Neyshev. Let’s sit. Chanting, meditation instruction and sitting. Everyone is welcome. No previous experience necessary. Led by meditation teacher, musician and prayer leader Aviva Chernick.
Please arrive before 7:45 to set up. There are chairs for sitting. Feel free to bring a cushion for the floor.
Fridays, Jan 13, 27; Feb 3, 10, 24 • 7:45-8:45am @ Makom
Pay What You Can • RSVP required
Saturday, Feb 11
4:30-6:30pm
@ Makom
$5-20 suggested contribution in advance
Register by Friday, Feb 10
Celebrate the meaningful coincidence of Tu bi-Shvat – the Jewish New Year for Trees – and Shabbat Shirah – the Shabbat of Song – through a contemplative and harmonious gathering.
In keeping with Izhbitz hasidic custom, our seudah shelishit – third meal of Shabbat – will focus more on the spirit than the body, so we’ll mindfully taste only a few morsels of fruit and keep speech to a minimum.
We’ll sing our way through the four kabbalistic worlds as the sun sets and the room darkens, and then conclude with havdalah.
Questions? Contact Rabbi Aaron.
Sunday, Feb 12
2:30-4pm
@ St. Stephen’s Community House – 91 Bellevue Ave.
$5 per person
Register by Thursday, Feb 9
Come for a fun and family-friendly exploration of Tu bi-Shvat – the Jewish New Year for Trees – through food, crafts, activities, books and more, geared toward elementary school-aged children and their parents!
Lag ba-Omer Family Program & Picnic
Sunday May 22 (2011), 4-6pm at Olympic Island picnic area 21 (near Centre Island Ferry Dock). See map(PDF)
Got kids? Bring ‘em to the Island to celebrate Lag ba-Omer with other families for fun, outdoor programs and a picnic.
Don’t forget to bring a picnic dinner, water, and a blanket.
Lag ba-Omer Bonfire & Picnic
Sunday May 22, 5:30-11pm (same location)
Come celebrate Lag ba-Omer with your community! We’ll enjoy picnicking together, playing, and relaxing on the Island with a great view of the city’s skyline. At sunset, we’ll light the traditional Lag ba-Omer bonfire and gather ‘round for music, singing, dessert, and hanging out into the night.
Suggestions of what to bring:
Everyone’s invited. Bring friends and family!
Come for any time after 4. The last ferry of the day departs Centre Island at 11:45pm. Read the Ferry schedule.
Learn about Lag ba-Omer.
SHAVUOT:
BAKING BREAD: Outdoor Baking in Honour of Shavuot
Sunday June 12, 1:30-4pm @ Dufferin Grove Park by the outdoor bake ovens.
$10 suggested contribution
Join Makom and Shoresh Jewish Environmental Programs to celebrate Shavuot, which marked the beginning of the wheat harvest in Biblical Israel. We’ll make bread using organic, local, heritage wheat and bake it in the community ovens in Dufferin Grove Park! (We’ll make the ovens kosher first.) We’ll mill our own wheat! We’ll learn about local agriculture and Jewish sources on bread! Everyone will get to bake a delicious loaf to take home as well as one to donate to tzedakah. We’ll also have ingredients for making gluten-free bread. Dough mixing will begin promptly at 1:30! We’re on rain or shine (there are indoor spaces we can use if needed).
Part of the “Jewish Time/Local Landscapes” series presented by Makom and Shoresh with funding from Natan’s Emerging Models of Jewish Connection grant.
WHERE SINAI MEETS SPADINA: Downtown Tikkun Leil Shavuot, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 9:00 PM – Wednesday June 8, 6:00 AM at the MNjcc.
Join with the downtown community for our third annual all night learning festival for the holiday of Shavuot. Come for an hour or two or stay the whole night and enjoy a variety of classes. Last year over 300 people walked through the doors!
Special programs for Kids and Teens! And, of course, refreshments served all night long.
FREE. All are welcome.
Featuring sessions led by many members of our Makom community: Aaron Levy, Aviva Chernick, Aurora Mendelsohn, Kalman Weiser, Risa Alyson Cooper, Tema Smith, Alon Nashman, Sarit Cantor, Mark Clamen, & Annie Gilbert!
Be sure to catch Rabbi Aaron’s session especially for Makom – “The Mystical Meanings of Friday Night Services (Kabbalat Shabbat),” 9:30-10:30pm – so you can better understand and be inspired by our joyous Friday night services!
More program details available here.
Presented in partnership with the Annex Shul, Camp Gesher and Habonim Dror, Congregation Darchei Noam, Congregation Shir Libeynu, Downtown Jewish Community School, First Narayever Congregation, Jewish Family and Child, Kolel and the Prosserman JCC, Limmud Toronto, Makom, Paul Penna Downtown Jewish Day School, Shoresh.
Friday September 30, 5:30pm
HTO Park on the Lake, 339 Queens Quay West, 1 block east of Spadina (map)
Makom will gather for a spiritual service where we’ll sing, reflect, and symbolically cast away our sins into Lake Ontario.
Following Tashlikh, we’ll welcome the first Shabbat of the New Year with our joyous, song-filled services, right at the water’s edge. Last year 50 people participated in our Tashlikh & davening by the lake.
