Hannah Dresner
Hannah Dresner believes it is her calling to work toward a revitalized Judaism integrating experiences of head, heart and physical being into Jewish practice so that our religious lives truly address the breadth of our human needs. She currently serves as full time spiritual leader of Or Shalom, a Jewish Renewal synagogue in Vancouver, BC. She is in the last cohort to have received rabbinic smicha from Rabbi Zalman Shachter-Shalomi through the ALEPH Alliance for Jewish Renewal, where she was also ordained as a spiritual director. Rabbi Hannah entered the rabbinate with an MFA from the University of Chicago and an exhibition, curatorial, and teaching record in visual arts. She is a Rabbis Without Borders fellow as well as a fellow in the second cohort of CLI, CLAL’s Clergy Leadership Incubator.
Articles by Hannah Dresner
Are We Clean Enough?
This week’s Torah portion, Tazriah, includes the stipulation that, following the birth of a child, a mother must separate herself ...
Closing the Gap
I’d like to share with you all the holiday message I have written to the members of Or Shalom Synagogue, ...
C’mon Baby, Light My Fire
This week our Torah portion (Tetzaveh) will open commanding the Israelites to “light lamps that will burn day into night ...
A Smile from Beyond
I ended 2014 by making the trip from California to New Jersey to visit my father’s grave. I stood on ...
Light Growing in My Darkness
I am a person particularly affected by sunlight, aware of a shift in my body and mood that coincides with ...
God Likes a Counter-Offer
We criticize Abraham for not voicing protest of God’s horrific demand that he sacrifice Isaac. Yet, ultimately, Abraham did counter ...
The Season of Our Newborn Joy
At the end of the Day of Atonement we petition: “Breathe into me of Your spirit, and I will live ...
The Cry of the Mother Whose Son We Have Killed in Battle
The rabbis of the Talmud have taught that the shofar must be blown with a particular intention: to sound like ...
Can I Pray in the Name of Jesus?
A chaplain's experience with a Christian patient.