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Diversity and Intensity:

Two Characteristics We Hold In Common

Min Kantrowitz and Chana Andler

When someone asked Min at a recent Bar Mitzvah how Jewish Renewal congregations are different than other congregations, it got us thinking about our experiences with various Jewish Renewal groups. Between us, we have been lucky enough to attend Kallah multiple times, to study at Elat Chayyim, and to davven with seven or eight different Jewish Renewal communities over the past several years. We also have been privileged to dialogue with representatives from many of the other NJRC congregations and so, have some sense of their groups and "what makes them tick." What we have concluded is that NJRC communities, havurot, and congregations are "different than other congregations" most significantly in the diversity of their membership and the expectations members have about the intensity of the worship experience.

Diversity of Membership:
One group who recently joined the NJRC described their congregation as "unique" due to the fact that they included many mixed marriages, single people, Jews by choice, and non-nuclear families. That ‘uniqueness' is common in many NJRC communities. One of the characteristics of Renewal is that it is inclusive and, as such, welcoming to a variety of people and lifestyles. Another is that it is a "gateway", providing those who have felt estranged or disconnected from more traditional Judaism a way to return and reconnect. So, if you surveyed the membership of most NJRC communities, you would find an amazingly rich and diverse assortment of life experiences. There are people whose knowledge of and experience with Jewish learning and ritual practices range from "absolutely none" to "quite extensive." Obviously, members vary widely in their level of personal observance. There may also be considerable diversity in age, socio-economic level, and family structure. Members may be straight or gay, coupled or not, with or without children. They may be teenagers, young families, middle aged couples, or seniors who have been alienated from their Judaism for 50 years. They may be partnered with a member of another faith or a former member of another faith themselves; long time "searchers" on the spiritual path or relative novices to the journey. It doesn't matter. What matters is that, through their involvement with Renewal, they are able to access a "Jewish Path" and begin making meaningful contact with the Source from wherever they currently are. That is the bond which unites them into a group, giving them a common focus and helping them transcend their individual differences.

Expecting Intensity and Involvement:
Visitors to Renewal services often comment on the passion, strength, and emotion they see, and sometimes experience themselves, at services. Commonly, people are drawn to Renewal as a safe place to explore their deepest spiritual longings and express all the love and passion they hold in their hearts. These feelings find an outlet in the song, art, dance, poetry, and prayer that characterize Jewish Renewal worship. We are asked to reach deep and experience fully what we find. And most Jewish Renewal leaders (rabbinic or lay) welcome this intensity of experience and, in fact, both model and evoke it. Rather than simply reciting or reading the words of psalms or blessings, people are encouraged to pray them from deep places within themselves. Leaders model this, making a path for others to follow, while simultaneously getting "out of the way," so each person can have his/her own experience. Services often change and flow according to the spiritual energy of the moment, the group's needs, and the effects of the prayers at that specific point in time. Additional attention may be given to one song or prayer or movement in order to raise the group's energy or allow each person the opportunity to encounter it fully.

In most NJRC communities, we get used to this way of serving Hashem: with all our souls and all our hearts and all our mights. We expect to be active participants in the process and to be asked (and assisted) to go to deeply personal places in our worship----opening ourselves to both revelation and transformation. Not surprisingly, NJRC congregations tend to reject the model of congregation as ‘audience' and the practice of being passively led through a rote form by "One Who Knows." Instead, they hope to be co-creators in the act of worship, giving their love, passion, and energy to the process and receiving, in return, the support to reach even higher and deeper in their collective and individual prayers.
 

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