shabbaton

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Shabbaton with visiting Rabbi Elyse Goldstein

Dates: Friday June 5th and Saturday June 6th

RSVP: To sign up, please fill in this form

Beth Israel is proud to announce a Shabbaton with Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, founding Rabbi and current Rabbi emeritus at the City Shul in Toronto, June 5-6, 2026. She will lead us in three events over Shabbat:

Weekend Schedule:

Friday June 5th 

5pm – Shabbat Potluck with Blessings

6pm – “Not By Bread Alone”: A Tasty Exploration of Jewish Identity

Starting from bread in the Bible we will look at—and taste—Jewish uniqueness as it is expressed through Jewish law, Jewish tradition, 

Jewish ethnicity and Jewish peoplehood/nationhood.

7pm – Shabbat songs with Elyse and Dan

Saturday June 6th

10am – Shabbat Shacharit service with Torah Reading, music with Dr Dan, and dvar/sermon: “Pashat Naso: The Big Questions of Building a Community”. Our ancestors built a “mishkan” (tabernacle) as a symbol of Gd’s presence. How does that manifest in our synagogue life today, if at all? What can their mishkan preparation chapters teach us about community for our time

12pm – Shabbat Kiddish lunch, catered

1-3 pm: Torah/text study ““For Heaven’s Sake: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Disagreements.” How does Judaism view civil discourse? Can we disagree over fundamental issues and maintain a “community”? How? We will explore traditional texts which will help us ponder these difficult questions for difficult times.

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Biography of Rabbi Goldstein:

Rabbi Dr. Elyse Goldstein is the founding Rabbi of City Shul, a Reform congregation in downtown Toronto she started in 2011, which has grown to prominence as one of the most creative synagogues in Canada. She retired in 2024 and was named its Rabbi Emerita. 

She broke the “stained glass ceiling” after her ordination upon her arrival to Toronto in 1983, as the only female Rabbi in all of Canada. She was quickly recognized as a fiery speaker, skilled teacher and social justice advocate. After her first position as Assistant Rabbi at Canada’s largest synagogue of 5,000 families (Holy Blossom Temple) she founded Kolel: The Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish Learning, an adult education institute recognized a leader in Jewish adult education, and was awarded the most prestigious prize in Jewish education, the internationally recognized Covenant Award for Exceptional Jewish Educators, as a result of that work, in 2005. 

She was the first woman to be elected as president of the interdenominational Toronto Board of Rabbis and was one of seven women featured in the Canadian National Film Board documentary, “Half the Kingdom.” Her first book, ReVisions: Seeing Torah through a Feminist Lens, won the Canadian National Jewish Book Awards in the field of Bible. Her second and third books,The Women’s Torah Commentary, and The Women’s Haftarah Commentary were the first Bible commentaries in history written by female Rabbis. Her fourth book, New Jewish Feminism: Probing the Past, Forging the Future won finalist in The National Jewish Book Awards. 

In 2013 she was named one of America’s 50 Most Influential Rabbis by The Forward and in May 2017 she was awarded Doctor of Laws Honoris Causis from TMU (formerly Ryerson University) in recognition of her path-breaking work in Canada. She also acted in the theatre from 2017-2019 inThe Clergy Project, an award-winning show she wrote together with a priest and a minister, about being clergy in the 21st century which won “Best of The Fringe Theatre Festival” in Toronto.  She’s married to Baruch Sienna and together they have 3 adult children with 3 spouses and 3 grandchildren.

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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.