Rabbi Paige Lincenberg

אהיה Ehyeh Ah’share Ehyeh, the Divine introduces Oneself to Moshe with this profound name, meaning “I will be which I will” (Shemot 3:14). This summarizes a core life lesson we continue to learn over and over again throughout our days, as well as summarizes my personal journey through rabbinical school.

Currently, I live in a cabin in the redwood forest of California, indigenously Pomo land. I gratefully serve my local shul, the Mendocino Coast Jewish Community, Wilderness Torah: The Center for Earth-Based Judaism, and Shefa: Jewish Psychedelic Support. In addition to working with these three beautiful organizations, it feels to be my deepest honor and pleasure to officiate lifecycle ceremonies- weddings, baby namings, b’nai mitzvot, conversions, and especially funerals, honoring both the cycles of the earth אדמה and the earthlings אדם.

To get here though, my cycling through the spiral of life required an abundance of pausing, listening, and unlearning. Before ALEPH, I studied for my first few years of rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), at both the Jerusalem and Los Angeles campuses. This intensive, immersive study helped build my rabbinical foundation, on top of my undergraduate degrees of Jewish Studies and Creative Writing from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Having grown up in Georgia, this southern perspective has played a crucial role in my identity as a rural Jew. At HUC, I began reading the wise teachings of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (zichrono lvracha), drawing me toward his lineage at ALEPH. I sought a more holistic, well-rounded approach to the rabbinate, feeling much more authentically aligned with the ideologies and practices of Renewal. I am endlessly thankful to have been fed and supported by both HUC and ALEPH and feel the hands of all those who came before me from both paths on me today. Specifically, I deeply thank from the bottom of my heart and soul:

Rabbi Julie Schwartz, my childhood rabbi, the first female rabbi I ever saw on the bimah, empowering me to know I could too

Rabbi Chaya Gusfield, my Mashpiah/ Spiritual Director, so lovingly accompanying me on my journey

Rabbi Zac Kamenetz, Rabbi Eli Herscher, Rabbi Ruth Sohn, Dr. Joel Kushner, Rabbi David Wilfond, Rabbi Batsheva Meiri, Rabbi Lauren Cohn, Rabbi Noah Westreich, Rabbi Healy Slakman, Rabbi Naomi Steinberg, Rabbinic Pastor Sandra Wortzel, and my Director of Studies Rabbi Leila Gal Berner

My parents, Julie & Sheldon יפה ושמחה, for gifting me Davis Academy and Camp Barney Medintz, building my Jewish foundation

Rabbi Margaret Holub, my inspiring current Senior Rabbi at my shul, mentoring me and co-dreaming with me

Rabbi Zelig Golden for guiding me and trailblazing the Earth-Based path so I didn’t have to 🙂

Rabbi Efraim Frydman, my Orthodox great-grandfather who escaped from Poland during the Holocaust and didn’t even tell me he was a rabbi until I was sixteen years old telling him that I would someday be a rabbi!

Thank you, thank you מודה אני thank you.

Humbled by the journey, ready to serve  אהיה אשר אהיה ♡