rabbi, writer, mushroom forager, yoga teacher, food grower

…human being

(not a human doing)

Born and raised south of the base of the Appalachian Trail in north Georgia (indigenously Tsalaguwetiyi land), Rabbi Paige (Lincenberg) Lowenstein רב חמה פריידא בת יפה ושמחה הכוהן found herself immediately drawn to exploring the traditions of her ancestors, from climbing trees to studying Torah.

Rabbi Paige built her Jewish foundation at both the Alfred & Adele Davis Academy and Camp Barney Medintz. Throughout that learning, she spent her space under the sun receiving a black belt in taekwondo, serving as the president of her BBYO chapter, caring for children and adults with developmental disabilities, interning at Temple Emanu-El of Atlanta, and living near Tel Aviv with Alexander Muss High School in Israel. By age sixteen, Paige knew she would be a rabbi.

While working toward her B.A. in Jewish Studies and Creative Writing from the College of Charleston, Paige served on the board of the CofC Jewish Student Union-Hillel, as an active member of Kappa Alpha Theta, led as the Judaics Specialist at Camp Barney, and studied at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Before starting rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Paige worked as a full-time caregiver for a girl with Rett Syndrome, starting at the individual level in her journey with pastoral care. During the first year of HUC on the Jerusalem campus and the second year on the Los Angeles campus, she began working as the Retreat Manager for Or HaLev Silent Jewish Meditation Retreats and completed her two hundred hour yoga teacher training certification. She served as the Student Rabbi, sole clergy, of Temple B’nai Israel in Amarillo, Texas, traveling back and forth once a month to lead Shabbat services, teach a Torah Study and Adult Education class, work with conversion and B’nai Mitzvah students, visit homebound congregants, and ultimately, solo lead High Holiday services as well. She joined the Weitzman-JDC Fellowship in Azerbaijan & the Republic of Georgia as well as the Fellowship at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE) in which she pilgrimaged to the town of Pultusk, Poland, where her Grandma Helen escaped from during the Holocaust.

Finally, after all of these fulfilling, spiritual pursuits, the redwoods that had always called Paige’s heart finally won her over. She transferred to ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, where she received rabbinic ordination (smicha) with a specialized certification in Earth-Based Judaism, and moved to an intentional community in the redwood forest of Northern California. Paige began working with Wilderness Torah, the Center for Earth-Based Judaism, first as a mentor for B’hootz, their outdoor “Hebrew School,” and now helps lead tefillah for Shabbat and holiday festivals. Additionally, Paige led for Kol HaEmek in Redwood Valley and Temple Beth-El in Humboldt. She also works for Shefa: Jewish Psychedelic Support, after having built a foundation in this work through Fireside Project: Psychedelic Support Line. To deepen this work, she completed a certification as a Psychedelic Guide through the Center for Medicinal Mindfulness. Paige feels drawn to intimately working with all different forms of altered consciousness, including death, and passionately believes in green burial practices such as human composting. She served on the Chevrah Kadisha of Mendocino Coast Jewish Community, where she served as a rabbi. Throughout all this, she worked at Mist Farm, getting her hands in the earth, growing food. Currently, Rabbi Paige passionately officiates weddings, funerals, baby namings, B’nai Mitzvot & conversions across Northern California, especially in Marin County.

Throughout all those revolutions around the sun, some adventure highlights include AfrikaBurn in the South African desert, backpacking across China, Vietnam, Thailand, & India, meeting the baobab trees of Madagascar, following Bon Iver on concert tour across Colorado, skydiving & bungee jumping, driving a campervan around Iceland, Alaska, & Hawaii, scuba diving every opportunity, hiking ים לים sixty miles in three days from the Mediterranean Sea to the Kineret, and spending weeks in meditative silence.

Now, Rabbi Paige spends any free time growing food, foraging mushrooms, seeing live music, and being with her husband, Ben.

Rabbi Paige deeply resonates with the teachings of Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (z”l), particularly in regards to Gaian Consciousness and the oneness of all life. She approaches and perceives all other earthlings, trees, and all life as merely an extension of herself, or more so perceives herself as merely an extension of them. We are Alone = All One. Thus, this articulation of her journey serves to simply share one story of the infinity of humanity. She would love to hear your story, too.

When asked to describe either her relationship with Judaism or her relationship with nature, Rabbi Paige often shares the old Hasidic tale of the rabbi’s wise son who would sneak off to the woods from shul to davven. When the rabbi does not understand his son’s choice to pray in the forest rather than inside and confronts his child, declaring that “God is the same everywhere,” his smiling son profoundly responds “but I’m not.”