{"id":643,"date":"2007-09-26T15:57:31","date_gmt":"2007-09-26T13:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/?p=643"},"modified":"2009-12-31T12:18:44","modified_gmt":"2009-12-31T10:18:44","slug":"new-minyan-in-jerusalem-brings-jews-christians-and-muslims-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/2007\/09\/new-minyan-in-jerusalem-brings-jews-christians-and-muslims-together\/","title":{"rendered":"New Minyan in Jerusalem Brings Jews, Christians and Muslims Together"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A rabbi, a monk, and a Sufi walk into a minyan. It sounds like the set up to a bad Internet joke circulating by email. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a reality every month at Nava Tehilla, Jerusalem\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and only \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0153multi-faith\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jewish renewal gathering.<\/p>\n

Started a year and a half ago in the living room of Rabbi Ruth and Michael Kagan in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Baka popular with immigrants from North America, Nava Tehilla now attracts upwards of a hundred attendees for its mix of spirited prayer, a pot luck meal, and a chance to meet up with Jews and non-Jews alike of all religious persuasions. The minyan held high holydays services this year as well.<\/p>\n

Co-founder Michael Kagan stresses that Nava Tehilla is not an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153interfaith\u00e2\u20ac\u009d minyan. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not taking a bit of Christianity and Muslim prayer, adding a Buddhist meditation and doing some Jewish stuff. We do a completely Jewish Friday night service and invite people from all faiths to share in the prayer. Kagan, who works by day as a hi-tech inventor in the areas of health products, telecommunication and solar energy and is the author of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Holistic Hagadah<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Urim Publications), adds that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s participated in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sufi zikrs<\/a> and Indian sweat lodges<\/a>, and they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t change their service for me. So we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not changing the service for our guests either.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Nava Tehilla draws its eclectic congregation from a funky mix of new age inspired Jews \u00e2\u20ac\u201c both Anglos and veteran Israelis, secular and religious \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who come from as far away as Tel Aviv and Beersheva; several Western-leaning Muslim Sufi sheiks; and a Catholic order of monks and nuns known as the Beatitudes<\/a> who live near Latrun in the center of the country and regularly attend Jewish services around Jerusalem \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not just those at Nava Tehilla.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Beatitudes have a desire to be inspired by Jesus as a Jew who knew his Talmud,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kagan says. Members of the order which has communities worldwide and includes a mix of laypeople and monastics, are required to spend 1-2 years in Israel, learning Hebrew and Judaism.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very important for us to know more about Judaism and to pray in Hebrew,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d explains Sister Nathalie Bruyere who came to Israel from Lyon, France. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I feel like the roots of my religion are in Judaism and without roots we cannot live.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Members of the Beatitudes community go to other shuls in the neighborhood like Yakar and Kehillat Yedidya, and even the Jerusalem Great Synagogue, Kagan says referring to the weeks when Nava Tehilla doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t meet, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153though in \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccivilian dress.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d At the Kagan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s minyan, the Beatitudes feel comfortable enough to come decked out in their full robes and head coverings.<\/p>\n

Indeed, on a recent Friday night, the Nava Tehilla congregation represents a kaleidoscope of inclusion. In addition to no less than six members of the Beatitudes decked out in their traditional brown and white flowing robes and large crucifixes, there are Jews dressed in post-India peasant skirts as well as others in more traditional sports jacket and slacks with head coverings ranging from turbans hiding dreadlocks to nothing at all. There are veteran attendees and newcomers.<\/p>\n

First-timer Lynne Weinstein says the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153combination of the music, the singing and the ecumenical community created an uplifting atmosphere.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Weinstein brought her three and a half year old son with her. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The way he swayed with me, listening to the music, was very moving.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Finding Muslim members has been a bit more of a challenge. Ruth Kagan \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Reb Ruth as she likes to be called \u00e2\u20ac\u201c explains that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153most Muslims in Israel who are involved in interfaith dialogue are non-religious and so don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to go to a religious activity. They want a secular dialogue.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She adds that, unlike the Beatitudes, Muslims also seem to have \u00e2\u20ac\u0153less of a need to look at Jewish prayer as a part of their Arab identity.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, creating a space that was welcoming and inclusive was a clear motivating factor. Michael Kagan says that it was painful to him to realize that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153not far from where live are churches and monasteries and mosques and everyone is separate, we all go into our own cubbyholes and do our own worship. I wanted to experiment with doing it differently.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

For Reb Ruth, the motivation to create a multi-faith environment goes back to her youth. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In my student years, I was always involved in interfaith dialogue groups,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I found a great commonality between myself and other people who love God, whether they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Bahai or Christian. That excitement about being a religious person in a non-religious world is very uniting and affirming.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The Kagans have long been on the cutting edge. Earlier incarnations of Nava Tehilla introduced the first service based on tunes by the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach<\/a> long before that style of prayer became mainstream in Orthodox synagogues throughout Israel. The Kagans also allowed women to lead the Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat<\/a> service \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a practice that has now found a home in congregations such as Shira Hadasha<\/a> in Jerusalem and Modi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122in. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When others picked these up, we felt we could do even more,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kagan says.<\/p>\n

