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Kabbalah and Contemporary
Spiritual Revival:
Historical, Sociological and
Cultural Perspectives
International Workshop
funded by The Israel Science
Foundation, The
Goren-Goldstein Center for
Jewish Thought, and Ben
Gurion University
Ben
Gurion University, May
20-22, 2008
Titles and Abstracts
Program
Participants
Yaakov Ariel
The
University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
From
Habad Emissaries to Kabbalah
Centers:
New Jewish Religious
Movements and the
Revitalization of Judaism in
the later decades of the
Twentieth Century.
Abstract:
Between
the late 18th
century and the
mid-twentieth century,
traditional Judaism lost
ground, while secular or
liberal forms of Judaism
came on the scene.
Following the
Enlightenment, the
emancipation of the Jews,
modernization and mass
immigration of Jews to
Western Europe and the New
World, the connection
between Jewish identity and
commitment to an observant
Jewish life has weakened
considerably. In the
aftermath of the two world
wars many traditional Jewish
communities have ceased
existing, mostly as a
consequence of Nazi
annihilation policies,
Communist destruction of
religious life, or
emigration to Israel,
America or other
destinations. By that time,
most remaining Jews have
either liberalized their
tradition or moved away from
the synagogue all together.
By the mid-twentieth
century, it seemed that the
tide was moving only in one
direction: from tradition
and observance to
non-observance or a more
partial commitment to the
fulfillment of the Jewish
commandments.
The common wisdom of
run-of –the-mill Jews in
America at the time was that
Americanized and modern ways
of life meant giving up on
the cultural characteristics
of the “Old World” and its
modes of being Jewish.
Half a
century later the picture
has dramatically changed.
Traditional modes of Judaism
have reentered American
Jewish culture, with
hundreds of thousands of
Jews showing new interest in
repressed or abandoned
rituals, artifacts, music
and texts. By the turn of
the 21st century,
one can point to a movement
of ‘return to tradition’,
composed of tens of
thousands of liberal or
unaffiliated Jews who have
joined the ranks of Orthodox
Judaism, choosing to adopt
an observant way of life.
Others have formed more
liberal or egalitarian
communities that celebrate
the Jewish tradition, such
as independent havurot,
women’s mynianim, and
the Renewal movement. The
incorporation of traditional
rites and customs, as well
as the embracing of the
supernatural on the expense
of more rational
interpretations of Jewish
teachings, has taken place
in the liberal wings of
Judaism as well.
Reconstructionist Judaism,
which had initially started
as a modernist, rationalist
movement, has adopted a
pluralistic and egalitarian
version of neo-Hasidism. The
Reform movement has
reintroduced kippot,
talitot, and shofarot
and has included in its
prayer books teachings of
Hasidic masters. Kabbalah
centers have attracted both
Jews and non-Jews who have
found merit in a set of
teachings, which two
generations earlier they
would have considered to be
anachronistic or bizarre.
This
paradigm shift has reflected
a new era in American Jewish
life. Since the 1960s, many
Americans have come to
embrace the supernatural,
searching for spiritual
content in their lives and
exploring new means to feel
closer to the divine.
Jews have taken a
renewed interest in the
spiritual and mystical
elements of their tradition
as part of a larger cultural
American trend. There were
however agents of
traditional Judaism who have
set out to advocate liberal
versions of traditional,
often neo-Hasidic and at
times neo-kabalistic Jewish
practices and teachings. One
of the first attempts of
this kind can be traced to
the sixth leader of the
Habad Hasidic dynasty who
believed that non-affiliated
liberal Jews would find
interest in Hasidic
teachings. Another, more
egalitarian center that
advocated the reintroduction
of spirituality into Jewish
life had been the Ramah
camps that the Conservative
movement had organized for
its youth. A particularly
important role in the
proliferation of new Jewish
religious movements had been
outreach leaders that had
started as emissaries of
Habad, but adopted a more
egalitarian and pluralistic
worldview. Such persons had
played a particularly
decisive role in the
creation of a series of
groups, ranging from an
outreach center intended for
Jewish members of the
counterculture in San
Francisco of the 1960s-1970s
to the first havura
in Somerville of 1968, to a
neo-Hasidic synagogue for
Jewish yuppies in the upper
West Side of New York.
