LA Community Chaplaincy Services

Specialties

We are rabbis, cantors and chaplains in private practice, ready to create beautiful ceremonies, lead services, teach and tutor, visit hospital patients, provide spiritual and bereavement counseling, and more, wherever you need us throughout greater Los Angeles.

Our clergy people come from all branches of our faith, and serve needs at any stage of life, from birth and simchas (baby namings, weddings) to death and beyond.

Beyond death? Yes. We also offer a service we call Sacred Waters (Mayim Kedoshim in Hebrew), which supports families as they face the loss of a loved one and want to show last respects in a deeply authentic, spiritual way. As hospice chaplains with expertise in the full range of Jewish end-​of-​life ritual, we can perform the after-​death washing ceremony called taharah (meaning purification), in the home or at the mortuary, with family and caregivers welcome to participate.

Taharah is believed to simultaneously prepare the body for burial and the soul to meet God. By opening it up to creative approaches, we empower families to take this ancient rite into their own hands, expressing love and honor, while bringing comfort and healing for themselves. Families that love each other, love Judaism, and wish to express this in a time of powerful transition, can find comfort in community through the ritual of taharah.

History

Established in 2011.

LACCS was founded and is owned and operated by Rabbi Avivah Erlick, ordained rabbi and board certified healthcare chaplain.

Meet the Business Owner

Avivah E.

Business Owner

Rabbi Avivah makes creative ritual and open-​hearted spiritual care available to families and organizations across Los Angeles, and teaches in many settings. She is a rabbi and chaplain working for hospices, hospitals, assisted living facilities and private families, and she also represents and places other clergy who meet her standards of excellence. A Board Certified Chaplain through the Association of Professional Chaplains, she holds masters degrees in rabbinics and journalism. She is president emeritus of her seminary’s rabbinical association, the Academy for Jewish Religion Clergy & Alumni Assoc. She is the co-​author of «Exploring the Soul of Taharah,» an inquiry into the boundaries for innovation within this ancient funerary practice, and is a regular columnist for the L.A. Jewish Journal.

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