In 1985, at a Renewal gathering at Bryn Mawr College, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi invited her to become ordained. Shendelman is the first, and to her knowledge, only ordained, Renewal cantor. The Jewish path is trying to find divinity in each person and if we're too wound up, we can't connect. Shendelman has a broad view of meditation. For her, both singing and bicycling are conducive to meditative states.
People meditate in all different kinds of ways.
You don't have to be sitting quietly. You can be bicycling, walking down the street, listening to music. Some need absolute silence and some can be walking through downtown. The frantic pace of modern life heightens the need for meditation, she says. That's why Shabbat is so essential.