What is Prairie Ruach Minyan?

Some of you might remember the Prairie Ruach service that Rabbi Green used to offer about once a month on Friday nights. It began while he was still in the north end, and he brought it with him to Shaarey Zedek. Rabbi Green stopped offering this service a few years ago, when he was the solo rabbi at Shaarey Zedek. Now it is being revived, with the addition of Chaya Green as co-leader.

Prairie Ruach is an experiential Kabbalat Shabbat service in the tradition of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, former Winnipeg rabbi and founder of the Jewish Renewal movement. It involves prayer—some in Hebrew, some in English—and heartfelt, devotional singing, both of which lift one up on an ascending spiral to the heights of spiritual exaltation.

We will be using Rabbi Marcia Prager’s Erev Shabbat Siddur, and it won’t be necessary to know Hebrew well to enjoy this service. All the prayers have Hebrew, English, and transliteration, for the comfort of all types of daveners. The emphasis is not on technical expertise, but on feeling, being, and connecting to the Divine. People usually feel very uplifted by the experience.

Through silence, song, and guided meditation, Prairie Ruach Minyan seeks to create a complete Sabbath mode of being. If you haven’t been moved or satisfied by synagogue services in the past, then Prairie Ruach could be what you are looking for.