Wrong number? A ‘call’ leads Tampa woman to second career as a rabbi

Rabbi Laura Duhan Kaplan, vice chair of the board and Dean of Students for the ALEPH Rabbinic Program, left, signs the certificate for newly ordained Rabbi Debrah Shenefelt on Jan. 10 in St. Louis. Debrah Shenefelt, spiritual leader of Tampa’s Jewish renewal Congregation Or Ahavah and 20-year resident of Tampa, became Rabbi Debrah Shenefelt on Sunday, Jan. 10 in St. Louis.

She became the first Bay Area resident ordained as a rabbi through ALEPH — the Jewish Renewal movement’s international organization and ordination program for rabbis, cantors and rabbinic pastors. (Another local resident, Kate Shulamit Fagin is a rabbinic chaplain and serves as director of ALEPH’s rabbinic pastor program. )

Jewish Renewal is a movement that incorporates the traditions of Judaism and infuses the liturgy with intense spirituality while focusing on egalitarianism and inclusivenesss.

Getting “the call’

Rabbi Shenefelt, 59, began her journey to the rabbinate more than 14 years ago when she attended an eight-week “women’s spiritual empowerment” seminar in Tampa. Run by a woman with Native American background, the group explored how spirituality shapes their lives.

Unable to attend the final session, a weekend “vision quest,” she devised her own meditation and vision quest weekend discovery at her home. Through deep meditation and contemplation on her own, Shenefelt said she received a message that she was to “bring Jews back to Judaism” and in order to do this; she was to become a rabbi.

Her initial reaction to this message was that “someone has the wrong number.”

Soon after this experience, Shenefelt found an ad in Tikkun Magazine for a Jewish spiritually retreat in upstate New York. While not a program of ALEPH, many of the instructors and the coordinator were associated with the Jewish Renewal movement. While attending the retreat, Shenefelt discovered the blueprint for what kind of rabbi she wanted to be. At Elat Chayyim, the Jewish Renewal Retreat Center in upstate New York, Shenefelt saw a Judaism that “was totally accessible with music, chanting, meditation, drumming and a complete trans denominational acceptance.”

After returning to Tampa, she began her studies in earnest with ALEPH. The studying began with immersion in Jewish history, philosophy, Midrash, Hebrew, and Jewish Law to name a few.

Like herself — a former government employee with a master’s in public administration, Shenefelt discovered that many of the instructors, entered the ALEPH movement “as their second calling”. For instance, one rabbi/ instructor was previously the chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of North Carolina.

While Shenefelt was beginning her studies at ALEPH, she began a weekly study session with Rabbi Theodore Brod, now deceased. That connection started with a recipe for gefilte fish.

Shenefelt’s husband, Phil, had attended an ecumenical Passover Seder that Rabbi Brod held at the VA Hospital and loved the gefilte fish. He asked his wife to see if she could get the recipe from the rabbi’s wife, Freda. Shenefelt called the Brod home and connected with Rabbi Brod. He asked her a few questions that opened the door to her new interests and soon they were studying on a weekly basis.

For Shenefelt, studying with the octogenarian Brod, “was like having a conversation with the Sages.”

According to her, Rabbi Brod was “communicating with the Rambam, Abraham and Moses” during their study sessions. She saw him “treat these giants like his relatives”.

A year before Rabbi Brod died in May 2007, he looked up at Shenefelt during a study session and said “You are a rabbi.” and resumed his studies with little interruption.

Ordination

Shenefelt worked right up to the weekend of ordination, completing her thesis paper and preparing her remarks for the ordination service with her co-presenter and fellow rabbinic candidate from Oslo, Norway.

With family and friends from the Tampa Bay area and a special guest— former Congregation Kol Ami rabbi and “inspired mentor” — Rabbi Joel Wasser, Shenefelt traveled to St. Louis for her ordination.

Shenefelt was one of nine rabbis and two cantors ordained at the ceremony. The new rabbis join 80 other rabbis inducted by ALEPH in the 15-year history of its ordination program.