The
proposed paper wishes to
offer a map of new Jewish
religious movements, during
the 1950s-1980s, showing the
not always well-known
connections between the
different groups and the
mutual influences.
The exploration
begins with the gradual
turning of Habad from a
highly contemplative Hasidic
group into an order of
Jewish evangelists. It will
analyze the manner in which
ideas and emissaries
originating in Habad have
made their ways into new
groups and movements and
from those groups moved to
further influence other
movements. My aim is to
analyze these proliferations
in light of larger
developments in Jewish life
in America and to explain
why certain groups evolved
in the manner they did while
other chose different paths.
The overall map can help us
better understand the role
of new religious movements
within American Judaism at
the turn of the 21st
century.
Yoram
Bilu
The Hebrew University of
Jerusalem
Making
the Absent Rabbi Present:
Virtuality,
Iconophilia, and Apparitions
in Messianic Chabad
Abstract:
The
messianic surge among Chabad
(Lubavitch) hasidim, which
was focused on the seventh
president of the movement,
Rabbi Menachem Mendel
Schneerson, as the
designated Messiah, did not
subside after his death, in
the Summer of 1994.
Given the importance
of disciple-master relations
in Hasidism, which in Chabad
became all the more noted
under the authoritative
leadership of the
charismatic Rabbi, the
perseverance of the movement
in its current encephalitic
form is intriguing.
This is particularly
true for the radically
messianic Hasidim in Chabad
who deny that the
Rabbi-cum-Messiah has ever
died and maintain that he is
found, "in flesh and
spirit," in his old abode,
in 770 Eastern Parkway,
Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
My concern here is
with the cultural practices
employed by these hasidim to
cope with the immense vacuum
created by the loss.
These "practices of
embodiment" include a wide
variety of indexical,
textual, discursive, and
iconic devices.
The integrated use of
this cultural tool kit
enables the Hasidim to
maintain a life routine in
which the absent Rabbi is
always at attendance.
While for many
Hasidim he is a totally
virtual Rabbi, an elaborate
ritual system based on these
practices of embodiment
makes him very strongly
felt, particularly in his
abode at "770". In fact,
some of the Hasidim maintain
that the Rabbi became more
accessible after 1994.
The place of modern
media technology, and
particularly the creative
and pervasive uses of the
Rabbi's popular icon, is an
important means in making
the absent Rabbi present.
The recent wave of
apparitions in Chabad
appears as an unsurprising
derivative of these creative
uses.
Shlomo Fischer
Tel
Aviv University
Can
New Individualist
Spiritualism Also Coexist
with Violence and Collective
Commitments? New Spiritual
Developments Among the
Religious Zionist Community
in Israel
Abstract:
Most
contemporary research tends
to view all contemporary
spiritualist phenomena
through the lens of "New
Age" spirituality in the
liberal West. This
scholarship assumes that the
individualism and the other-worldlyness
of the new spirituality is
incompatible with collective
commitments and is
intolerant of violence. I
would like to challenge both
of these views by an
examination of new religious
and spiritual phenomena
among the West Bank settlers
and the larger radical
religious Zionist community
that supports them.
Recent
years have witnessed the
growth of a new religious
orientation among the
religious Zionist public and
especially among its youth.
This orientation places
greater emphasis upon the
individual, his/her
religious experience and
relation to God. This
orientation has expressed
itself in struggles over R.
Kook's canon, in the
introduction of new
"Hasidic" theological themes
and texts and in a new
emphasis upon a personal and
paradoxical faith.
This new orientation
is congruent with other
recent "individualist"
cultural phenomena in this
community: a new interest in
the arts; an increased
theological and literary
interest in the body and
sexuality as well as
experimentation with
autonomy and authenticity in
religious education.
