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Thank you for your presentation yesterday on “The Grief Journey: Cultural, Familial and Personal Perspectives”. I always love your visualizations and the way you can teach about grief with humor. I thank you for your continued presence in the Art of Dying program.
Laura King Otazo
Art of Dying Program Coordinator
One Spirit Learning Alliance
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Reb Simcha Raphael did a series of Zoom classes for my congregation as part of a UJA grant on which we were partnered. He is such a great teacher in person, but he also manages to get the best from Zoom by sharing beautiful screen images with texts and then alternating that with interactive discussions. Highly recommended as ever! (Last time he came we also got funding from a Jewish funeral home.)
Pleasantville Community Synagogue
Pleasantville, NY
Thank you for your presentations today on “Transforming Images of Death: Envisioning A “Death Positive” and “Exploring Jewish Views of the Afterlife: Contemporary Implications”. Your use of slide images to illustrate traditional texts was beautiful. On the breaks, everyone was sharing about your sessions. You blew them away! One person said you could be a comedian. I am so appreciative that you did this with us. Our congregation symposium “May You Live To Be 120: Talking About Death” was a great success. Todah todah! To more collaborations! Rabbi Mychal Copeland
Congregation Shaar Zahav
San Francisco, CA **************************************************************************************************
Simcha – We just want to tell you how much we enjoyed your teaching on “Jewish Views of the Afterlife” last night. Even though we have taken your classes and studied with you previously, your teaching last night was particularly meaningful for us. We rely on your important materials when we teach our classes in Sage-ing and appreciate the research and work you have done in this field of the Jewish afterlife.
And in discussing the connection between personal death and loss and teachings on afterlife, it was meaningful for me to hear your confirmation of what I had experienced. We both appreciate the work you’re doing and the capacity you have to communicate these deep understandings to people.
Lucinda Kurtz and Oran Hesterman
Omena, MI
Rabbi Peg Kershenbaum
Congregation B’nai Harim
Pocono Pines, PA ************************************************************************************************** Dr. Raphael, I received very positive feedback on your workshop “Exploring the Bereavement Journey” presented in my class on “Grief Counseling with Clients Facing Dying, Death, Bereavement, Trauma and Loss”. The students appreciated the opportunity to explore their personal journey and to center themselves in life with a better awareness of the concept of death. Some of them said that you helped them confront death, and that took away the anxiety they had to talk about their own death and losses. Thank you for teaching in my class. Dr. June Ann Smith
Department of Counseling and Development
Long Island University, Greenvale, NY ************************************************************************************************** Dear Simcha, Thank you again for the wonderful series of programs you presented here in Duluth last weekend. We have had much positive feedback from our congregants and other community members who attended. Many were surprised and impressed to learn about the richness of Jewish traditions concerning afterlife and olam haba. Your divrei torah, story telling and talks were well received and have triggered many deep discussions in our community. We are so appreciative of your visit and I would heartily recommend you as a potential scholar-in-residence for other Jewish congregations. B’shalom,
Rabbi David Steinberg
Temple Israel
Duluth, MN ************************************************************************************************* Dear Simcha, Thank you for all of your wonderful teaching this past weekend. You brought us so many gifts of both the practical and the spiritual, and we were all blessed by your presence. I know that everyone is raving about how much they enjoyed your sessions.
Rabbi Marci Bellows
Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek
Chester, CT *************************************************************************************************
Thank you for a valuable experience of your course “Exploring Jewish Views of the Afterlife: Traditional and Contemporary Perspectives”. Your teaching was most engaging with a rich blend of historical Jewish texts and stories; and views of afterlife that I never imagined existed in Judaism. I appreciate your depth of knowledge and wisdom; combined with a warm heart and down-to-earth approaches to support ourselves and others as we face the challenges of life and mortality.
Joni Abramson, Minneapolis, MN
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Dear Simcha, It was a privilege to have you present your wisdom on Jewish views of the afterlife to our End-of-Life class last month. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your very special blend of pastoral, theological and textual perspectives. Your integration of pedagogical insights added a whole new dimension to the students’ learning. I know that these emerging rabbis will draw on your unique synthesis of our tradition’s approach to eternal life many times as they accompany dying individuals and their dear ones.
Rabbi Dayle A. Friedman
Director, Hiddur – The Center for Aging and Judaism
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Wyncote, PA
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Dear Simcha, Thank you so much for being a guest on SpiritTalk Live! You were fabulous – informative, insightful, profound and passionate. You have the great ability to make deep and difficult theological concepts easy to understand. You took us on a well-guided journey through Jewish history, and you brought us to the modern world, where age-old ideas are honored and at the same time, reshaped to reflect contemporary sensibilities. Your patients and clients are so fortunate to have you as their spiritual guide. I am very happy that you had this worldwide forum to share your wisdom and your inspiration. Many, many thanks…
Rabbi Wayne Dosick
SpiritTalk Live!
La Costa, CA
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Dr. Simcha Raphael is an incredible workshop leader. He engages the participants and gains a sense of where they are at and what they need from the workshop at the start. His use of stories and his wonderful ability to tell stories is an extremely useful and powerful tool. Reference to text and history helped to put into perspective from where our connotations of the theme originate. He has a very real philosophy about dealing with the topic and especially in dealing with children which is not to be afraid to talk about death but also be aware of the developmental ability of the child to process the information.
