The joining of two people has created a birth. Not of a child, however, but of a Jewish Renewal community in Palo Alto.
The story goes like this: In 2002, Naomi Fine of Oakland and Kathy Levinson of Palo Alto met and fell in love.
Fine was very active at Berkeley’s Jewish meditation center, Chochmat HaLev. Though Levinson is involved in the Peninsula Jewish community, she did not belong to a synagogue.
After Fine brought Levinson and her two children to Berkeley for services, it became clear to them that they wanted something like this in their lives, but closer to their home. Driving from the Peninsula to the East Bay in Friday rush hour traffic appealed to neither.
So they began to think about how to bring something like Chochmat to where they were. Although they talked with Chochmat about creating an affiliate on the Peninsula, Fine and Levinson were not prepared to take on offering meditation sessions and classes, as Chochmat does.
Thus Mishkan HaLev — holy dwelling place of the heart — was born.
“We thought that we are inspired by Chochmat,” said Fine, “but we don’t think we’re ready to bite off that whole elephant.”
As the new community’s Web site, mishkanhalev.org, puts it, Renewal is “spiritual, ecstatic Judaism that combines the head, the heart and the soul — celebrating spiritual essence through the traditional forms of Judaism, with music, dance and participation.”
SaraLeya Schley, a student in Aleph, the Renewal movement’s rabbinical program, has been leading services — replacing a newly ordained rabbi friend they lured here to lead High Holy Days services last fall. Other participants have been offering their musical talents.
But at first, Levinson and Fine didn’t even know if they would have community support. So last winter, some of Chochmat’s leaders and musicians conducted trial Friday night services in Palo Alto to gauge interest. Each time, anywhere between 100 to 200 people showed up.
It turned out that quite a few people on the Peninsula had gotten the Renewal bug. Bobbi Bornstein, a certified Jewish meditation teacher, was one. So was Peg Krome, who had first experienced Jewish Renewal while living in Boston. But both were loath to make the drive north.
While Krome is a member of the Reform Congregation Beth Am, she said Renewal attracts her because “it’s from the heart. The music, the dancing, the participatory nature, and the energy helps me express who I really am in a way that’s joyful.”
Mishkan has been offering services once a month, and celebrating the holidays together. And it continues to grow, and redefine its vision.
“The process of creating community is a spiritual practice in itself,” said Fine. “We’re really intentional about making that process a holy, spiritual one.”
For Oscar Rosenbloom, who has studied Jewish music and considers himself somewhat of a budding lay cantor, he plans to stay involved with his Conservative congregation, Kol Emeth, for its traditional learning. But at Mishkan HaLev, he has helped lead services.
“It’s a ragtag operation, but that’s both the agony and the ecstasy of it,” he said.
“Whatever evolves provides learning experiences for everyone that we might not get in an established community. And the other part is that it feels wonderful to be part of something from the beginning and help create it and have an impact.”