I argue that these phenomena
are rooted in an
expressivist theology which
focuses upon how spiritual
ideas are expressed in
material media and how
material living creatures
(bodies) realize spiritual
ideas and purposes.
In recent years, this
community has shifted its
emphasis from the
self-expression and
self-realization of cosmic
and collective subjects such
as the Nation to more
personal and intimate
spheres as well as the
individual subject.
At the
same time, as the struggles
over the Disengagement from
Gaza and Amona show, this
community has not
relinquished its collective
commitments. Furthermore one
aspect of the new personal
and individualist cultural
emphasis is a theological
interest in and granting of
religious meaning to
instinct, aggression and
violence.
I suggest
that the individualism
carried by the new religious
Zionist spirituality and
cultural orientation is an
“inward,” “Lutheran”
individualism. In this form
of individualism the
individual is not opposed to
the collective. Rather one
finds God and the nation at
the root of one's soul. In
addition, the expressivist
orientation of this
spirituality means that it
is not “otherworldly” but
rather finds religious
meaning in material and
bodily acts and in the
realization of bodily drives
including those of sex and
aggression. The collective
commitments can further
legitimize violent
orientations. This case
study demonstrates the
variety of contemporary
spiritual movements.
Jonathan Garb
The
Hebrew University of
Jerusalem
The
Spiritual-Mystical
Renaissance in the
Contemporary Haredi World
Abstract:
The
Haredi (so-called
Ultra-Orthodox) world,
especially in Israel, is
currently undergoing an
unprecedented revival of
spiritual-mystical discourse
and practice. In my
methodological introduction
I shall claim that capturing
current phenomena of this
nature, especially in an
insular world, necessitates
moving out of libraries into
the "field" in pursuit of
interviews with "insiders"
and "internal" publications,
together with participation
in lectures and rituals. I
shall compare the quandaries
raised by such "participant
observation" to those
discussed in Loïc Wacquant's
Body and Soul: Notes of
an Apprentice Boxer. The
substantive part of the
lecture shall describe the
proliferation and deepening
of discourse in the worlds
of Kabbalah, Hasidism and
Mussar and introduce the
major schools, figures,
activities and writings of
the contemporary Haredi
spiritual world. Finally, I
shall place these trends in
the context of wider
developments and changes in
the Haredi world and in
Israeli society in general.
Wouter Hanegraaff
University
of
Amsterdam
Kabbalah in
Gnosis Magazine (1985-1999)
Abstract:
The
magazine
Gnosis, edited by Jay Kinney, appeared from 1985 and 1999 and was
the best-known popular
journal in the English
language devoted to the
study of Western
esotericism. Dominated by a
relatively small number of
devoted authors, it is the
reflection of a certain
esoteric “milieu”, and it is
particularly representative
of the “religionist” and
broadly countercultural
approach that has been
predominant in this field at
least since the 1970s and
into the 1990s. In my
contribution I will analyze
this particular perspective
and style of writing in the
field of Western esotericism
by concentrating in
particular on how kabbalah
has been presented and
interpreted in
Gnosis magazine during the fifteen years of its existence.
Graham Harvey
The
Open University, UK
Paganism: negotiating
between esotericism and
animism
Abstract:
Several strands of Paganism
emerged as popularised forms
of esotericism but have
always evidenced tensions
with such roots. The tables
of "correspondences" that
are commonly presented in
Pagan literature for
learning and application in
ritual and meditative
practice are a strong
indicator of esotericism.
However, Pagans often
complain about a perceived
mania for "lists" and "head
knowledge". In emphasising
participative ceremonies,
they reveal a remarkable
counter tendency to the norm
of Protestant European
denigration of ritual. This
not only seems to justify
the frequent assertion that
Paganism is "not New Age"
but also highlights
Paganism's alternative,
non-esoteric trajectory. One
illustration of this
negotiation is the use of
kabbalistic ten sephirot
"tree" glyphs in Pagan
literature about native tree
symbolism. Emergent forms of
explicit, radical polytheism
and of animist realism among
some Pagans (notably
Heathens and eco-Pagans) are
indicative of a trend
identifiable as
"indigenizing". This may
also parallel moves among
some Israelis to create a
"Canaanite" movement. In
this presentation, I develop
the insights of colleagues
(such as Hanegraaff, York,
Blain and Johnson) and my
own writing about "the new
animism" to argue that
Paganism and its key
discourses about "nature"
are best understood when the
negotiation between
esotericism and animism is
recognised.
