Raphael is a native of
Knoxville, Tennessee, daughter of Natalie and Mitchell Robinson, and grew up in a
Conservative Jewish family. She graduated from
West High School in 1971. She completed her undergraduate degree at
Indiana University Bloomington and earned a master's degree in contemporary
Jewish studies from
Brandeis University. After studying at
Pardes Yeshiva in Jerusalem for a year in 1984–85, to attend the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and was ordained in 1997. Raphael has worked to bring teachings of the Jewish Renewal movement to women in her community. She has offered a course on “Feminine God Language” and teaches that
Shekhinah emphasizes this feminine depiction of God as a way to correct a spiritual imbalance. She wrote with her husband Simcha "Ritual for Miscarriage, Healing and New Life" after infertility treatments and the miscarriage of triplets. In her revised
Kiddush Levana liturgy, both gender and terminology are transformed: God is invoked as both Shekhinah and Rachamemah, the latter of which connects with the Hebrew term for the appearance of the new moon,
molad, which literally means "birth." Rosh Chodesh becomes a festival that links directly to the feminine aspect of divinity. Raphael has counseled
intermarried couples to find contemporary relevance in Jewish rituals, such as when eating bitter herbs during
Passover the acknowledge bitter personal experiences. She notes the Jewish community's diversity, from
Orthodox to secular, racially, and interfaith. She notes she's welcoming interfaith couples rather than promoting interfaith marriages, acknowledging what is already happening. ==Music==