The World Celebrates Rabbi Marcia Prager

Rabbi Marcia Prager, an inspirational Jewish Renewal spiritual leader, teacher, guide, and colleague, has become a model for a new generation of lay and professional leadership. Through her, many of us have forged an intimate, passionate relationship with Judaism, with the divine in all of us, and thus, with each other.

The P'nai Or Philadelphia Jewish Renewal community is grateful that in 5772 (2011) R. Marcia celebrated 18 years of serving as our Rabbi-Chaver. In her honor, friends from around the world shared these many stories, poems, and loving tributes, to show our gratitude and naches at this wonderful milestone!



Blessed by Hakodesh Brucha Hi. a blessing from Germany

18 years – that’s a big wow!  

 I’m so blessed, that I could attend several services at Pnai Or and see, how wonderfully you are able to create space, warm atmosphere, strong emotions and at the same time drashot, kavanot etc. with deep intellectual wisdom and authenticity! Thank you so much for your holy work, which strongly changes life for so many people, including me, and simply for your being R’ Marcia.

As I know, how deeply you love the Yiddish song of the “holy shnayder” (just to prove that I attended DLTI…) I recorded it (not very professional) for the first time especially for you! 

And this photo I took in 2006 in New Mexico, just knowing you a few weeks.

Be blessed by the Hakadosh BruchaHi for all the works and enjoyments yet to come!

Yours talmid Daniel

Daniel Kempin

A Respected Colleague

Congratulations  to our colleague Rabbi Marcia Prager on this significant anniversary of leadership in the P'nai Or Community, and on her long career of teaching Torah, providing spiritual guidance, and inspiring new expressions of prayer.  

Mazal Tov! 

Rabbi Richard Hirsh
Executive Director
Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association (RRA)

A Garden of Delight


Opening the Door to a New Way of Prayer

My first experience of dear Marcia was at a Friday night service at Princeton University. I attended the Fellowship in Prayer conference to explore and learn from "other paths to the Divine" and was invited to attend this incredible Shabbat experience.

My heart and soul were opened to the Divine in a new way. Prayers that I have sung for years took on a new meaning as I sang/chanted from my soul. Not needing the sidur, praying from my heart.


Dear Rabbi Marcia, you seemed to offer permission to pray as I have dreamed of praying. Letting go of traditional melodies and exploring vibrations with the universe. I thank you for opening the door to a new way of prayer. Must not have been an accident that we met again at Mussar Kallah in Chicago. Sharing the Saturday morning service with you was an honor and I was humbled beyond words.


May your journey continue to open the eyes of many, and continue to open the paths to your soul!
 

B'shalom,

Chaplain Bonnie Leopold

Bringing Us Back to Reality

 The Rav in Jerusalem

When I was a rabbinic student in Israel in 2006, Rabbi Marcia Prager was leading a group on a shabbat afternoon on a walk through the Old City to visit with the Sufi leader, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari.
 It was an exciting event to be visiting with this Muslim leader who preached non-violence in his own home.  On this very long walk to his home in the Old City, we passed by other Jerusalemites walking on a Saturday afternoon, enjoying the special peace and joy at being in Jersualem. However, navigating the Arab Shouk with its narrow alleyways and shops of candy, pastries, colorful scarves, brass trinkets and souvenirs,  became as overwhelming to us as Ullysses navigating past the Sirens. We tried to keep our Shabbat demeanor of detachment,  but some of our group were about to succumb when Marcia calmly turned around and without looking at anyone said softly "holy chevre, it's shabbes, it's all an illusion."   
Those soft calm, non-judgemental words grounded us all, reminded us again of our purpose, and of the holiness and special uniqueness of the day. I have never forgotten how Marcia asserted herself as the Rav of the group, and brought  us back to a Shabbat frame of mind. It was artful what she did with just one sentence, and I am often reminded of it when I am walking by enticing wares on a Saturday afternoon.  Just as I am about to be drawn in, I hear Marcia's voice..."it's shabbes, it's all an illusion" and I laugh to myself and keep to my Shabbat day of higher purpose.

Rabbi Valerie Joseph 

Chaplain, Veteran's Hospital

Sufi sheikh who preached nonviolence laid to rest
By LAUREN GELFOND FELDINGER
06/03/2010 04:57


Bukhari was a proponent of interfaith unity.
In a small and ancient family plot attached to his ancestral home in Jerusalem’s Old City, regional Sufi leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari was laid to rest on Tuesday at age 61, after a long struggle with heart disease. He was head of the mystical Naqshabandi Holy Land Sufi Order.

