Why Ayeka?

Because we need a venue in which Jews can reflect upon and deepen their personal relationship with God.

Ayeka is the first question in the Torah.

In the Garden of Eden, when God asks Adam – “Where are you?” – Adam is hiding. This is an eternal paradigm. We all hide, at times, in different ways.

The goal of Ayeka is to create a venue in which we can stop hiding in order to explore our personal relationship with God, and to see how this relationship can impact our lives. It is possible to imbue our relationships, our work, and our entire lives with a sense of living in the Image of God.

In my 25 years of teaching Jews of all backgrounds and beliefs, I consistently found one quality common to all – it is difficult for Jews to talk personally about God.

There are many branches on the tree of Judaism: Learning & Praying, Family life, Community work, Social action, Cultural activities – but they are all branches stemming from a single root, a single seed – from which our name “Yisrael” is drawn. At its root, Judaism began by one person – Abraham – having a relationship with God.

Now, let’s be completely clear about this: no one at Ayeka is going to posit exactly what this relationship should be for anyone else. Everyone has to do their own wrestling. 2,000 years ago the rabbis wrote that at Mount Sinai everyone heard a different voice of God. Every relationship is different.

At Ayeka, we are less concerned with the question: “What is God?” than with the question: “What is God – to you?” We each need to wrestle in our own way with God.

At Ayeka we are providing an agenda-free environment, in which every person can explore their own relationship with God with full personal integrity.