Na’aleh is a Toronto-based Jewish Mindfulness Collective, led by a team of individuals and organizations devoted to teaching, facilitating and practicing Jewish mindfulness. 

Na’aleh means “Let’s Rise”. We seek to lift up life’s challenges and gifts with awareness, clarity, compassion and wisdom. We gather to elevate curiosity and connection in shared and joyous community. We practice to reveal the inherent goodness in each of us and to actively foster repair and wholeness in ourselves and in the world around us. 

Over the past decade, the leaders of Na’aleh have been offering programs to a diverse cadre of participants throughout Toronto and the surrounding area. Our programs engage in Jewish mindfulness practices that include: sitting and walking meditation, contemplative chanting and prayer, heart-centred Torah learning and mindful eating. Through extended, multi-day retreats out of the city, full-day immersive retreats in town, half-day and evening practice gatherings, Na’aleh offers a range of opportunities for the Toronto Jewish community to engage in and deepen practice and to be part of building, nurturing and sustaining a thriving Jewish mindfulness community in the area for years to come.

All Na’aleh programs are consciously welcoming and inclusive, without assuming or requiring prior Jewish knowledge or Hebrew, meditation experience or particular beliefs about God or Jewish practice. It is clear from participant feedback that there is a strong desire and need for 

Jewish spiritual practice that engages the whole self—body, heart, mind and soul; that is rooted in direct experience and exploration; that is introspective, moving and joyous; and that builds resilient and grounded capacity to meet the challenging times we are facing. 

Na’aleh is led in partnership between the following individuals and the organizations they serve:

• Rabbi Robyn Fryer Bodzin (Director of the Beth Tzedec Centre for Spiritual Well-Being);
  
• Aviva Chernick (Spiritual Leader and Artist-in-Residence at Beth Tzedec Congregation and Founder of neySHEV Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Community);
  
• Rabbi Miriam Margles (Senior Faculty member at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality);
  
• Aaron Rotenberg (Spiritual Leader at the Annex Shul); and
  
• Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appel (Beth David Congregation and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality). 

Our team is excited to launch our first series—an arc of four programs offered throughout this year, 5785 (2024/2025), each delving into mindfulness practices and Jewish spiritual wisdom to prepare for an upcoming Jewish holiday. 

Join us for this new initiative and help us build Na’aleh, a community of Jewish mindfulness practitioners who are curious, caring and compassionate. We look forward to welcoming you.

To register for the Na'aleh programs, please click HERE.

• Nashuva/Returning • Sunday, September 22 • 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
  (at Beth Tzedec) 
  
  
• Ohr/Light • Thursday, December 19 • 7:00 to 9:30 p.m.
  (at Miles Nadal JCC) 
  
  
• Entering/Kenisa • Sunday, March 2 • 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
  (at Beth Tzedec) 
  
  
• Har/Mountain • Thursday, May 29 • 7:00 to 9:30 p.m.
  (at Miles Nadal JCC) 

Na'aleh is a partnership between—

The Beth Tzedec Centre for Spiritual Well-Being, Institute for Jewish Spirituality, Miles Nadal JCC, Annex Shul, neySHEV and Beth David Synagogue