A longtime proponent of nonviolence and interfaith unity, Bukhari found his inspiration in Islamic law and tradition, as well as in the writings of Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela.

“The stronger one is the one who can absorb the violence and anger from the other and change it to love and understanding. It is not easy; it is a lot of work. But this is the real jihad,” he once told the Globaloneness Project in an interview.

His teachings and practices put him in danger and under great stress that over the years harmed his health, said Sheikh Ghassan Manasra of Nazareth, whose father heads the regional Holy Land Qadari Sufi Order.

“Sheikh Bukhari influenced lots of people, worked hard to bridge the religions and cultures; and his teaching is keeping part of the youth on the right path. We worked together for many years and succeeded many times and failed many times and decided to stay on the [path] of God to bring peace, tolerance, harmony and moderation,” he said.

“But on both sides, Jewish and Muslim, there are moderates but also extreme people, and our work was very dangerous, with a lot of pressure and stress until now, and I think this explains, in part, his heart problems.”

Dozens of family members and close friends, including Jews, Christians and Muslims, and the Uzbek ambassador to Israel, prayed together at the funeral on Tuesday, as Bukhari, in a white shroud, was lowered into the same grave as his grandfather, great-grandfather and the line of family sheikhs dating to the 17th century.

Numerous rabbis, Muslim and Druse sheikhs, Christian clerics and friends of all faiths from around the country are expected to pay respects at the mourning tents, which will receive visitors for three days.

Sheikh Bukhari, who also headed the Holy Land Uzbek community, was a direct descendent of the Sunni scholar Imam Muhammad Ismail al-Bukhari of Bukhara, the ninth-century author of the Hadith al-Bukhari, a collected oral tradition that contains guidance about Islamic tradition and religious law and practice.

The Bukhari family migrated from Bukhara to Jerusalem in 1616 and built their home on the Via Dolorosa in the Old City, where they have lived and taught until now.

The family home also serves as a library of ancient, hand-written Islamic manuscripts and as the Uzbek cultural center for the estimated 3,000-4,000 Palestinians of Uzbek heritage in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip

Bukhari’s family played a role in the political history of Jerusalem during the Ottoman era, when they were charged with overseeing the Islamic holy places in the Holy Land, including in Lebanon.

In the late 1990s, Sheikh Bukhari was invited by UNESCO to an interreligiousconference in Uzbekistan, where he got to know Eliyahu McLean, an Orthodox Jew living in Jerusalem, who had studied Islam. Bukhari and McLean became friends and decided during their trip to launch “Jerusalem Peacemakers,” a non-profit partnership of interfaith religious leaders and grassroots activists, from Muslim, Druse, Christian and Jewish communities.

Bukhari later also got involved in the Interfaith Coordinating Council in Israel, the Interfaith Encounter Association, and the Sulha Peace Project, and in 2007 launched the “Jerusalem Hug” every June 21, where Israelis, Palestinians and foreigners of all faiths form a human chain of prayer around the Old City.

He also traveled extensively in Europe, to give a Muslim face to a message of unity and tolerance and to show the deep friendship possible between Muslims and Jews.

During Operation Cast Lead, Bukhari initiated a delegation of Arab youth and religious leaders to show solidarity with the students and teachers in Sderot and to share the pain of his own family’s experience in Gaza.


“He was really special,” Rabbi Tzion Cohen, a native of Sderot who is chief rabbi of the Shaar Hanegev region, said of their meeting.

“Despite his own great pain for his family, and despite the fact that some of the group got heated up during the discussion, he and his wife remained gentle and patient and so very kind. I was truly impressed by their pleasantness.”

Between interfaith activities and teaching Sufi tradition, he raised money from the European community to teach job skills to disadvantaged Palestinian teenagers and women. As word of his ideas and activities spread, he was asked by the Jerusalem Municipality to serve as the Islamic representative at City Hall events during the past few years.

Sheikh Bukhari is survived by a wife and six children, whose families are scattered across Jerusalem, Gaza and the US.

Many Who Have Felt Enriched by Your Presence

Inspiring Art

Drawn by Joel Heller and hanging up at the Green Tree School ASD program, a school for children with autism. It is in honor of Reb Marcia and is on display at the school.

Thank You for Creating the World I Want to Live In


I will never forget my first meeting with  Reb Marcia way back when....

She told me I'd know entering the smicha program was the right thing to do if I couldn't NOT do it. Her encouragement and support over the years I was a student made a huge difference to me. More importantly, though, is the inspiration that has come from being present so many times as Reb Marcia  weaves the magical spell of her davvenin', stories, teachings, and loving presence. 

