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.