BIC Newsletter Posts

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Shabbaton with Rabbi Aaron Rotenberg  (bio below)

Join us Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26 for a Shabbaton with Rabbi Aaron Rotenberg (Jewish Renewal – Annex shul, Toronto). We will welcome Shabbat together on Friday, April 25 beginning at 5 pm with schmoozing and songs, brachot (blessings) at 6pm followed by a potluck dinner. RSVPs required; please click here.

Rabbi Rotenberg will lead a shabbat morning Avodat Lev service Saturday, April 26 beginning at 10am (to around 11:30 a.m.) This will include some gentle morning singing and chanting. “Avodat Lev” means “service of the heart”, and our time together will be in service of opening our hearts to the peaceful and restful energy of Shabbat. Loosely based on the Shabbat morning service, we will sing our way into and through some prayers and chants, with plenty of space to breathe, as we move through the kabbalistic four-worlds of body, heart, mind and spirit.

There will be some guided meditation, time for silence and connecting with our hearts, and then an optional mindful text study on a section from the week’s Torah portion. This is an all-ages, family-friendly event.

Following morning services, the Vanek-McGregor family (Jackie, Brayden and family) are pleased to sponsor a kiddush (light lunch) in honour of Evie Robyn McGregor’s baby naming. RSVP required. RSVPs required; please click here.

The Shabbaton continues with a workshop: Earth-Based Torah for Healing a Fractured World, from 1-3pm at Beth Israel, where Rabbi Rotenberg will lead us in an exploration of core Earth-Based Judaism concepts based on Rabbi Natan Margalit’s book The Pearl and the Flame: A Journey into Jewish Wisdom and Ecological Thinking. We will look at some texts together and have an interactive discussion about how we integrate modern ecological and systems concepts with Jewish wisdom including Minyan/Emergence, Mikdash/Nestedness and Mitzvah/Tipping Points. 

In our world where the sense of community with other humans and with the more-than-human world is deeply fragmented, these “3 ‘M’s/Mems” show us how to reconnect and see how diversity creates a holiness greater than the sum of its parts. 

There is no cost to attend, but donations are gratefully accepted.

To register for the workshop / any part of the shabbaton (required) please click here.

Rabbi Rotenberg’s biography

I was born and raised in Thornhill, Ontario, the suburbs of Toronto, where I went through the Jewish Day School system. It was only in stepping out of the system and attending public school in grade 12 that I sought out and found Jewish life and community that spoke to my soul.

I graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary and Columbia University where I studied Bible, Psychology and Creative Writing. It was there, living in JTS dorms with people of different religious backgrounds, finding their way together and learning about the academic study of Judaism that I felt the expanded possibilities of ways that Judaism could be meaningful to my own life.

I then moved to Israel for 2.5 years, studying at Midreshet Ein Prat, Tel Aviv University and learning about the political situation by spending time with Palestinians in the West Bank. In Jerusalem, I was exposed to mindfulness practice in a Jewish frame and the close knit neighborhood community in Nachlaot, amidst other seekers, with frequent living room davening, collective support and supportive spiritual and political exploration.

I returned to Toronto, to pursue an MFA in film production and be close to family.  Back in Toronto, I sought to be part of building a community that had the inspiring elements of Jewish community I had found in my travels.

I co-founded The Orchard, an independent, intentional Jewish home that was the site of community events, home life and many havdallahs.

I also got involved with international interfaith work through the International Conference of Christians and Jews, organizing yearly conferences and local interfaith efforts.

I stepped more fully into Jewish Leadership as the Spiritual Leader of Annex Shul, a downtown-based community mainly serving folks in their 20s and 30s. Being at Annex Shul, I sought further support and guidance as I began leading community and started rabbinical training at the ALEPH Ordination Program.

In the summers since 2014 I have worked as an educator with Heart to Heart, a camp program that brings together Jewish and Palestinian teenagers together for a month of shared society-building and encounter in Canada.

I continue to be involved in various positions of leadership since receiving rabbinic ordination, working with B Mitzvah students, couples and families in lifecycle moments. I was part of the Earth-Based Judaism Cohort at ALEPH, which helped me find nourishment in the connections between Jewish practice and the earth. I enjoy leading occasional photography workshops.

Recently, I have been part of starting Renewal Shabbat services in Toronto, to bring learning from my studies to people in Toronto eager for renewed and engaged spiritual life.

I live in a shared home with friends and family including my spouse, Jenny.

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Community Seder:  Second Night of Passover at Our Place?

Tickets Now Available

Join us for a Passover Seder, Sunday, April 13th. Tickets (absolutely required) are $40 per adult for members of Beth Israel Congregation; $45 for adults who are not BIC Members, $15 per child/youth (5-13 years old. Children 4 and under are free) plus EventBrite ticketing fees. Individuals in need of financial assistance please email us. For more information and a link to purchase tickets, please  email us. Sales close Monday, April 7th.

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Beth Israel Book Club Hosts Toronto Author Aviva Rubin – NEW DATE to be confirmed

Please join us as the Beth Israel Book Club hosts Toronto author Aviva Rubin, who will discuss her book, White (no, you don’t have to have read it), and its relevance in our world today. Aviva is an engaging and entertaining speaker and all are welcome to attend. Come and show your support for a local Jewish author. For more information on Aviva, her book, and its relevance today, click here. Organizers request everyone kindly RSVP here so we have numbers for food and drink.

