Aleph: the Jewish Renewal Movement

Aleph: the Jewish Renewal Movement A home for seekers, dreamers, learners, and spiritual explorers.

Jewish Renewal rooted in tradition, mysticism, creativity, and connection.
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After the intensity of Yom Kippur, Sukkot arrives like an exhale.For seven days, we build a temporary shelter, a sukkah,...
09/24/2026

After the intensity of Yom Kippur, Sukkot arrives like an exhale.

For seven days, we build a temporary shelter, a sukkah, and live in it as much as we can. We eat there. We host there. Some people even sleep there.

Why leave the safety of our homes on purpose? Because Sukkot reminds us that security was never really about four solid walls. It's about presence, community, and trusting the Divine even when the roof above us is made of branches and lets the stars through.

This is Earthbased Judaism at its most literal: holiness with dirt under your fingernails.

09/23/2026

There's something quietly radical about a sukkah.

It's not built to last. The walls sway. The roof lets in rain and starlight both. And that's exactly the point.

Jewish Renewal loves this holiday because it refuses to let us pretend permanence is the goal. We gather under a temporary roof and somehow feel more held than we do behind our sturdiest walls, because what's actually holding us is each other.

Have you ever built or visited a sukkah? Tell us what it felt like.

09/22/2026

Sometimes the most sacred thing we can do is simply be there for one another.

It lives in the way we listen when words fall short.
In the kindness we offer without expecting recognition.
In choosing compassion when judgment would be easier.
In making room for someone’s pain without rushing to fix it.

Jewish life reminds us that we are not meant to walk through the world alone. Our lives are bound together by responsibility, compassion, and the sacred recognition that every person carries a spark of the Divine.

We will not always agree. We will not always understand one another. We will have our contradictions, our wounds, and our difficult moments.

But we can still choose to listen.
We can still choose to care.
We can still choose to hold one another through the hard moments.

Because sacred community isn't created only through prayer or ritual.

It is created every time we make another person feel seen, valued, and less alone.

Maybe that is one of the deepest forms of renewal: remembering that caring for one another is sacred.

09/20/2026

Before the fast begins, take one quiet moment.

Place a hand on your chest. Feel it rise. Feel it fall.

You are about to spend a day without food, without distraction, without the usual noise you use to avoid yourself. That is not a punishment. That is a gift you are giving yourself.

Whatever you are carrying into this Yom Kippur, you are allowed to set it down for these hours and simply be present with the Divine, and with you.

May your fast be meaningful. May your heart be soft with yourself.

09/18/2026

Kol Nidrei opens Yom Kippur with something unexpected: not a prayer of words, but a release of vows.

We stand together, even before the fast begins, and let go of the promises we couldn't keep. Not with shame. With relief.

The melody carries centuries of people doing exactly this before us. You are not the first to arrive here imperfect. You won't be the last.

What vow are you ready to release this year?

Yom Kippur is often called the holiest day of the Jewish year, and it's also one of the most misunderstood.This isn't a ...
09/17/2026

Yom Kippur is often called the holiest day of the Jewish year, and it's also one of the most misunderstood.

This isn't a day built on fear. It's a day built on trust: trust that we can be fully seen, fully honest, and still be held.

We fast not to punish ourselves, but to clear away everything that usually distracts us from what actually matters. No food, no noise, just us and the truth.

Jewish Renewal invites you into this day gently. Compassion first, always.

09/16/2026

The Ten Days of Awe (Aseret Yemei Teshuvah) the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur aren't meant to be white knuckled through. They're meant to be lived, one small returning at a time.

Here are 10 ways to meet these days:

1. Start a nightly reflection : what are 3 things you are grateful for today
2. Turn to Psalm 27
3. Reach out to one person you owe a repair to
4. Visit your younger self. Sit with them, listen, and remind them they are loved.
5. Schedule time to pray on it. If that means making an appointment in your Google Cal then DO IT. That time is non negotiable and uninteruptted.
6. Give tzedakah, money or time, without needing credit
7. Touch Grass and spend some time rooting yourself back to the earth.
8. Celebrate AND RECOGNIZE your accomplishments this year.
9. Don't just Kvetch STRECTH. Let go of the tension in your body.
10. Put the OY in JOY. Find a way to make someone's day a bit brighter.

Which one will you start with?

Rosh Hashanah doesn't ask you to arrive perfect.It asks you to arrive honest.Maybe this year held loss. Maybe it held jo...
09/15/2026

Rosh Hashanah doesn't ask you to arrive perfect.

It asks you to arrive honest.

Maybe this year held loss. Maybe it held joy you're still not sure you deserved. Maybe it held both, tangled together, the way most real years do.

Jewish Renewal holds all of it as sacred material. Nothing you carry disqualifies you from beginning again.

That's not a consolation prize. That's the actual practice.

What are you beginning again this year?

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