AL SCHELL/Courier-Post Rabbi Richard Simon of Temple Har Zion in Mount Holly, uses drums during renewal services.

Every month, congregants at Temple Har Zion pull their chairs into a wide circle around the Torah.

They slap hand-held drums and tambourines, providing rhythm for the cantor's guitar. Some sway and dance to the songs of ancient psalms.

They even chant and meditate, before reading the Torah aloud.

It's called a renewal service and the Conservative-style synagogue in Mount Holly is the only one in South Jersey to offer it, said Har Zion Rabbi Richard Simon. The rabbi is wellknown in South Jersey for his interest in Jewish mysticism or Qabbalah, a practice that seeks a direct personal experience with God.

Temple Har Zion also conducts traditional services, but its renewal services draw people from as far as New York City and Philadelphia, said Simon.

"We get a lot of positive responses from people who have told us this is the first time in their life that they've had a truly worshipful experience," Simon said.

The nondenominational movement borrows music and dance from the roots of Judaic worship, some meditation styles from Zen Buddhism and even some prayer styles from Sufism, the mystic Islamic practice, Simon said.

But it's not New Age, according to ALEPH: the Alliance for Jewish Renewal. The Philadelphia-based group says chanting, meditation, song and dance have always been a part of Judaism, but such practices were lost over time.

The Jewish renewal movement began with the teachings of Rabbis Shlomo Carlebach and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. Both were trained in the Lubavitch Hasidic movement and left to begin a different style of worship.

In 1962, Schachter-Shalomi founded B'nai Or Religious Fellowship in Philadelphia, which is considered the home of Jewish renewal. Simon began his study with Schachter-Shalomi in 1979 and brought renewal to Har Zion 15 years ago.

Simon calls it "neo-Hasidic." Renewal borrows much from the Orthodox tradition without its strict rules.

The renewal service is broken into four parts, corresponding to what Jewish mystics call the four worlds: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Dancing corresponds to the physical, singing with the emotional, Torah study with the mental, and prayer and meditation with the spiritual.

Some people might find the service goofy or too New Age for their tastes, congregants said. But they urged the curious to give it a try.

Religion wasn't a part of Lisa Thieke's life until she brought her 2-week-old son to a service at Temple Har Zion seven years ago.

The 40-year-old Westampton resident said she likes the synagogue's mix of services but enjoys the meditative renewal service the most. She described it as a healthy way to take a break from the challenges of everyday life.

"For someone like me, a beginner, I felt it was approachable," said Thieke, who supervises mental health counseling programs. "At first, some of it was a little uncomfortable. Then, I loosened up."

Gail Tishman of Marlton rarely misses a service at Har Zion. Drawn to Simon's courses on Qabbalah, she attended one of his renewal services about six years ago. She planned to sit in a corner and watch.

"It was as if my heart was touched," said Tishman, a retired DYFS worker. "I found myself singing and moving and doing the things that everybody else was doing."

If people are looking for something spiritual, she said, this is where they can find it.

Conservative and Orthodox synagogues typically ban the use of instruments on the Sabbath, so picking up a drum or a tambourine or a pair of wooden sticks during the service was a radical thing for Paul Stolpen of Vincentown.

But the music did something to him.

"Music just gets to the heart and soul," said Stolpen, 64. "It connects your body. It gets right into your feelings . . . It makes you feel part of the action that's going on."

He doesn't attend Har Zion's renewal service anymore because his wife doesn't like it, but he does attend a renewal retreat in New York each year.

"It's an easy way to feel a personal relationship between yourself and the Almighty," he said.

Tishman compares the renewal service to building a ladder. It lifts worshippers from their everyday frame of mind into a higher spiritual plane.

She still likes the traditional service but said the renewal service helps her connect with the old style of worship.

"One is roots," she said. "And one is wings."

If you go
Temple Har Zion, at High and Ridgeway streets in Mount Holly, holds renewal services twice a month. The synagogue also holds traditional, Conservative-style services. The synagogue will also host a weekend renewal retreat Aug. 8 to 10 at the Mount Eden Retreat Center in Washington, Warren County. Call Temple Har Zion at (609) 267-0660 or visit www.thz.org .
For more information about the Jewish renewal movement, visit www.aleph.org or www.jewishrenewal.org.