If it’s raining, we’ll cancel.
Guided Meditation (Avi Craimer)
One of the most powerful effects of contemplative practice is its ability to take us beyond habitual vision of our life. Yom Kippur is a time when we need to see ourselves and the lives we lead with an extra-ordinary level of clarity and discernment. On this day, we have a yearning to see more deeply into the fiber of our being than on any other day of the Jewish calendar. Teshuva means returning ourselves to alignment with the will of the divine. Before we can accomplish this heroic act of returning, we must allow ourselves to dwell steadfastly with all the ways in which we are presently out of alignment. This program will use meditation as a means of opening ourselves to our hidden places in order to prepare us for a fuller teshuva at the Neilah service.
Avi Craimer founded and facilitates Makom’s Neshama Circle for Meditation and Contemplative Judaism, and has led other meditation programing for Makom. He is currently working on his PhD in philosophy at Georgetown University, after which he plans to pursue a career as a speaker, writer, and teacher.
Getting Ready to Sing Neilah (Leah Breslow)
Sing along and practice some of the tunes that we will use during Ne’ilah. No singing or Hebrew experience necessary.
Leah Breslow is a regular leader of Makom Friday night services. Sharing her love and talent of music with people is a particular passion of Leah’s. While she has played piano for many years and taught herself guitar, her true joy is singing.
Embodied Reflection (Lauren Stein)
Yom Kippurim means Day that is Like-Purim. In fact, this day is one of the happiest days in the Jewish calendar! Prepare yourself in advance by acknowledging your mistakes of the last year, forgiving yourself, and asking others to forgive you. Now you will be ready to make peace with G-d and put forth the kind of energy you want for the year ahead. In this workshop, get ready for a dash of introspection, with a dollop of silliness thrown in.
Lauren Stein is a fiercely funny woman, dedicated to her mission of enhancing lives through comedy and joy. Among her pursuits, she teaches improv, rents a community space, writes, performs, and sends blessings to you all!
In This Moment, Before the Closing of the Gate (Annie Gilbert)
Using Jewish liturgy, psalms and poems, we will sing our way to the gate of Neilah, the closing prayers of Yom Kippur. We will chant and pause for reflection as we journey to the edge of the days of awe and look back from whence we came. No singing or Hebrew experience necessary.
Annie Gilbert is a Toronto born and raised singer/songwriter, artist and spiritual leader. A current student of the Aleph Alliance for Jewish Renewal Rabbinic Ordination program, Annie is also an ordained Kohenet, a leader in Jewish, feminine, earth-based, and embodied spiritual practice. Annie co-facilitates the Downtown Toronto Women’s Rosh Hodesh Circle and is a regular leader of Makom’s Friday night services. She facilitates workshops all across the city, and focuses her spiritual leadership work on using music and creativity to illuminate Jewish texts and rituals.
Power & Problematics: Exploring Avinu Malkeinu (Aaron Levy)
Through text study and discussion, we’ll learn about the origins and development of this iconic High Holiday prayer and consider both its power and problematic aspects. We’ll also learn a few tunes for singing it. No prior text study experience necessary; all are welcome.
Rabbi Aaron Levy is a leader in the revival of downtown Jewish life. He is the founder and director of Makom: Creative Downtown Judaism, teaches percussion, and is a sought-out educator on a wide variety of Jewish topics, especially ethical eating, environmentalism, spirituality, pluralism, and social justice. Aaron was ordained in 2004 in the first graduating class of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in New York City and is an avid drummer, hiker, and vegan.
Friday October 14 | 6:30pm @ The Kiever Synagogue, 25 Bellevue Ave. (map)
We’ll end the week and bring in Shabbat with soulful, song-filled services, in which everyone can participate, under the canopy of the sukkah that we built on October 9!
Please Bring:
We’ll have three separate tables for food prepared in strictly kosher kitchens, in vegetarian-but-not-strictly-kosher kitchens, and in omnivorous-not-so-kosher kitchens.
In the event of rain, we’ll be inside the shul.
Reminder: We need your help make our community’s joyous Friday night services happen! Pitch in for 15 minutes to help setup or cleanup. Please email Stuart to volunteer to lend a hand, whether once or once a month. Thanks!
RSVPs appreciated but not required. Check in with our Facebook event or, if you’re not on Facebook, email us.
The SUKKOT & WATER Paradox: Learning in the Sukkah w/ Guest Teacher
Tuesday October 18 | 7:30pm @ 141 Markham St.
(1 block west of Bathurst, 6 doors south of Dundas)
Over tea & cookies in the sukkah (or inside if it’s raining), we’ll learn with Miriam-Simma Walfish, visiting from New York.
At the time of the Temple, Sukkot was seen as a holiday celebrating rain. Yet rain makes it impossible for us to stay outdoors in sukkot. We will explore this tension as it plays out in both legal and narrative rabbinic material as well as in our own lives.
