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Some of our attendees have taken the initiative to create mitzvah days. These are days outside of our usual Shabbat gatherings where we go out into the larger world and give of ourselves and help other people.

Our first Mitzvah day was a Sunday this past September where we partnered with Dorot to deliver holiday meals to senior citizens.

Our second Mitzvah Day was this past Sunday where we volunteered at Masbia Soup Kitchen in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Here are some of our pictures.

“Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the L-rd your G-d will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be open-handed towards your brothers and towards the poor and needy in the land.” (Deuturonomy 15:7-11)

We are grateful to be living in a time where LGBTQ traditional Jews can openly take part in mitzvot and initiatives that benefit the larger Jewish community.

Life is bigger than ourselves. May Or Chayim (the light of life) continue to be a light in the Jewish community!

Oliver Rosenberg
Founder & President
January 14, 2016

One of the key reasons I created the LGBTminyan is best articulated by Rabbi Eliyahu Fink in the final sentences of the Forward‘s article on his minyan on the Venice, California boardwalk.

While I certainly do not think I am worthy of creating this minyan, I feel it is necessary to build an independent traditional / Orthodox minyan that makes LGBT people feel included and where they can celebrate their simchas / simchot.

“I used to think that it was easier to leave Orthodox Judaism than it is to stay – that those who leave are weak. That’s what I was taught in the Orthodox world. But I’ve discovered that it’s the actually the opposite. It takes a tremendous amount of strength to leave and most do because they are in a tremendous amount of pain. And if someone is in pain because of a world that I am a part of, if I can do anything to alleviate their pain, I will do it.”

Forward: ‘Shul on the Beach’ Makes Orthodox Waves in Los Angeles

Or Chayim

Mitzvah days & chessed work

“If someone is in pain because of a world that I am a part of, if I can do anything to alleviate their pain, I will do it.”