That \u00e2\u20ac\u0153more\u00e2\u20ac\u009d includes using acoustic instruments during the Kabbalat Shabbat service \u00e2\u20ac\u201c guitar, drums and the occasional wind instrument. A Friday night at Nava Tehilla doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like any other synagogue, though. Formally a part of the Jewish Renewal<\/a> movement \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Reb Ruth received her Rabbinic ordination in 2004 from movement head Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi during two years the family lived in the U.S. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c congregants sit mixed together \u00e2\u20ac\u201c there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no mehitza separating men and women \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in the Kagan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cramped and overflowing living room while the prayer leader pilots a spirited davening. Prayer frequently focuses on just a few specific lines; there is no push to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153say everything\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the siddur as at Orthodox synagogues. The specific tunes chosen are almost entirely original compositions.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I got bored with regular shul,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Reb Ruth says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153even the most innovative ones, they do the same thing again and again with maybe a little variety around lecha dodi<\/a>. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to get to shul and know exactly where I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going in a totally prescribed path. At the same time, this is not just a campfire. We follow the full Kabbalat Shabbat order. Usually there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of singing, sometimes there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meditation. The surprise is important. People shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t act as if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re buying a ticket to a show and then say \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchey, you didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sing like you did on the record.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Yoel Sikes is a 21-year-old music student at the Center for Middle Eastern Classical Music<\/a> in Jerusalem\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Musrara neighborhood. He has scored an entirely new service that fuses Western structure with Eastern motifs and a bit of flamenco guitar strumming. The result is an ethereal experience that goes beyond being a mere performance and propels the audience into a hand clapping, body waving frenzy. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I grew up listening to the Grateful Dead<\/a>, Phish<\/a> and other jam bands,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sikes says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The music I write is also very influenced by Arab music. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also one that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very reggae-ish. I try to be sensitive to what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on in the Jewish calendar or on a particular Shabbat.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

That sensitivity can sometimes be taken to the extreme and the service on occasion devolves into pure camp. Once during the portion of the week in the book of Genesis that discusses Joseph and his brothers, the minyan set the entire Friday night service to music from the Andrew Lloyd Weber rock musical \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Joseph and the Amazing Technical Dreamcoat<\/a>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was a lot of fun,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Reb Ruth says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to do that again.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Daphna Rosenberg alternates leading services with Sikes and also wrote her own niggunim for use at Nava Tehilla. Rosenberg says Nava Tehilla is the only place at which she feels comfortable praying. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Growing up we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t drive on Shabbat but we answered the phone and listened to music,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153After awhile I completely left religion. Now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m coming back to it. Nava Tehilla has a good balance between the alternative and the traditional. And it has the mix of Jews and non-Jews. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been to other places that are open to other people but don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a real Kabbalat Shabbat. And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been to places that do a traditional Kabbalat Shabbat but aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t truly open to others. Here I feel I can express my deep belief in God but practice it in a way that I can feel whole.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

As important as the prayer service itself is, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only a third of the entire experience. Following the davening is a potluck meal that appeals particularly to singles and people without children \u00e2\u20ac\u0153who might not normally have a place to spend Friday night with a community,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Reb Ruth says. Following the meal is a virtual \u00e2\u20ac\u0153open mic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d session where participants are encouraged to sing a song or tell a story. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not prayer but devotion,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Michael Kagan explains. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There is a heightened sense of worship through poetry, movement, music and Torah.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

On a recent Friday night, Michael Kagan gave a dvar Torah, a guest shared a story from a trip to Egypt, and Sikes led a rocking multi-guitar multi-faith jam until 1:00 AM. The effect was not unlike the good time communal feel at the annual Jacob\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Ladder<\/a> folk-music festival\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6but coming from a spiritual orientation. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We call it jamming for God,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Reb Ruth says.<\/p>\n

The Kagans have four children at home, ages 9 to 17. What do they think of their parents\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 living room adventures? \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They call us pagans\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6it rhymes with Kagan,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d jokes Michael. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But, seriously, I am happy that they have the opportunity to experience other forms of Jewish expression. There is so much joy in our house.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Though still small, the Kagans are already thinking of how to spread Nava Tehilla\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s influence, perhaps even to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153franchise\u00e2\u20ac\u009d their concept. First step: a series of CDs with new songs from the minyan for Kabbalat Shabbat which Michael Kagan believes is in keeping with the spirit of his spiritual mentor Rabbi Carlebach. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153One of the sad jokes is that Rav Shlomo was the innovator par excellence and yet shuls all sing the same set of his tunes for every psalm. That wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Shlomo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s way. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d innovate every time he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d come to pray. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s our goal too.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Nava Tehilla meets monthly at 8 Gideon Street in Jerusalem. Do its founders hope it will become weekly or even daily someday? Not for now, says Reb Ruth. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure we can be creative enough if we had to do 52 Shabbats a year!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

—————————-
\nThis article appeared originally in the Jerusalem Post’s In Jerusalem on Sept. 21, 2007.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A rabbi, a monk, and a Sufi walk into a minyan. It sounds like the set up to a bad Internet joke circulating by email. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a reality every month at Nava Tehilla, Jerusalem\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and only \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0153multi-faith\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jewish renewal gathering. Started a year and a half ago in the living room […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1428,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions\/1428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}