Miriam-Simma Walfish is a faculty member at Yeshivat Hadar in NYC, where she has taught courses in Talmud, Jewish thought, and Bible. This year, she is teaching a course called “Wily Wives, Magic Men, and More: Using Literary Tools to Explore Rabbinic Stories” and guiding students in their learning. She is a graduate of the Pardes Educators Program and McGill University and has studied intensively at Drisha and at Midreshet Ein Hanatziv. She has taught at the Heschel High School, Northwoods Kollel and at the Havurah Institute.
Please RSVP.
Water Under Our Feet: Garrison Creek URBAN HIKE for Shemini Atzeret
Sunday October 23 | 2pm Sharp – 5pm (in the event of heavy rain, we’ll postpone to Oct. 30)
Meet at corner of Springmount Ave. & Rosemount Ave. by 2pm (just southwest of Oakwood & St. Clair. Click here for map.)
Suggested Contribution: $10
For thousands of years, Garrison Creek used to flow through what is now downtown Toronto. Although it’s now buried, it still flows through our downtown neighbourhoods! In honour of Shemini Atzeret – the holiday marking the start of the rainy season in Israel and a time when Jews around the world traditionally pray for rain – we’ll trace the path of Garrison Creek, learning about the evolving urban and environmental landscapes of our city while we hike. We’re hiking rain or shine! Presented in partnership with Shoresh Jewish Environmental Programs with support from the Natan Fund.
Please RSVP.
Parents of children currently in grades 4-7 are invited to meet with Rabbi Aaron and Rabbi Emma to discuss the formation of a Makom bar/bat-mitzvah program beginning in Sept 2017. We’ll hear your ideas and interests and present our initial vision for multi-year programs of Jewish learning and experiences working toward individualized bar/bat-mitzvah ceremonies.
Tuesday, Jan 17 | 8-9pm | Makom – 402 College St
Please RSVP to Anya. Questions? Contact Rabbi Aaron.
What does Hanukkah really celebrate? Turns out, it’s not as simple as what you learned as a kid. Learn and discuss diverse sources – historical, Talmudic, prayer, and song lyrics – with Rabbi Aaron to explore Hanukkah’s multiple origin stories and gain an adult understanding of the holiday.
Tuesday, Dec 20 | 7:30-9pm |@ Makom, 402 College St | $15
Register by Dec 19. Email Rabbi Aaron if finances are an issue.
Please join us for a family oriented Havdallah experience! Learn about the symbols of Havdallah with Rabbi Aaron Levy and Rabbi Emma Gottlieb, our new Director of Education and Family Programming. A great opportunity for parents and children to spend time together, do some parallel learning, and a chance for those who haven’t yet met Rabbi Emma to do so! January 21, 6:30pm at Makom, 402 College St.
Thanks to everyone who came to Sunday’s Annual General Meeting and made it a productive and enjoyable evening. If you missed it, you can now read the annual report and minutes.
Welcome to our newest board member Ari Kaplan!
Thank you to our returning board members – Louise Smith, Margie Peskin, and Barak Queija – and our outgoing board members Leora Jackson, Neil Hirsch, and Alex Taub – for their leadership and dedication to enriching and expanding our community!
October 3 – 12, 2016
Makom is delighted to offer WARM, SPIRITUAL, and PARTICIPATORY High Holiday services fusing TRADITION & CREATIVITY, MUSICALITY & REFLECTION.
For our fifth year, we’ll be gathering in beautiful Hart House for Rosh Hashanah on October 3 and 4 and for Yom Kippur on October 11 and 12.
Services will be led by Rabbi Aaron and our returning guest prayer leader Steven Goldstein. Steven’s husband, Rabbi Steve Greenberg, will also inspire us with his thoughtful teaching.
Click here to purchase tickets!
High Holiday Schedule for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur 5777
NEW! FAMILY SERVICES
This year, we’re excited to offer FAMILY SERVICES on the first day of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur day. Led by Rabbi Julia Appel, Makom’s Director of Education and Family Programming, Family Services will include prayers, songs, and stories to meaningfully engage adults and children together. Family Services are egalitarian with mixed seating, 11-12pm both days.
KIDS’ PROGRAMS
We’ll also be offering children’s programming on both days of Rosh Hashanah and on Yom Kippur, 10am-11am. Our educators will lead engaging, thoughtful, and fun activities, divided into older and younger age groups, to explore the meaning of the holidays. Parents are welcome, but not required, to attend children’s programming with their kids.
CHILDCARE
Full childcare will be provided throughout adult services on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Younger and older children will play in separate rooms under our babysitters’ supervision.
TICKETS
High Holiday tickets are fully tax deductible and you’ll receive a tax receipt for their full value.Ticket sales help cover the costs of putting on High Holiday services. That said, we don’t want anyone to be unable to attend services due to financial constraints. If the cost of tickets is financially prohibitive, please contact Rabbi Aaron in confidence.
DONATIONS
You can also pledge an additional tax-deductible contribution when you purchase tickets. (It won’t be included in your ticket transaction; we’ll contact you shortly about it.)
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
We need volunteers for logistical and ritual roles. Please contact Jo Frisch if you can help out!
Makom’s adult services need a minyan to start, so we encourage you to come on time. Both women and men lead services and read Torah and there is a low partition between women’s and men’s seating; children are welcome on both sides.