We are a Modern Orthodox synagogue located in beautiful Newton Centre, Massachusetts, in the greater Boston area. Our small, energetic shul aspires to provide an inclusive, friendly, and participatory atmosphere conducive to personal growth through Torah study, serious religious expression, and building a supportive community of values and meaning. As our Sages taught us so long ago: The world stands on three things: Torah, Avodah, veGemilut Chasadim. At Shaarei, we too stand on, and just as importantly, we stand for these three foundational pillars.
Rabbi Benjamin Joseph Samuels
As Shaarei Tefillah’s rabbi for the past thirteen years, Rabbi Benjamin Samuels has endeavored to intensify and strengthen the shul’s threefold mission of Torah, Tefillah (prayer), and Darkhei Noam (communal responsibility). Rabbi Samuels explains: “As rabbi, I certainly aspire to fulfill the classic rabbinical roles of teacher, posek — halakhic decisor, and pastoral counselor by providing rabbinical services, but more central to my personal vision of the contemporary rabbinate, I aspire to empower individuals to take their own religious identities and spiritual destinies into their own hands.