The Shalom Center - The Nature of Torah

The Spirituality of the Future by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:34:34 -0400

Toward a New and Kerygmatic Credo
Zalman M. Schachter Shalomi

Chair of World Wisdom;
The Naropa Institute
Boulder CO.

This essay is a plea for research into the spirituality of the future and invitation for collaboration to bring this about.

Much of my perspective is based on my devotion to the Ribbono shel Olam, the divine Life-Spirit of Gaia. I come from a deeply spiritual Jewish formation in which the values of Tikkun Olam (Healing the planet) and the biblical command of Bal Tash’hit (not to destroy any natural resources) are an essential and constant feature.

In some ways I am on one foot, one of the last Mohicans of pre-holocaust Jewish mysticism and on the other foot I stand on concern with our future. Not only the future of our Jewish people and the continuity of its tradition and lineage but with the global future, our survival as humans on their way to the Great and divinizing metamorphosis.

Jeremiahs Old & New: Wright & "wrong"

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:16:57 -0400

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

When you live in a country that for a week has been transfixed by the furious denunciations of America by Pastor Jeremiah Wright and furious denunciations of Pastor Jeremiah by much of America --

-- it is startling to read the original Jeremiah -- especially when his own furious denunciations of his own country are emblazoned for the special sacred Prophetic reading the same week.

(In Jewish tradition, on each Shabbat is read a portion of the Torah [the "Five Books of Moses"] and a Prophetic passage chosen long ago by the rabbis to underline or sometimes confront the message of the Torah portion.)

Why YAH/YHWH

Wed, 14 Apr 2004 01:00:00 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, 4/14/2004

Dear Chevra,

First, I am glad to enter this discussion of the Name of God — AND, I hope it will not distract people from what I originally wrote about: the intergenerational/ e

The Body in Kabbalah: A Study in the Process of Jewish Renewal

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 12:35:48 -0400

David Seidenberg

"The Body in Kabbalah: A Study in the Process of Jewish Renewal"

By Rabbi David Seidenberg

I would like in this brief article to explore four examples of the Renewal interpretation of Kabbalah, and to compare them to examples found in traditional Kabbalistic texts.

Jewish Renewal has largely based itself on a particular interpretation of Kabbalah, one which is humanistic, egalitarian in terms of gender, and highly accessible. Kabbalah scholars have criticized this interpretation as historically inaccurate. These examples will help us to think about the relationship between Renewal Kabbalah and traditional Kabbalah.

Ahavat Yisrael: Love beyond Reasons