I know I am one of MANY who feel truly honored to have had the opportunity to learn from the example she sets as a guide, teacher, rabbi, and friend. I've been there so many times when Reb Marcia exclaims with joy: "Thank you for creating the world I want to live in". 

So I thank YOU, Reb Marica, for helping to create the world I want to live in. May your wisdom and love continue to inspire us all towards deepening our own capacity to bring God's presence into the world.

With love,

Rabbi Simcha Zevit

Finding Soul Friend Connections

One of my first welcomes into the ALEPH community was from you; I remember your words including "where have you been?"....  words of deep truth, somehow the universe opened a portal and there I entered, finding soul friend connections at last. 

Though I will not be able to attend, enjoy and again thank you for your healing of heart. 
Rabbi Adalah Caplowe


Bringing Juicy Nourishment to Thirsty Souls

Creating a Place for the Hassid at Heart

Once upon a time, many years ago, a young hippie refugee from the Yeshivah world wrote a letter on real paper to Reb Zalman in Winnipeg. He was reaching out to the only rabbi he had met whom he thought could understand the yearning for a spiritual practice in a Jewish context. And so began a relationship of teacher and student, friends and colleagues, which has existed for forty years and continues.

As this hippie rabbi, for that is how he was known in British Columbia where he worked after becoming Reb Zalman's first, and at that time only, musmach, moved through his life, he became lonely and longed for colleagues and friends who shared the same spiritual approach to Jewish practice. He knew that an entity called ALEPH had been created, but his limited experiences with it were disappointing.

Years later, he tried once more and used his conference budget to attend the 1995 ALEPH Kallah. On the second day, he decided to switch classes and sit in on the Introduction to Kabbalah course offered by one Rabbi Marcia Prager. He sat quietly on the floor of the large room filled with eager students, increasingly enthralled by the quality of the teaching, the loving way in which the information was communicated, and the depth of the spiritual experience from which the teaching obviously emanated.

If this is what Jewish Renewal and ALEPH have become, he thought, then there is a place here for this studious, misnaged trained hassid at heart.

And so it was.

Daniel Siegel's sixteen year connection with ALEPH, his time as Rabbinic Director and now as Associate Dean of the ALEPH Ordination programs, all was solidified and confirmed by the opportunity to sit on the floor in the presence of the master teacher.

Many blessings for this unique P'nai Or community and especially for your amazing, learned, compassionate, brilliant, and deep Rabbi and guide.

Perserverent Teacher and Steadfast Friend

For awe-filled davvenen ,perseverance in teaching, and steadfast friendship, we
send Reb Marcia our admiration and our love --

--  The Oceans, Phyllis & Arthur

Sharing Stories of Presence, Hope, and Possibilities

My life was transformed for the good, the first I entered P'nai Or Princeton 16 years ago and heard R. Marcia say,  "This is a very special Shabbat."  Turns out, R. Marcia said this almost every Shabbat that she came to lead us.  

I was a bit disappointed when I realized that, until I understood further:  every Shabbat actually is a very special Shabbat.  Every Kabbalat Shabbat, R. Marcia would give over another timely teaching, often in the form of a story from Torah, from midrash, from Kabbalah, that had me on the edge of my seat, enthralled.  This was my heritage, the deep and beautiful stories that no one ever shared with me, of Presence, hope, possibilities, courage and new beginnings, until R. Marcia brought them to life.  How they changed my understanding of myself, Judaism, the world! 

And, eventually, so inspired, I left the life I knew to become a rabbinic student, both through ALEPH and the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College in Boston.  Scarcely a week goes by that I do not quote R. Marcia, for the teachings that inspired me and provide the underpinning for how I lead my life. 

Todah rabba rabba, R. Marcia, 

Ora Weiss

Capturing the Quintessence of the Jewish Path


  Dear Reb Marcia….
           
 I met you in the mid-1980s at the Bryn Mawr Kallah, while you were still a student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. You were working at the RRC library collecting innovative liturgy, and we found that we shared a common interest in that area.

 In later years I had the privilege of studying with you at several kallot. You are an amazingly gifted and engaging teacher, and one of the most articulate expositors of Judaism that I have ever encountered. You have the ability to capture the quintessence of the Jewish path—as understood by the Renewal movement— in eloquent language. I found your teaching absolutely compelling.