Boaz
Huss
Ben
Gurion University
Studying Contemporary
Kabbalah: Achievements and
challenges
Abstract:
In my
opening remarks to the
workshop, I will examine
(briefly) the emerging field
of Contemporary Kabbalah
studies. I will discuss the
history of the study of
contemporary Kabbalah and
examine the methodological
and conceptual challenges
that this study poses for
the academic field of
`Jewish Mysticism`.
Tamar Katriel
Haifa
University
Precursors to contemporary
New Age spirituality in
Israeli cultural ethos
Abstract:
While
research on the spread of
New Age spirituality in
Israel tends to consider
this cultural trend in the
context of the postmodern,
globalized culture of the
past two decades or so, this
paper
traces the grassroots
search for non-religious
spirituality among some
early Zionist groups in
Palestine who were
influenced by romantic and
anti-rationalist European
cultural strands. Like the
cultural trajectories
articulated by
today's New Age
spirituality movement, the
cultural experimentation of
small pioneering groups of
the1920s proposed an
alternative to the
action-oriented, modernist
and pragmatic Israeli
Zionist culture. The vision
of the early groups,
however, was grounded in a
communal and dialogic
interpretation of
spirituality rather than in
individualistic and
self-oriented practices.
Using the case study of the
"soul talk" ethos of early
pioneering groups (Katriel
2004), and tracing
expressions of interest in
far Eastern philosophies and
literatures during the
nation-building era, I will
compare and contrast the
sociological matrix of these
so-called "secular"
spirituality quests, past
and present, arguing for a
more nuanced historical view
of contemporary spirituality
practices.
Adam Klin-Oron
The
Hebrew University of
Jerusalem
Messages for the End:
Eschatological
Thought in 20th
Century Channeling and its
Israeli Varieties
Abstract:
The
belief that the world is in
the throes of a
transformation from the
turbulent and violent Age of
Pisces to the harmonious and
spiritual Age of Aquarius
exists in the works of
Channels from Alice Bailey
to Lee Carroll, and has also
reached the Israeli
Channeling scene. I will map
the history, and the current
configuration, of the
verities of eschatological
thought as they appear in
the works of New Age authors
who claim to receive
dictation from non-human
sources. Emphasis will be
placed upon differences in
perception of the change to
come: complete or partial,
internal or external, sudden
or gradual. Specifically, I
will try to show which
verities are prevalent in
Israeli society, and what
connection – if any – do
they have with Jewish
eschatological traditions. I
will also discuss the nature
of the new world to come,
and the growing tendency to
focus on the individual and
the present at the expense
of the social and the future
apocalypse.
James R. Lewis
University
of
Wisconsin
The Science of
Kabbalah
Abstract:
In the
mind of the general public,
science tends to be regarded
as an objective arbiter of
‘Truth.’ Seeking to draw on
the prestige of science,
many religions have claimed
to be ‘scientific’ in some
way. The appeal of this
legitimation strategy is
reflected in the names of
such religions as Christian
Science, Science of Mind,
and Scientology. Kabbalistic
movements have not been
immune to this pattern; even
traditional Kabbalists
asserted that Kabbalah
anticipated science. The
Kabbalah Centre, however,
raises this claim to a new
level. Drawing on approaches
and rhetorical strategies
developed within the New Age
subculture, Philip Berg has
made the appeal to science a
cornerstone of his
presentation of Kabbalah. In
the present paper, I will
analyze this deployment of
discourse about science as a
legitimation strategy
designed to supplement – and
in certain ways to reinforce
– the appeal of Kabbalah as
Ancient Wisdom.
