Jewish Renewal

[David_2010]

I was wondering, has anyone here heard of Jewish Renewal, or is there anyone who's part of it?.

I'm not Jewish, although, on my Mum's side I am (but, I wasn't raised in religious, as my Mum is more Atheist than anything), but, I've been exploring Judaism a lot more, along with some other religions, as I find them interesting, and, from what I've read, Jewish Renewal seems quite cool, but, I was wondering, what other people thought of it?.

I like how they do seem to integrate more mystical practices and related things, like they seem to make the Kabbalah more accessible, revive Jewish meditation techniques, etc.

Anyway, thanks for any replies.

David.

 

[Levite]

I know a whole bunch of Renewal-niks. They tend to be on the crunchy side, but they're good folks.

The thing with Jewish Renewal is that it covers an enormous spectrum of different schools of thought, agendas, practices, communities, and individuals. It can mean just about anything. Some of what is coming out of Jewish Renewal is wonderful: good music, an urge to reconnect practice and spirituality, the advancement of mystical study into the public arena, an openness to careful and judicious syncretization of useful ideas from non-Jewish sources. Some is less than wonderful: heedless syncretization of Judaism and other religious traditions, New Age enthusiasm at the expense of careful scholarship, the infusion of Jewish kitsch into religious practice and thought, a trending to individualization over communal affiliation.

Exploring Jewish Renewal is not a bad idea. It is a good idea. But it should be done judiciously, with an eye toward education and tradition, and with a grain of salt. (Needless to say, I would say the same of exploring the rest of the movements also.)

A lot depends on what you can learn selectively. For example, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi has a vast knowledge of Hasidism and the Hasidic Masters. If you can focus on reading his works on Hasidism, he is a magnificent source to learn from. Unfortunately, he also has become deeply and incautiously syncretistic, and his personal teachings are extremely troubling to traditional Judaism. Likewise, the late Rabbi Allan Lew was a masterful teacher of meditation, and an excellent guide to marrying Buddhist technique to Jewish thought. He also often stepped over the line in syncretizing practice, often trading prayer and ritual observance entirely for meditation and spiritual focus in the Buddhist style. If you can take the positive lessons without absorbing the negative, he is well worth learning from. Hebrew College, which has become increasingly Renewal-heavy, manages to generally keep a stable balance between syncretic Aquarianism and oversimplification of tradition and unrestrained innovation on the one hand, and traditional scholarship, spiritual guidance and methodology, and meaningful observance on the other. The Aleph institute, on the other hand, is a maelstrom of unrestrained innovation, reckless syncretism, and gross oversimplification of tradition.

Anyway, you get the picture. Renewal is a free-for-all, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have useful and innovative and helpful elements within it.

 

[David_2010]

I know a whole bunch of Renewal-niks. They tend to be on the crunchy side, but they're good folks.

The thing with Jewish Renewal is that it covers an enormous spectrum of different schools of thought, agendas, practices, communities, and individuals. It can mean just about anything. Some of what is coming out of Jewish Renewal is wonderful: good music, an urge to reconnect practice and spirituality, the advancement of mystical study into the public arena, an openness to careful and judicious syncretization of useful ideas from non-Jewish sources. Some is less than wonderful: heedless syncretization of Judaism and other religious traditions, New Age enthusiasm at the expense of careful scholarship, the infusion of Jewish kitsch into religious practice and thought, a trending to individualization over communal affiliation.

Exploring Jewish Renewal is not a bad idea. It is a good idea. But it should be done judiciously, with an eye toward education and tradition, and with a grain of salt. (Needless to say, I would say the same of exploring the rest of the movements also.)

A lot depends on what you can learn selectively. For example, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi has a vast knowledge of Hasidism and the Hasidic Masters. If you can focus on reading his works on Hasidism, he is a magnificent source to learn from. Unfortunately, he also has become deeply and incautiously syncretistic, and his personal teachings are extremely troubling to traditional Judaism. Likewise, the late Rabbi Allan Lew was a masterful teacher of meditation, and an excellent guide to marrying Buddhist technique to Jewish thought. He also often stepped over the line in syncretizing practice, often trading prayer and ritual observance entirely for meditation and spiritual focus in the Buddhist style. If you can take the positive lessons without absorbing the negative, he is well worth learning from. Hebrew College, which has become increasingly Renewal-heavy, manages to generally keep a stable balance between syncretic Aquarianism and oversimplification of tradition and unrestrained innovation on the one hand, and traditional scholarship, spiritual guidance and methodology, and meaningful observance on the other. The Aleph institute, on the other hand, is a maelstrom of unrestrained innovation, reckless syncretism, and gross oversimplification of tradition.

Anyway, you get the picture. Renewal is a free-for-all, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have useful and innovative and helpful elements within it.

