Rabbi Olivier BenHaim
Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue

Rabbi Olivier is the Rabbi of Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue in Seattle. He received a B.A. and soon his Masters Degree in Jewish Studies from Hebrew College in Newton, MA. He was ordained as a Rabbi in 2009 and currently lives in Seattle with his wife, Amy, and his two children.

With an Orthodox/Conservative, French, Sepharadic-Mizrachi background, Rabbi Olivier has been a student of Torah and of the Jewish way for most of his life. He lived in Israel for close to 10 years, where he studied in Jerusalem with many teachers of the Jewish spiritual path, both in Yeshivas and scholarly circles.

Rabbi Olivier approaches Torah as a paradigm for spiritual awakening and a lens for exploring one's Jewish identity.

He fosters a Jewish spiritual practice which includes guided and silent meditations, mystical chant, ecstatic music, song & dance. Rabbi Olivier is an integrally informed teacher who promotes a Jewish spirituality supportive of an integration of mind, body and spirit, awakening for each individual practitioner, expressing in community, and manifesting in our world.

You can find more information about Rabbi Olivier and the many programs and workshops he leads at www.betalef.org, or contact him directly at Rabbi.Olivier@betalef.org.

 

Rafe Pearlman
"In a powerful form of musical redemption, Rafe Pearlman entrances audiences with his rarified vocal harmonics, emotionally intelligent songwriting, and magnetic performance style. Rafe's music is experiential, revealing a holographic collection of images, tempos, and tones. Steeped in diverse world music traditions, Pearlman's "no frills" presentation of voice and solo guitar is as personable as it is ecstatic. " Maya Borhani-Island News

Pearlman has shared the stage with Babatunde Olatunji, Zakir Hussain, George Brooks, Jai Uttal, Sky Cries Mary, Joanne Rand, Ashish Khan, Paul Winter, and others, from a performance at the Shantipi International Music Festival in Israel, to headlining Seattle clubs The Crocodile Cafe and Tractor Tavern, a grass-roots tour through Australia, to up and down the West Coast.

Recently, he stole the show at the Mother Earth Music and Arts Festival in Bath, New York, where he was re-scheduled for an unprecedented second performance after enormous popular reception to his first. Rafe Pearlman knows "it only takes a simple song" to delight the heart and uplift the spirit, and he's the man with the golden voice to do so.

 
We look forward to journeying through Israel with you!

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