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.
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