Thanks Levite for telling me, and I'll be sure to follow your advice. One of Rabbi Zalman's books sounds quite interesting, it's called 'Jewish With Feeling', do you know if that's any good?.

Anyway, thanks again for your help and reply .

David.

 

[Levite]

One of Rabbi Zalman's books sounds quite interesting, it's called 'Jewish With Feeling', do you know if that's any good?

I've only flipped through that one. I seem to recall it being generally pretty decent. Reb Zalman is really a mystic at heart, and he is very big on the power of the moment, and connecting your spirituality to the emotional strength of religious experiences. Which is good, and right, and a very important truth that much mainstream Jewish practice has neglected of late. But, at least in my view, it's also important to balance that extremely important development of spiritual potency with the obligations and duties Jews have under the halakhah (Jewish law). For example, with prayer, of course it is vital that prayer experiences be meaningful and powerful and spiritually affecting. But the nature of people as spiritual beings means that such an experience is not likely to occur each and every time we pray, if we are praying daily (or three times daily), as the tradition tells us we are obligated to do. And that might be okay. I like to think about it like baseball: Hall of Famers hit .300, maybe .400 tops. In other words, for every 10 at bats, they're striking out 6 to 7 times. But you get up to the plate, and you take your at bat, or you take your swings at practice, and you do so not with an expectation to hit every pitch, but with the knowledge that every swing you take keeps you fit, keeps you sharp, makes you a better player overall, and that even those times you whiff big time and miss the pitch by a mile, you're still at least in the game, and it all goes to bettering your skill as a player. You see what I mean? And I think that's why Reb Zalman tends to lost sight a little of why it's important to keep at observance of the commandments even when you might not feel 100% motivated or in the zone for a peak spiritual experience. But you know, he's still totally worth reading, and his message about spiritual richness is a good one, and much needed.

Just off the top of my head, I recommend, of Reb Zalman's books, Wrapped in a Holy Flame: Teachings and Tales of the Hasidic Masters, and A Heart Afire: Stories and Teachings of the Early Hasidic Masters (co-authored with Netanel Miles-Yepez), and Tanya, the Masterpiece of Hasidic Wisdom: Selections Annotated and Explained. I thought these were all really excellent and both useful and informative sources on the thought of the Hasidic Masters. And they were very important, I think, because they were also seeking to reinvigorate the practice of Judaism with ecstaticism, which is more or less what the best of Jewish Renewal is trying to do-- the Hasidic Masters just did it with much greater erudition, subtlety, and traditionalism.

 

[David_2010]

I've only flipped through that one. I seem to recall it being generally pretty decent. Reb Zalman is really a mystic at heart, and he is very big on the power of the moment, and connecting your spirituality to the emotional strength of religious experiences. Which is good, and right, and a very important truth that much mainstream Jewish practice has neglected of late. But, at least in my view, it's also important to balance that extremely important development of spiritual potency with the obligations and duties Jews have under the halakhah (Jewish law). For example, with prayer, of course it is vital that prayer experiences be meaningful and powerful and spiritually affecting. But the nature of people as spiritual beings means that such an experience is not likely to occur each and every time we pray, if we are praying daily (or three times daily), as the tradition tells us we are obligated to do. And that might be okay. I like to think about it like baseball: Hall of Famers hit .300, maybe .400 tops. In other words, for every 10 at bats, they're striking out 6 to 7 times. But you get up to the plate, and you take your at bat, or you take your swings at practice, and you do so not with an expectation to hit every pitch, but with the knowledge that every swing you take keeps you fit, keeps you sharp, makes you a better player overall, and that even those times you whiff big time and miss the pitch by a mile, you're still at least in the game, and it all goes to bettering your skill as a player. You see what I mean? And I think that's why Reb Zalman tends to lost sight a little of why it's important to keep at observance of the commandments even when you might not feel 100% motivated or in the zone for a peak spiritual experience. But you know, he's still totally worth reading, and his message about spiritual richness is a good one, and much needed.

Just off the top of my head, I recommend, of Reb Zalman's books, Wrapped in a Holy Flame: Teachings and Tales of the Hasidic Masters, and A Heart Afire: Stories and Teachings of the Early Hasidic Masters (co-authored with Netanel Miles-Yepez), and Tanya, the Masterpiece of Hasidic Wisdom: Selections Annotated and Explained. I thought these were all really excellent and both useful and informative sources on the thought of the Hasidic Masters. And they were very important, I think, because they were also seeking to reinvigorate the practice of Judaism with ecstaticism, which is more or less what the best of Jewish Renewal is trying to do-- the Hasidic Masters just did it with much greater erudition, subtlety, and traditionalism.

Thanks very much for those recommendations, I'll definitely check them out eventually. Also, thanks for your summary of 'Jewish With Feeling', I'll definitely keep it in mind when I get it .