Joseph
Loss
Haifa
University
Transforming Experiences in
the practice of Buddha
Dhamma (the Path of the
Buddha) in Contemporary
Israel
Abstract:
Researchers of the growing
phenomenon of Buddhism out
of Asia are grappling with
the ontological question of
how to define their subjects
of study that are not Asian
immigrants, namely who is a
converted Buddhist. Several
answers have been offered
and all were criticized as
essentialist and therefore
too excluding or extreme
relativist and therefore too
including.
In this
lecture I will claim that
the actual question is
problematic because it is in
the first place
essentialist. Instead, I
claim, the question posed
should be how one becomes a
Buddhist in a certain
context, rather than who is
a Buddhist. Similar shift
can be useful, I believe, in
the cultural study of other
fields of current
spirituality.
In this
lecture I will describe
basic features of the main
event around which the
process of adoption of the
Path of the Buddha in Israel
is circulating – the Dhamma
course. As the experiential
aspect of these courses is
the central concern of the
loyal Dhamma practitioners,
I will analyze stories of
the transformative most
important experiences of
these practitioners in order
to articulate how the
motives of a person that
came to one course changed
and made him come again to
additional courses.
Zvi Mark
Bar-Ilan
University
The
Contemporary Renassaince of
Breslov Hasidism—Ritual,
Tikkun and Messianism
Abstract:
One of
the most notable Jewish
groups involved in the
renaissance of mysticism and
kabbalah in the last third
of the twentieth century is
that of the Breslov Hasidim.
R.
Nachman of Breslov is today
a cultural hero in Israeli
society, and Breslov
Hasidism is blossoming and
more successful than it has
ever been before. However,
because a comprehensive
study of the religious,
cultural and sociological
aspects of this phenomenon
has yet to be undertaken, it
is difficult to answer the
question of the secret of
the fascination of R.
Nachman of Breslov and why
he has, particularly in the
last generation, attained
such adulation and such a
position of importance.
In my
talk, I will limit myself to
discussing certain
components of this
phenomenon—the clarification
of which, I believe, can
contribute to a more
inclusive and complete study
of these questions.
The first
part of my talk will be
dedicated to the connection
between the Breslovian
renaissance, with its
extended influence, and the
coming into being of neo-Breslovian
messianic movements that are
working with great fervor to
spread R. Nachman’s
teachings.
The
second part will address
unique Breslovian rituals
that play an important role
both in the daily life of
the Hasidim and in the
yearly Rosh Hashanah
celebration, when all of the
Hasidim gather together at
the gravesite of R. Nachman
in Uman, Ukraine.
In
addition, I will address
“rectification” as a key
concept in understanding the
meaning of these rituals and
the secret of their power.
Jonatan Meir
The
Hebrew University of
Jerusalem
The
Revealed which Conceals: R.
Shalom Sharabi’s Kabbalah,
Esotericism and the Printing
of Kabbalistic Books
Absrtact:
The
lecture will deal with an
array of contemporary
developments in the
interpretation of the
Kabbalah of R. Shalom
Sharabi and their popular
dissemination. The
transition from the study of
these doctrines within
closed circles at the
beginning of the twentieth
century to widespread
reception within eclectic
and Hasidic traditions. Two
Kabbalistic yeshivot in will
be receive special analysis:
Ahavat Shalom and
Shuvi Nafshi, which
follow the teachings of R.
Shalom Sharabi, each in
their own way. A certain
tension distinguishes these
groups in their attempts to
interpret and disseminate
Kabbalistic literature which
will form the backdrop for
appreciating the place of
Kabbalah within
ultra-religious circles in
Israel today.
