Rabbi Rayzel and Reb Simcha
Rabbi Geela Rayzel Raphael is an “unorthodox” visionary rabbi, and serves as Director of Spiritual Arts, at Aleph - Alliance for Jewish Renewal. She is a graduate of Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and has a personal smicha from Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. She has served four congregations, and her path is one of an artist and ritual leader. An award-winning singer/songwriter/liturgist, Reb Rayzel has six recordings featuring her music including Friday Night Revived, Bible Babe’s a Beltin’ and most recently May the Angels Carry You. Additionally, she is the author of two children’s books, Angels for Dreamtime and New Moon. She resides in the Philadelphia area where she performs weddings, paints sacred prayer shawls, offers Shechinah Oracle readings; teaches Jewish spirituality and offers musical Shabbat services and concerts. Fifteen years in the making, her Shechinah Oracle card deck will soon be published. Her website is www.Shechinah.com.
Reb Simcha Raphael, Ph.D. received his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies and was ordained by Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi as a Rabbinic Pastor. He is the Founding Director of the DA’AT Institute for Death Awareness, Advocacy and Training, and has taught widely on Jewish views of death and the afterlife across the United States, and in Canada, England and Israel. He has served as an Adjunct Professor in the Religion Departments of LaSalle University and Temple University, in the Aleph Ordination program, and in the Art of Dying Institute of the One Spirit Seminary. A member of the Rabbis Without Borders Network, he is the author of seven books on death and Judaism, including the ground-breaking classic Jewish Views of the Afterlife and the recently-published Musings with the Angel of Death: Poems of Love, Life and Longing. His website is www.daatinstitute.net.
