of Kehilat Romemu, a new renewal minyan on Manhattan’s upper west side:

You value diversity. You are forging a new Jewish identity. You want to be excited, nurtured and uplifted.You want to be embraced in the fullness of your being and the freedom of your spirit. You strive for growth and transformation.
You should expect the same from your community.
Kehilat Romemu seeks to integrate body, mind, and soul in Jewish practice. Unabashedly eclectic, we engage in body practices like yoga, infuse traditional liturgy with the energy of ecstatic chant, and ground our practice with meditation and contemplation. This is a Judaism that will ignite your Spirit.

Kehilat Romemu – Spirit Rising and Unfolding
Inaugural Shabbat Service – March 25th, 2006
Services Begin at 10 am, Silent Meditation at 9:30 am
35 West 67th Street @ Makor
Upcoming events: April 21 & 22 – Full Shabbaton
May 26 & 27 – Full Shabbaton

Full description here.

3 thoughts on “Celebrate Ecstatic and Contemplative Shabbat

  1. A few admitedly random thoughts on this service and more…I got there ontime and stayed until almost 12. After 2.5 hours they were just up to the Shmoneh Esrei for Shacharit. The room was packed. Maybe 150 people or so and it was standing room only. As someone who isn’t used to this crunchy granola – Havurah style service, it was certainly worthwhile to see how much emphasis on early parts of the prayer service there was. But by Baruch hu whatever the “Rabbi” was saying was just a blur. I needed to pee and then I needed to crash the very tasty kiddush I knew was happening at a nearby Ortho shul. I mean I love good non-Ortho davening but by noon I am spent in any place I daven. And kiddush always takes priority over davening no matter how much yoga is infused into the service. Psalm 150 was definetly kicking… As a side note, isn’t it obvious that Ortho shuls still have a huge advantage when it comes to serious Shabbat day Kiddush? Where I went for kiddush they had two kinds of chulent and more. Very tasty… Anyway more about this service…When could any of the leaders or the band take a bathroom break? They had two guitars, a flutist and several of those wacky percussion types. And they just kept going and going with tunes, meditations and thoughts on the prayers. For me it was interesting to hear that the “Rabbi” quoted this or that chasidic story or saying he learned in yeshiva. That is nice but how many in the audience would ever go to a traditional yeshiva to learn these stories or learn how to study text seriously themselves? Would this “Rabbi” send his own kids to that kind of yeshiva? How does this kind of spirituality get taught to the next generation of crunchy granolas? Do these kinds of people really put in 5 hours every Shabbat into morning services? When more traditional non ortho and some ortho minyans can’t get a tenth for someone to say kadish on a Wednesday afternoon, couldn’t there be a better distribution of how and when time is spent davening and helping minyans out in the community?

  2. Flatbush:
    I take issue with many of the comments in your response. To begin with, why is Rabbi in quotation marks? Is this to imply that only men with orthodox simcha can truly be called “rabbi” to you? To place rabbi in quotation marks degrades not only this Rabbi, who indeed did spend 5 years in orthodox Yeshivot and intentionally did not receive orthodox simcha, but it also degrades the thousands of non orthodox rabbis, both women and men, who have dedicated their lives to helping the Jewish people.
    In addition you say that “kiddush always takes priority over davening no matter how much yoga is infused into the service” and then later precede to ask why “ortho-minyans can’t get a tenth for someone to say kadish on a Wednesday afternoon?” I think you may have answered your own question. If Kiddush is typically more important to you than prayer, connection, singing, and community, I do not doubt that you may have trouble making a minyan.
    I also must ask why it bothered you that we “kept going and going with tunes, meditations and thoughts on the prayers?” Is that not a mitzvah? Surely you must wish that much intention and kavanah on all people praying.
    You also say, “Do these kinds of people really put in 5 hours every Shabbat into morning services?” This demands a response. First of all, why must you say “these people?” Is there something about this ‘us/them’ categorization that is skilful, loving, or kind? I think not. We are all people, not kinds of people, but people. On another more trivial note, the service was not 5 hours, but 4. As a Jew who identifies with Renewal Judaism, I will reply, that yes, I do spend every Shabbat morning davening for hours. Additionally I have spent months of not only Shabbat morning, but all mornings, doing just this with others in the Renewal movement. Thank G-d there are people so devoted to prayer that they do dedicate hours to it. This is not to say that if you prefer to daven for a shorter period of time that there is anything wrong. Rather, why criticize those who do daven for long periods of time? Why criticize the time anyone spends davening?
    You also questioned “how many in the audience would ever go to a traditional yeshiva to learn these stories or to learn how to study text seriously” Why would you assume that every person in that room, who davened for hours, would not study text seriously? It seemed to be a room of exceptionally committed people who do study text and who do dedicated their mornings to prayer. However, if they didn’t study text, is that a slight against them? What if in their hearts is a true yearning to understand G-d, to treat others kindly, and to be present in their lives? What about the Chasidic story of an uneducated man who repeated only the first two letters of the Hebrew aleph-bays on Yom Kippur and his prayers reached heaven in a truer and deeper fashion than those who said every word and fulfilled every halachic obligation. The point is not how you pray. The point is that you pray.
    You also ask if the Rabbi would send his own kids to that kind of yeshiva (referring to the kinds where he told stories from)? I think the Rabbi would send his kids to yeshivot that fostered loving kindness not exclusion, to Yeshivot that validated lives not denied existence, to Yeshivot that taught peace not hatred, and to Yeshivot that aimed to unify and not further divide all people.
    Your response was antagonistic, unconstructive, and hurtful. G-d willing Romemu will grow to such a size that there will one day be vegetarian chulent after 5 hour services…and I hope to see you there.

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