Jody
Myers
Kabbalah for the Gentiles:
Diverse Souls and
Universalism in Contemporary
Kabbalah
Abstract:
In this
paper I will examine the
phenomenon of contemporary
non-Jewish engagement with
Kabbalah. I will focus
on the individual Jews and
organized Jewish groups who
affirm the appropriateness
of teaching non-Jews
Kabbalah as a spiritual
discipline, or who are
struggling to arrive at a
coherent approach to the
role of non-Jews in the
study of Kabbalah. The
focus of my attention is on
the Kabbalah Centre and
ex-members of the Kabbalah
Centre, Bnai Baruch, and
others. The
theoretical rationales
presented by the teachers,
as well as the
self-understanding of the
non-Jewish recipients of
this teaching, will be
probed.
Michel Rosenthal
Haifa
University
"Are
you willing to cover your
head?"
Notes on the
spiritual economy of
blessings at Rabbi Amnon
Yitzhak's lectures.
Abstract:
This
paper describes and analyzes
the spiritual economy at
work in the lectures of a
popular Israeli Rabbi who
directs an "outreach"
organization for convincing
Jews to become more
observant.
Often those who
attend the lectures come for
a specific purpose—to ask
the Rabbi for a blessing.
The kind of blessing
requested varies
greatly—some ask on behalf
of sick relatives, others
for solutions to their
infertility problems and yet
others for their husband or
wife to become more
observant.
Usually, the Rabbi
responds to these requests
with a basic question:
“Are you willing
to…?”
Those audience
members that request
blessings who might be
identified as non-observant
(by their dress, manner,
etc.), are usually asked if
they would be willing to
receive a skullcap (kippah)
and prayer shawl (tallit
katan) or in the case of
married women, to cover
their head (with a scarf).
For that purpose, the
Rabbi carries around
skullcaps and white pieces
of cloth for head scarves to
distribute to audience
members.
The individual that
agrees is requested to come
up to the stage (accompanied
by canned music) to receive
the head covering, while the
blessing for a new occasion
(sheyheyanu) is
recited enthusiastically by
the audience.
Ironically, the act
of covering the body, a
symbolic representation of a
commitment to modesty and
religious observance in
general, is documented by
the cameras for future
audiences to view.
The once anonymous
audience member exposes
him/herself not only to
those physically and
temporally present but to
members of the audience
viewing the lecture through
live video streaming on the
website, and potential
future viewers who choose to
listen or view the lecture
at a later date through the
website.
If an individual’s
blessing request is later
fulfilled (i.e., a woman
gets pregnant or a child
recovers from an illness),
Shofar (the Rabbi’s
organization and production
group) might also produce an
edited film of the process
(see for example, a
Filmed Miracle [Nes
Metzulam]), films that
have potentially even
broader audiences than that
of the recordings of
specific lectures.
These edited films
are screened at other
lectures prior to the
Rabbi's arrival or during
the lecture itself, serving
as a kind of proof-text on
the efficacy of blessings
and religious observance in
general, and as a model for
future blessing requests.
Viewing
these blessing requests as
an exemplar of contemporary
religious mediation, this
paper examines the ways the
body is implicated in the
process:
1)as the object of
the blessing (i.e., heal the
illness, infertility, etc.),
2) as the relevant site for
repentance (e.g., cover your
hair or head); 3)as
the subject of visual
recordings and films; and
4)as the actual and intended
audience.
It concludes with
reflections upon the role of
visual media in the
spiritual economy of Rabbi
Amnon Yitzhak's enterprise
within the broader context
of contemporary Judaism.
Omri Ruah Midbar
Ben Gurion University
A
Comparative Study of Current
Spiritualities through three
Musical Versions of ‘Im
Nin'alu’
Abstract:
In 1984, at height of her
success,
Ofra Haza devoted an entire album to
traditional
Yemenite
songs (entitled Yemenite
Songs); in it the first
song was ‘Im Nin'alu’ (“If
[the Gates] are Closed”).
Two decades later,
the singer Madonna
recorded the ‘Isaac’ song
(for the album ‘Confessions
on a Dance Floor’), where
there are quotes from the ‘Im
Nin'alu’ song performed by
the Israeli singer Yitzhak
Sinwani. The connection
between the two versions,
of Haza and Madonna,
was made by the Israeli DJ
Ofer Nissim in 2006 through
a ‘Trance’ style Remix. Ofer
Nissim quoted various
segments where Haza, Madonna
and Sinwani sing.
