Welcome to Chanting & Chocolate
About us
We are the Chanting & Chocolate Band in Vancouver. In the photo, from left, are Charles Cohen, Lorne Mallin, Rabbi Hannah Dresner, Charles Kaplan, Wendy Rubin, Martin Gotfrit and Eric Brown (missing: Rabbi Laura Duhan-Kaplan). On the last Sunday of the month we present sacred Hebrew chanting at Or Shalom synagogue, followed by tea and triple-chocolate brownies. (Dave Kaufmann photo)
In Mexico Feb. 25 at San Miguel de Allende
You are invited to join us at Chanting & Chocolate for the third year in San Miguel de Allende on Wednesday, Feb. 25.
Our band will welcome you at the Jewish Cultural and Community Center, Calle de las Moras 47, from 4-5:30 pm.
Tea and homebaked triple-chocolate brownies are served after the chant.
No special knowledge of singing, chanting or Hebrew language is required.
Admissions support the education of Ugandan Jewish children in the Abayudaya community.
Sacred Hebrew chanting
Join us for uplifting, sacred chanting that helps clear your mind and open your heart. No prior knowledge of singing, chanting or Hebrew language is required.
We are dedicated to offering sacred Hebrew chanting as a form of meditation and ecstatic prayer on the path of the heart.
On the last Sunday of the month, we bring you chants – a short phrase of sacred text and a spiritual intention – with our live band.
We share our music in the service of inspiration, devotion and community building. Drawing on the power of repeating ancient sacred phrases with beautiful melodies and deep intention, we create an experiential connection to the One.
C&C Vancouver pause
Chanting & Chocolate Vancouver is pausing for January and February 2026. Come sing with us at our next event, Sunday, March 29, from 7:30-9 pm.
Generate healing energy
Chanting, the repetition of a sacred phrase, is a way of transforming the words of liturgy into doorways. They become entrances into expanded states of consciousness. From those expanded states, we can have access to the fullness of our power to bless and to heal, both ourselves and others. The sacred words become the lanterns by which our inner treasures, the unique medicine that we each carry may be revealed.
– Rabbi Shefa Gold
Help us support Jewish children in Uganda
The donations we receive at Chanting & Chocolate events help support Hadassah Primary School – not related to the Hadassah organization – administered by the Abayudaya, the Jewish community in eastern Uganda. If you can help Jewish children go to this school in Nabuhoye village, please give through Lorne Mallin’s PayPal donation link. No amount is too small. Thank you! We regret that tax receipts won’t be available. Your donations are sent through a US non-profit called Global Village Connect, which supervises the funding in Uganda with a manager on the ground.
Our music
Ki L’Olam Chasdo is mixed from a live recording at Chanting & Chocolate on Feb. 23, 2014, at Or Shalom led by Charles Kaplan. The chant’s title means “For God’s Loving Kindness is Infinite” and the melody is from the Egyptian folk song “A Ya Zain”.
Beginnings
Lorne Mallin began leading monthly chant evenings in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, in 2004. He first encountered the joy and power of chant in 1973 in a mystical school called the Arica Institute. After experiencing a chant called “Ram in the Three Centres,” he discovered the exquisite stillness that follows chanting. It has been his doorway to inner quiet and connection ever since.
In 2004, Lorne entered a two-year training in chant leadership with Jewish chant master Rabbi Shefa Gold. He has led chanting in Uganda, Japan, Ukraine, the U.S. and Canada. In Vancouver, that has included Give Peace a Chant, Meditative Shabbats at Ahavat Olam Synagogue, “Chanting at the Gates” at Or Shalom Synagogue, his annual Chanting Seders, the Songs for the Soul concert at St. Andrews-Wesley and the Six-Day Peace Chant – both during the World Peace Forum.
Helpful links
• Many of the chants we use are online at the website of Rabbi Shefa Gold
• Mark Fenster heals through music at Autumn Studios
• drummingandhealth.com for the work of Lyle Povah
• Excellent drum teacher and player Russell Shumsky
• Sacred Hebrew Chant with Jeanette Gross