When you are leading davenning, Reb Marica, you are able to fully enter the reality of the sacred and, through words and music, to transport your community with you. On one occasion at Elat Chayyim—a Shabbat morning davenning—I found myself whirling in wild abandon outside the great tent. After that profound experience, I suggested strongly that you offer a program that would train individuals in the art of davenology.

At one of the early cabinet retreats in Boulder, Reb Zalman told his students that he could no longer carry on the many diverse projects that he had initiated. He asked that we each consider taking on a task that would continue a particular area of his concern. You volunteered to head up the rabbinic program and I, in turn, agreed to collaborate with you on designing a new curriculum. The work we did together during those years was very rewarding, and it allowed me to get to know you at a more personal level.

 Last, but not least, I fondly recall Diane’s and my wedding, some three years ago. I wanted no one but you, Reb Marcia, to officiate. What a profound, transformative and unforgettable event that was!

 I am privileged to call you one of my most important rebbes. May you be blessed with many more fruitful years of gifting the world with your awesome and holy presence.

With love and deepest respect,

Burt

Rabbi Burt Jacobson

Blessed Teacher Song

Reb Marcia- Yashar koach on a “life” of service to ALEPH, Kahal Yisrael, and the world!

Blessed Teacher (Marcia Prager version)

Ah the Sages, they told us, back in old Babylon
That the teacher’s words linger, when the teacher is gone,
And the lesson will hold us, and carry us on
Blessed are the teachers for making us strong

A diamond ain’t nothing but a lump of old coal
Till the heat and the pressure crystallize its soul
Rubbing the tarnish gets the silver to shine
Crushing the sour grapes unlocks the wine

I followed a rabbi up a steep mountain road
It was strewn with hard rock, but inside was gold
We stood at the summit, drew in the sweet air
Triumph and failure ascended as prayer

Now all of my teachers live on in me
Give north to my compass, show me stars out at sea
They still give their lessons, through my hands heart and voice
Turn frustration to freedom and challenge to choice

Oh the Sages, they told us, back in old Babylon
That the teaching grows deeper as time passes on
Calls culture and wisdom out of the throng
Blessed are the teachers for making us strong
Blessed are the teachers who bring forth the dawn.


Copyright © 2011 Joseph M. Laur Ragged Ass Music, Inc.

Sing with Blessing and Joy

Atah Hu (Baby it’s You melody)

Ata Hu ad shelo nivrah haolam
Ata hu mishenivra haolam
Atah hu b’olam hazeh
V’atah hu l’olam habah
Kadeysh et shimcha
Al makdishey shemecha…….

Atah Hu (3x)….

Kadeysh et shimcha
Al makdeshey shemecha
V’kadeysh et shimcha b’olamecha
Oovishuat’cha tarum
V’tagbiach karneynu
Baruch ata Yah
Hamkadeysh et shmo barabim

Atah Hu (3x)…

It was you who was before the world was
And it’s you now that the world is here.
It’s you in this world and baolam habah
Sanctify your name both near and far
Brucha at Yah

Ayn od!

Atah Hu…
At Hi
Atah Hu….
At hi…

Exchanging Truth

To Reb Marcia with huge gratitude...

Reb Marcia Prager has been not only the official Dean for the ALEPH Rabbinical students, but kind of a Mommy bird guiding her chicks till they could fly on their own.

Every time I offer a blessing that makes a heart connection between Torah verses just chanted and the people who have been called up for that Aliyah, I am drawing on the inspiring example of Reb Marcia.

Every time I "open up" the Chuppah and include the wedding guests so they feel included by a sweep of the arm or a blessing to which they can call out "Amen" I smile inwardly, thanking Reb Marcia for our role plays of life cycle ceremonies.

Every time I counsel a congregant or even a stranger by listening to the question beneath the question and allow an exchange of truth, I thank Reb Marcia, and through her, Reb Zalman, for modeling compassionate, active listening.

Every time I feel pride in my students' ability to lead parts of the service, I think of Reb Marcia smiling happily with her eyes closed as she kvelled over our experiments and efforts in leading prayers. And she allowed herself to pray at those services rather than being critical, although she would have helpful comments later.  At such times, at the periodic services led by congregants in my synagogue, I think of her, close my eyes and go inside the prayers, never mind how the person is choosing to present them. 

Every time I get a creative idea and try something new I think of Reb Marcia and how encouraging she has always been of my creativity, and without apology, I go forward and spread my wings a little further.