Although the three artists
employ the same song, the
three pieces they created
represent three distinct
religious / spiritual
phenomena. Each of the
pieces holds different
significance for ‘Im Nin'alu’
in the spiritual world of
the musician.
Haza subscribed to a traditional
spirituality, and sang a
song that expressed an
authentic returning to her
own roots. Madonna expressed
a post-modern kind of
spirituality, and used the
quotation as an expression
of an ethnic’s "other",
which is in her eyes an
authentic expression of pure
spirituality. Nissim used
the 'Trance’ music to create
a sense of elation, and the
musical quotes are one of
the means he uses to lead
the dancing audience into an
oceanic experience. In
Nissim’s version all the
musical segments are treated
as music of an ‘other’, in
that way, while the listener
experiences a feeling of
merging with the crowd, the
music loses its sense of
uniqueness.
The story of the song’s three musical versions is the story of different
trends in current
spirituality. In the
post-modern condition many
people feel a need for
spirituality in their lives
– some of them return to
their original culture, to
their traditional
spirituality and get closer
to their ethnic roots; some
of them search for spiritual
answers in the culture
of
the ‘other’ (many
times in the ‘East’); others
are satisfied with a
spiritual experience without
to considering its source or
its essence.
Marianna Ruah-Midbar
University of Haifa,
Tel-Aviv University, Shalom
Hartman Institute
Jewish
Spirituality in the New Age
– Emerging Jewish-Israeli
Phenomena in the Junction
with New Age Culture
Abstract:
New Age
culture is situated at the
crux of an intense cultural
revolution, based upon a
shift from “religious”
values to “spiritual” ones.
This is illustrated, for
example, in the movement’s
harsh criticism of
traditional, religious
institutions and its
preference for the
Perennialist philosophy.
This distinction proves
fertile for analyzing recent
spiritual phenomena emerging
in the crossroads of Jewish
identity (primarily Israeli)
and New Age culture;
phenomena that are usually
non-religious, in the
traditional, orthodox sense,
yet at the same time, mostly
non-“secular.”
In this
lecture, I shall discuss new
forms of Jewish identity
that are currently emerging
in the (Israeli) encounter
with New Age culture. I
shall define ten types of
spiritual movements that
have yet to be examined
(apart from the first two)
in current research in the
field of Jewish identity
formation. They are:
Kabbalistic doctrines based
upon the Ashlag school;
Neo-Hasidism and Jewish
renewal; alternative Sabbath
& Festivals celebrations and
biblical interpretation;
Channeling of Jewish
teachings, personalities,
and entities; Jewish/Hebrew
shamanism, paganism, magic
and eco-feminism; Jewish New
Agey syncretistic schools;
new Jewish theoretical
systems; soul-body oriented
Jewish practices; Jewish
spiritual
consultation/mentoring; new
Jewish ritual objects.
Defining
and examining these ten
types reveals the emphases,
contents and ideals of the
new Jewish identity that is
now being formed in the
spirit of New Age, and the
current reinvention of
Jewish tradition.
Chava Weissler
Performing Kabbalah/“Kabbalah”
in the Jewish Renewal
Movement
Abstract:
Among
those groups in North
America that have adapted
Kabbalistic ideas,
teachings, and techniques is
ALEPH – Alliance fore Jewish
Renewal.
To understand what “Kabbalah”
means to participants in
Jewish Renewal, however, we
must go beyond an analysis
of ideas and concepts and
look at performance and
embodiment.
In worship services
and meditation exercises, in
song and in visual art,
indeed, even in baking
bread, members enact the
Sefirot (divine
Emanations), the Four
Worlds, and, central to the
movement, the quest for
devekut, the experience
of deep connection with the
divine. Examining
performative rather than
discursive ways of
assimilating Kabbalah is
crucial to understanding its
role in the movement.