Details about Aviva Rubin and her new book, WHITE, can be found here:  https://jccpeterborough.com/bookclub-aviva/

To RSVP for Book Club, please email us.

And save the date: Thursday, July 10th, 6:30 p.m. for a discussion of The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden.

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Spring Services & Events – SAVE THE DATES

All events are at Beth Israel, unless otherwise noted

  • Second Night of Passover Seder, Sunday, April 13, Dan and Len will lead. This is a ticketed event. More details to follow.

  • Yom HaShoah / Holocaust Remembrance Day, Wednesday, April 23. 

  • Guest Leader, Friday, April 25 – Saturday, April 26. Rabbi Aaron Rotenberg (Jewish Renewal, Toronto) will join us to welcome Shabbat Friday night, lead a Saturday morning Torah service and afternoon workshop on Earth Based Judaism.

  • Lag B’omer Celebrations, Friday, May 17 at the Houpt farm.

  • Guest Leader, Saturday, May 24. Laura Wolfson will join us to lead a Saturday morning Torah service and an afternoon community Mosaic-making workshop.

For times and more details please contact:  contact@jccpeterborough.com

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Family / All Welcome Shabbat Potluck 

Join us Friday, March 21st to welcome Shabbat together. Doors open at 5 pm; kiddush at 5:30; potluck dinner 5:30-6:30, followed by Birkat HaMazon, songs and games. This is an all-ages, family-friendly evening, and all are welcome to bring a challah and their own candles/candlesticks if they have. RSVP here (new options!).

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Exploring Judaism Peer Learning Group –

SIGN UP NOW

Would you like to build connection, knowledge and confidence in the traditions? On behalf of the community, Jennifer L. and other BIC members will facilitate a peer-study group to explore what we know, what we don’t know, and what we want to know, together (ex: holidays/the year cycle, ritual & rites of passage, history, synagogue, spirituality, and/or other topics of interest). This introductory offering will run Tuesdays, March 11th – 25th from 6-8pm at the synagogue (775 Weller St., Peterborough). It is open to all and there is no cost to attend. Donations are gratefully accepted. To sign up, click here.

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PURIM – Come for the Play, Stay for the Hamantaschen!

The Beth Israel Children’s Circle invites everyone to join them Saturday, March 8 from noon-1 p.m. downstairs in Beth Israel Social Hall for a short play (skit) and fresh-baked hamantaschen. Guests are invited to bring donations of money or food to fulfill the mitzvah of matanot l’evyonim (gifts of money or food for two poor people at Purim). Proceeds will be donated to Kawartha Food Share. If your child is not already signed up and would like to take part, kindly Register Here.

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Cantor’s Message
Tu Bishvat 5785/2025

Dearest friends,
Recently we experienced a violent storm that blew down many trees. Luckily our own
garden was spared; but almost everywhere I looked I saw branches, trunks, and
sometimes whole trees blocking paths, and even roads. I though about the meaning
of all this — particularly in the context of Tu Bishvat, which fall this Thursday.

This holiday is known as the New Year of the Trees. We mark it by planting
saplings (often in memory of loved ones), holding special Tu Bishvat seders (which
resemble the Pesach ritual meals, and have their roots in Jewish mysticism), and
raising awareness about the environment. This year, for me, the holiday is about the
significance of trees as metaphors for our faith and our relationships with one
another — especially since I’ve seen so many toppled over in a storm.

In the service for returning the Torah to the Ark, we sing ‘Etz chaim hi’ (‘It is a
tree of life’). The words in English run as follows:

I have given you a precious inheritance:
do not forsake My teaching.
It is a tree of life for those who grasp it,
and all who hold onto it are blessed.
Its ways are pleasant, and all its paths are peace.
Turn us toward You, Adonai, and we will return to You;
make our days seem fresh, as they once were.

The lines are taken from some passages in the Book of Proverbs. They’re
appropriate to the liturgy, because the Torah is identified as the Tree of Life; it
symbolizes the relationship between God and human beings. In Kabbalah, the Tree
of Life is represented as a diagram illustrating the ten divine spheres, or sefirot; they
include attributes like righteousness, justice, beauty, endurance, and understanding.
The branches are interconnected, in order to show how these traits are linked to
each other, and to God. In Jewish mystical teaching, by accessing the spheres we
not only come closer to God; we also engage in tikkum olam, repairing our broken
world (where the divine is increasingly absent), and mending our relationships with
one another.

If we ponder these ideas, while appreciating the trees are all around us, we
come to a greater understanding of the intimate ties that bind us all together as one
human family, and also connect us to the divine. With so many broken trees around,
and the imperative to repair the damage done, the healing of the world is, for me, the
profound lesson of this Tu Bishvat.

I wish you all a Chag Sameach.

With love from Cantor Leon

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Upcoming Children’s Circle Dates

Zoe and Team are pleased to let us know that they will be offering programs for children aged 5-12 (younger kids welcome with a parent) on upcoming Saturday mornings during  February and March at Beth Israel Synagogue.  For specific dates, times and details please inquire at: contact@jccpeterborough.com .   Each gathering includes story time, learning activities, crafts, and baking. Mark your calendars! And stay tuned for more details.

*NEW*

Families with children aged 5-12 (younger kids welcome with a parent) are invited to join Zoe and team in early March.  We will get prepared for Purim by making hamantaschen, noisemakers, and putting on a short Purim play. All gatherings take place at Beth Israel Synagogue, downstairs in the social hall. To sign up for any or all of these dates, kindly REGISTER HERE.