Amy Geboff, M.S.W.
Director Youth and Family Education
Congregation Ohev Shalom
Orlando, FL
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Dr. Raphael please accept our sincere appreciation for your outstanding presentation on “Spirit in Hospice Care: Moving from Apologetic Discomfort to Deathbed Soul-Guiding.” This program was highly anticipated and had the largest participation of any program in our year-long series, Living with Dying. The mission of this continuing education programming is to open dialogue about end-of-life experiences, particularly raising issues that are less commonly discussed. Our audience of healthcare providers crossed many disciplines from nurses to administrators, chaplains to social workers. Your professional ability, both as a speaker and educator, raised everyone’s level of consciousness to a new awareness of the deathbed experience. Your captivating energy and passion for the subject moved the audience to embrace spirit as a larger concept of existence than life itself. For this audience who deals with death on a regular basis, they felt suddenly empowered to assist beyond the physical and emotional support that they provide to their patients and families. They came away understanding the concept of soul-guiding.
Ritajean Reed, M.A.
Director of Volunteer Services
Wissahickon Hospice
University of Pennsylvania Health System
Philadelphia, PA
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Last week our Miami spiritual care initiative sponsored with our Board of Rabbis a Yom Iyun with Rabbi Simcha Raphael, author of Jewish Views of the Afterlife. Simcha brought up again and again that Jews have so many questions regarding the soul and the afterlife, and are under the impression that Judaism has nothing to say about it. He mentioned the poverty of discourse around these issues. If you are looking for a fascinating scholar-in-residence, I highly recommend Simcha. He has programs which are eclectic and original, deal with both standard Jewish ritual as well as Kabbalah.
Rabbi Frederick L. Klein, MPhil, BCC
Director, Mishkan Miami: The Jewish Connection for Spiritual Support
Executive VP, Rabbinical Association of Greater Miami
Miami, FL
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Dear Rabbi Simcha,
I was a participant in the “Kabbalistic Journey of the Soul: Birth, Death, Afterlife and Reincarnation” workshop at Omega Institute this past weekend. I thank you for creating a safe place, a warm place, a sanctuary, if you will, in the middle of the woods, an otherwise cold classroom warmed on so many levels to where all the participants could grow tremendously in spirituality, in knowledge, in humanity, in self-awareness.
I was personally touched by your teaching templates and graphics, your humor, your expertise, your spirituality, your candles which you “lit on the outside so that the light may also be lit on the inside”, your relaxed style of bringing home the lessons to each person in the room, your love of what you do, of all that you believe in with a passion, as well as your love of humanity… your love for discussion, for input, for individual thought, for engaging dialogue… your face which lights up when you smile, when you listen with all your senses, you pull a being into you. Thank you for your trusting of the journey, your genuine eagerness to truly get into someone’s head, heart, and soul…your appreciation of each individual self.
You are a game changer, a life changer, and a soul seeker. Peace, love, and light to you in this world and the next. I thank God for our paths crossing…
Helen Piserchia
Port Jervis, NY
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Dr. Simcha Raphael is a brilliant and compassionate, warm and accessible teacher, and he’s one of the leading experts on Judaism and issues of death, grief, and the history of Jewish traditions and beliefs about the afterlife. Simcha taught a class on these issues at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College when I was a student, which was superb, and I’ve been familiar with his writing, teaching, and pastoral work for almost 20 years.
Rabbi Maurice Harris
Associate Director of Affiliate Support, Reconstructing Judaism
Wyncote, PA
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Through lively storytelling and fascinating scholarship, Reb Simcha Raphael invites us to stretch assumptions about Judaism and the afterlife. Who knew there was so much in our teachings and literature about the experience of life after death? Why has that been downplayed in recent centuries? Adding the perspective of his own training and experience in psychology, Simcha has created an accessible synthesis of mystical teachings of the stages the soul goes through from the death of the body to spiritual unification with the Source of Life. He also reminds us how our forefathers spoke openly about and prepared for their deaths. Simcha calls on us to embrace that tradition by making choices and having conversations with our loved ones about our own deaths as a gift to all involved, especially the survivors. I find him to be a knowledgeable and engaging teacher.
Jean Berman
Portland Chevra Kaddisha
Portland, ME
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Simcha-
Thank you for every effort you ever made to learn and teach this material, be present to its truths, and communicate it to seekers. I received a great gift in attending your class at the Kallah. I have the rest of my lives to process all this! May you and yours be blessed back!
New York, NY
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Peggy Davis
Colrain, MA
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I benefit tremendously from monthly Skype sessions with Dr. Simcha Raphael. He provides valuable support and guidance, helping me integrate my many roles of rabbi, activist, parent/child/sibling/spouse, and spiritual seeker. His grounding in Jewish thought, his insights gained from long acquaintance with Reb Zalman, and his expertise in psychotherapy make him uniquely qualified to serve as a counselor to religious professionals. I hope other people will take advantage of this opportunity. We owe to those whom we serve to take care of ourselves.
Rabbi N., California
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