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
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