Rachel Werczberger
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Jewish Self-Healing
- The Case of Jewish
Spiritual Renewal in Israel
Abstract:
One of
the possible sociological
explanations for the
resurgence of Jewish
mysticism in the form of
New Age religiosity
in Israeli Society and the
construction of new
religious identities among
Israeli secular is the
decline of the hegemonic
secular- national- identity
in Israeli society. Seen in
this context, Jewish
Spiritual Renewal (JSR) in
Israel can be understood as
an attempt to create a new
religious Jewish identity
based on the integration of
Hasidic Judaism and New Age
spirituality. Uniting
various mystical traditions,
both Jewish and non Jewish,
JSR developed under the
endogenous influence of
American Judaism,
contemporary spirituality
and the New Age Movement,
introducing new styles of
ritual and textual
scholarship.
Influenced by New-Age
spirituality, JSR adherents
perceive Jewish ritual and
text as instrumental for
their personal spiritual
transformation and healing.
These notions resonate with
the New Age emphasis on the
self and its need for
transformation,
self-development,
actualization and healing.
My lecture will review
several ways in which JSR
transforms Jewish ritual
into a ritual of
self-healing, via the
integration of the New Age
notion of a sacred self and
therapeutic practices.
Philip Wexler
The
Hebrew University of
Jerusalem
Toward
a Social Psychology of
Contemporary Spirit
Abstract:
Approaches to a social
psychology of spirituality
are reviewed, drawing upon
traditions of classical
sociology, social movement
theory, and interpretive
scholarship in Jewish
mysticism. Interactional
processes, including
particularly,
commodification and
sublimation and
desublimation, are
emphasized as partial
explanations of the variety
of contemporary forms of
spirituality.
Within
this social analytic and
interpretive scholarship of
mystical Judaism, an
alternative is initiated,
that works more directly
from classical sources of
Jewish mysticism - taking
limited examples from the
streams of Kabbalah and
Hasidism. This alternative
aims to compare selected
ideals of "mystical
interactions" with
contemporary, hegemonic
patterns of social
interaction. The question
raised is whether these
ideal forms of interaction
are in any way relevant to
current social realities and
whether, even further, they
may provide an "indigenous
theory" of social
psychology.
Elliot R. Wolfson
New York
University
Apocalyptic
Transposition and the Status
of the Non-Jew in Habad
Mysticism
Abstract:
One of the foundational
ideas in Habad philosophy is
the ontological difference
between the psychic and
somatic constitution of the
Jew and non-Jew. Every one
of the seven masters in the
Lubavitch dynasty have
posited a qualitative
distinction between the soul
of the Jew and the soul of
all other ethnicities. The
most striking way that this
dogma has been expressed is
the claim that non-Jews
possess an animal soul that
derives from the demonic,
whereas Jews possess a
divine soul that endows them
with the capacity to uplift
their animal soul and to
transform it into a vessel
for holiness. An alternative
way that this essential
difference is marked is by
the claim that only Jews are
endowed with the aspect of
soul known as yechidah in
virtue of which the
individual can be
reincorporated into the
light of the Infinite, the
incomposite unity of the
nondifferentiated One. A
distinctive ontological
position is accorded to the
Jews, therefore, as it is
presumed that only they
possess the aspect of the
divine that is the essence
of the Infinite, the “inner
point of the heart,” and
therefore they alone are
capable of devequt or bittul.
Even the campaign to
promulgate the seven Noahide
laws on the part of Menachem
Mendel Schneersohn rests on
the presumed irreducible
difference between the holy
nation of Israel and all
other nations. And yet, the
seeds to undermine this
perspective are found in
Habad teaching as well,
since the light of the
Infinite is characterized as
nondifferentiated unity, a
coincidentia oppositorum
where there is no longer any
basis to distinguish light
and darkness, holy and
impure, and, consequently,
the hard and fast
distinction between Jew and
non-Jew can similarly be
challenged. The overcoming
of this fundamental
distinction can be
considered one of the most
innovative changes in
contemporary kabbalistic
spirituality.
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