Reb Marcia, may you go from strength to strength, including so many students, colleagues, and members of a much wider community within your embrace.  May you feel a deep sense of satisfaction that you have touched many souls, and helped them along their own spiritual path.

with hugs, love, and blessings,
Alicia Magal
Rabbi Alicia Magal 
www.jcsvv.org
928 204-1286
"A Jewel of a Shul"

Humor and Fun

Marcia Prager, Tobie Hoffman, Nancy Klavans circa 1999
Reb Marcia is a woman of many guises with a sense of humor that comes out in  the most unusual situations. This photo "The Three Ladies of the Garbage Bag Raincoats" was one such time of silliness and great fun.

Inspiring Radical Shifts

 In 1999 I went to my second Kallah.  With some of my close friends and chevruta from Santa Cruz, we asked to join the circle of smicha students as people who might be interested in joining the ALEPH program.  We also spoke with Reb Marcia about joining the program.  I was a practicing and successful attorney at the time, considering a pretty radical career shift.

Reb Marcia told all of us -- don't do this (become a rabbi) unless you feel you have no other choice, because it is sometimes very difficult to live this life.

In the past twelve years, as I made my way into and through the ALEPH Rabbinical Program and completed my career shift, I have reflected on her words many times and found them comforting and inspirational.  Every time I've had a difficult moment, and there have been some doozies, I've thought -- no, I had no other choice.

From the 1997 Kallah when I took her Opening the Gates of Spirituality class, through DLTI, the Lifecycles class and the many conversations we have had over the years, Reb Marcia has been one of my most important teachers.

Mazal tov on your chai anniversary!

 Brachot rabot, Lori

Her Teaching is Wisdom- Its Worth is Far Above Rubies

To our sweet friend, Marcia:

Eighteen years leading Pnai Or Philadelphia!  If that were the sum total of your service, locally and world-wide, we would say dayyenu!  

With your leadership of the Smicha program, your influence on the development of Jewish Renewal for the future is assured.  Your inspiration has taken the ALEPH Seminary from barely a blip on the radar screen of contemporary Jewish life, to a respected and envied paradigm shifting training of future clergy. For that we say HODU!

Your joy and great skill in davenning leadership has become a full-bodied expression emulated by so many students, and for that we give thanks!
Your teaching is wisdom and its worth is far above rubies. 
For all that you do, we can only be filled with love and awe of your grace and humor and big, soft, delicious heart. 

Mazal Tov! 
Loving blessings,


Rabbi Shaya Isenberg and Bahira Sugarman
Rabbis Victor and Nadya Gross

Flowing Like an Underground River with Many Wells



Reb Marcia gave me the opportunity to answer the still small voice that called L’chi Lach.  She opened the gates of a Jewish Seminary and welcomed a sixty-three-year old woman in an interfaith marriage.  Acceptance is the hallmark of Reb Marcia as well as Aleph Jewish Renewal.  Age, gender, gender identification, and interfaith marital status are not barriers to her seminary.  I’m able to answer the call of the Holy One, to go to the place that G!d will show me, to go to my true self, because of a new paradigm...non-discrimination.  I am so grateful.
As I came to know Reb Marcia, I met a woman fiercely in love with Judaism, a prophet in our time, and a spiritual leader for the twenty-first century. Through word and example, she taught me the sacred art of Jewish Liturgy.    She taught me to listen with patience as she listened to me and others. 

Reb Marcia’s smile lights up the room.  But when she is listening to a person pour out her soul, Reb Marcia’s whole being is fixed on that precious individual.  When she leads us in prayer, the sparks of the divine within us flame like the burning bush and the synagogue is aglow with the fire of the Holy One.  And when Reb Marcia teaches, some of her students sit transfixed at her words. Time passes without notice. Perhaps this is what the Sages meant when they talked about the Heavenly Academy.

I am so grateful that Reb Marcia answered the still small voice when she heard L’chi Lach.  It would be easier to sit it out, take pictures of life, and observe from a distance.  The stress of teaching, preaching, counseling, leading in prayer would be gone if Marcia Prager had simply ignored the call.  But then, because of her life work  the rabbis, rabbinic pastors, spiritual directors, and cantors ordained through Aleph would not have had her influence.  Perhaps, they would not have had smicha at all. 
Nadyne Lee

Welcomed With an Open Heart

A Teacher's Teacher


Reb Marcia has a way of helping her students reach deeper within themselves than they ever thought possible.  She did that for me.  In a Davennen Leadership Training Institute, she enabled me to reach within and davven a "Nishmat Kol Chai" that seemed to be channeled from another realm.  

She is a teacher's teacher, a gentle wise eishet chazon who deserves great kavod.  She had me at "nishmat".

---Rabbi Yocheved Mintz