September/October 2005 Spirituality
Jewish Renewal:
Tradition and Innovation for the Here and Now

by Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield

The Jewish Renewal movement is a phenomenon that has been developing for perhaps the past thirty-five years. During this period many Jews in North America who were brought up in the traditional denominations (i.e., Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and, to a degree, Reconstructionist) often found them dry and uninspiring, long on external rules and rituals while short on teachings about how to live joyously moment to moment in the presence of the Divine. The late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel called this phenomenon the "separation of church and God."

As many young Jews became aware of Eastern spiritual teachings during the sixties/early seventies they flocked in droves to Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism, Subud, as well as to many other disciplines and gurus. Often, when some reconnected to their Jewish roots it was natural for them to seek out the inner, spiritual teachings at the heart of the rituals and observances of Judaism. They sought a way of practicing Judaism that was joyous, universally-oriented, and focused on bringing about healing,  transformation and awakening to the presence of the Divine in the here and now, rather than as an experience either that occurred in the past or will only happen in some future world or reality.

In this quest many found a mentor and guide in Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. Reb Zalman, as he is affectionately known by his students and admirers, was a Holocaust survivor who was born in Vienna in 1924. He arrived in the US in the forties and was ordained as a rabbi through the Ultra-Orthodox Chabad Chassidic movement. During the sixties, under the influence of teachers like Reverend Howard Thurman, himself a teacher of Martin Luther King, as well as other Western and Eastern gurus, Reb Zalman went beyond his, at that time, rather parochial understanding of Judaism and opened to a more expanded, universalistic approach.

Reb Zalman has a unique ability to "translate" from one spiritual tradition to another and, therefore, has been able to show the way in which a practice or teaching of a tradition other than Judaism is also present, in some form, in Judaism - and all this while still deeply appreciating, loving and honoring that particular non-Jewish tradition.

Typical of Reb Zalman’s approach is the following statement:

"I do not believe that anyone has the exclusive franchise on the truth. What we Jews have is a good approximation, for Jews, of how to get there. Ultimately, each person creates a way that fits his or her own situation. While there are differences between Jewish and non-Jewish approaches to mysticism in specific methods, observances and rituals, there are no differences in the impact of the experiences themselves. When it comes to what I call the ‘heart stuff,’ all approaches overlap."

During the seventies, eighties, and nineties he traveled extensively, facilitating workshops on Jewish spirituality in North America and Europe, leaving in his wake groups of people interested in forming informal religious fellowships (called, in Hebrew, "chavurot") in order to deepen their individual practice and to participate with a community of fellow seekers. Over the years an umbrella organization known as "Aleph; the Alliance For Jewish Renewal" was created. Aleph supports many Jewish Renewal projects such as a network of about fifty Jewish Renewal communities/congregations worldwide, a unique rabbinic program, a bi-annual gathering of up to one thousand participants who come together from all over the world to study, celebrate and network, a Jewish Renewal retreat center in upstate New York, and the disemmination of the teachings of Reb Zalman and other Jewish Renewal teachers via books, videos and sound recordings.

Over the years one other stream merged with the river of Jewish Renewal set in motion by Reb Zalman. Many Jews who had been involved in the civil rights struggle, the anti-Vietnam War movement, feminism, environmentalism, and other progressive causes who understood their social activism as being rooted in the prophetic tradition of the Hebrew Bible also found a natural home in the Jewish Renewal movement.

So, currently, for example, Rabbi Arthur Waskow’s "Shalom Center" (based in Philadelphia and a project of Aleph) is, together with a number of other faith groups, one of the driving forces, behind "God’s October Surprise." "God’s October Surprise," as a brochure from the Shalom Center describes it, is

"...a decentralized effort to respond to a confluence of sacred moments in many different traditions during October 2005. At just the moment of history when religious conflict, violence, terrorism, and war have reemerged bearing lethal dangers for our different communities and our shared planet, God has given our spiritual and religious traditions a gift of time.

The sacred Muslim lunar month of Ramadan and the sacred Jewish lunar month of Tishrei, which includes the High Holy Days and Sukkot, both begin October 3-4....October 4 is the Saint's Day of St. Francis of Assisi; October 2 is Gandhi’s birthday, and is also Worldwide (Protestant) Communion Sunday."

Congregations from all three Abrahamic faiths are urged to come together for interfaith worship during this time period and to take some joint action to protect human rights, heal the earth, and seek peace in the entire region where Abraham and his family is thought to have sojourned some four thousand years ago.

What has emerged from the joining of both "streams," the spiritual and the social activist, is an expression of Judaism which, at its best, supports free intellectual inquiry, strives to be non-dogmatic, is joyous, musical, mystical, creative, universalist, welcoming of gays and lesbians, and fully supports the equal participation of women and men while at the same time being deeply rooted in the spiritual teachings and religious traditions of Judaism.

While Renewal is a relatively small movement within Judaism, its influence today is very wide. Many rabbis ordained through the Renewal movement or ordained through other movements but sympathetic to the aims of Renewal, serve congregations affiliated with all the other major Jewish denominations. In this way, the teaching of the Kabbalah, forms of Jewish meditation and the abundant creations of Jewish Renewal musicians are "mainstreamed" throughout the Jewish world.

Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield is the spiritual leader of congregation P’nai Or, Portland’s Jewish Renewal community. He was ordained by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi in 1985. He is an internationally-known singer, songwriter, storyteller and teacher of Jewish spirituality. P’nai Or’s prayer gatherings are spirited, musical, participatory and mystical. Jews, people of all faiths, people of no particular faith at all, gay men, lesbians, transgender people, people who know much about Judaism, people who know very little about Judaism - all are welcome: www.pnaiorpdx.org.