Link to Beit Tefilah's Web Site (Hebrew)

E-mail: info@beit-tefilah.org

Beit Tefilah Israeli - Overview
Beit Tefilah Israeli is a young, growing community in Tel Aviv, which offers a meaningful option for spiritual gatherings on Shabbat and Holidays (Avodab), study sessions (Torah) and a ground for social action (Gemilut Hasadim) based on a sense of belonging, shared values and communal activities. The services combine live music, modern poetry and literature with the traditional prayer book (Siddur).

The members and participants of Beit Tefilah Israeli consist of Tel Avivian men and women — singles and families with children from various lifestyles, who seek to infuse their Jewish-Israeli identity with various forms of expression. Most of us lead a secular lifestyle.

Our aim is to deepen and enrich the Jewish-Israeli identity amongst the secular sector, to build an Israeli community that is inspired by Jewish tradition and which adapts itself to the urban Israeli setting. We wish to renew the notion of prayer and to form a new Israeli liturgical language. Beit Tefilah Israeli has become a welcoming place for people in the Tel Aviv area who are looking for ways to explore the world of Jewish communal and spiritual life.

Beit Tefilah Israeli — Description
After experiencing different ritual communal Jewish life in North America, we became convinced that we wanted to address the lack of a relevant, vibrant Jewish spiritual community among the secular population in Israel. We highly appreciate the models we encountered in the US (such as the BJ community in NYC) and they have served as a source of inspiration for us. At the same time it is clear that a community like this would appeal to the secular Israeli audience only if it were imbedded in Israeli culture along with traditional Jewish sources.

We find that this combination is imperative to the success of the new Synagogue, a job that is at once intriguing and challenging. One effective attempt to develop the Hebrew-Israeli character of Beit Tefilah is by addressing well-known Israeli artists and musicians to create texts and music that will be integrated into prayer. In addition, the overall layouts of the sitting design, the graphic design of the Siddur and other artistic elements- all contribute to the ‘Israeli user friendly look’ of Beit Tefilah Israeli.

There is a very large sector in Israeli society which has not been successfully addressed by any of the existing synagogues and subsequently does not find an appropriate response to its communal aspirations and spiritual quest. We belong to this group.

Since the beginning of the Zionist movement the nation and its leaders were preoccupied with creating a Jewish political community. The Labor movement created a new model of social and cultural community - the Kibbutzim. Other forms of Jewish communities were considered unnecessary, “a club within a club”. They rejected the need in synagogues, the “Diaspora Jewish club”, as the feeling was that since the state was founded Jews live in “one big Jewish club”. We sense that this feeling is now diminishing. It is rather clear that the public experience does not replenish all Jewish spiritual needs of Israelis nor their desire to be part of an intimate community.

We are in the process creating of a new model of a community in the urban secular society in the Tel Aviv area. This community offers a meaningful option for spiritual gatherings on Shabbat and Holidays and a sense of belonging based on shared values and activities.

We wish to create a new Synagogue; a welcoming place for secular people in the Tel Aviv area who are open to explore the world of Jewish communal and spiritual life. We seek to create a new mode of Tefillah (prayer) based on the traditional text while adjusting to new content and praxis such as music, dancing, meditation and personal prayers.

In recent years there is a growing movement among secular Israelis of coming back to the Jewish library. Places such as Alma and Kolot are attracting hundreds of people, engaging in modern reading of classical Jewish texts. These ventures are engaging one’s intellect. Beit Tefillah Israeli provides an answer to spiritual needs which are not met by attending a Beit Midrash.

The unaffiliated nature of the project is a novelty in itself. We respect the contribution of the liberal establishments to Jewish pluralism in Israel, yet the focus of this project is cultural not political. We wish to be open to a large spectrum of spiritual experiments and thus would like to be free of any preconception or restrains.

The effort to renew the broadest sense of prayer and ritual language in the context of secular Israeli culture is important to us. There is no synagogue in Tel Aviv today where musical instruments are used in prayers and which Offers ways to merge personal texts and original Israeli music with traditional forms of ritual. Beit Tefilah Israeli’s audience is composed of young Tel Avivian men and women, their children and families who seek to infuse their spiritual journey with Jewish expression. We attract people who attain pluralistic Batei Midrash who are in search of ways to expand their experience beyond the intellectual dimension, entering emotional and communal experiences.

Social action will be an integral part of our new Synagogue. In the light if the classical Jewish saying: Torah, Avodah (ritual) and Gmllut
Hassadim (social action), we will seek ways to express our commitment to our neighboring communities in a concrete manner.

Since July 2004 we have held Kabbalat Shabbat services attended by 60-100 participants, Havdallah and text study, Megillah reading at Purim, A special ceremony between Memorial Day and Independence Day, megilah reading and study session on Tisha B’Av and more. We plan to hold High Holiday services this upcoming season.

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