What is Assiyah?

Assiyah is the most concrete of the kabbalistic worlds of creation: it is about making, doing and constructing. It speaks to Rabbi Hale’s long standing commitment to hands-on-Judaism which manifests in sukkah building, matzo making, and workshops on mezuzah writing as part our sacred scribal tradition. He loves engaging others in the 613th mitzvah to: "write this song for yourselves."

One philosophy that further informs Rabbi Hale’s work and practice is Reconstructionism, which is a movement inspired by the thought of Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan. The core of Reconstructionism sees Judaism as an evolving religious civilization, which has at its core the torah scroll, and this is the focus of Rabbi Hale’s work.

Rabbi Hale also draws on the wealth and expanse of knowledge and perspective from his engagement and comfort with Conservative, Renewal, Reform and Orthodox Jewish practices and he brings this to each congregation or school he works with. He also recently received smicha from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi of the Renewal movement.