The Nature of Torah

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.   Read more »

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.)   Read more »

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   Read more »

David Seidenberg

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

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.   Read more »

Ivan Ickovits

Kaddish de'Rabanan
Teaching by Ivan Ickovit

Some Kavvanot for Kaddish:   Read more »

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Ahavat Yisrael: Love Beyond Reason

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow*

Many discussions of Ahavat Yisrael . the Love of the Jewish People . sweep into one muddled "brown" too many different colors that we might call "love."

There is the respect due to EVERY human being , not just the people Yisrael , as a bearer of the Tzelem Elohim (Image of God).   Read more »

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

WHO HAS CHOSEN US ALONG WITH ALL PEOPLES
If the Jewish people were 'chosen', does this exclude the chosen-ness of all other peoples?
Does that mean if I love my daughter, I cannot love my son? If I love my sister, I cannot love my brother? If I cherish my heart, I cannot cherish my liver? My brain? My lungs?
And if I can love or cherish each of these, the Holy Blessed Infinite One is more limited and cannot?    Read more »

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Kaddish and Kavvanah: The Blessings over Torah Study
Arthur Waskow*   Read more »

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

EYTZ CHAYYIM/THE TREE OF LIFE

"Eytz chayyim" in Proverbs, where the tradition has connected it with Torah, is talking about Chochma, Wisdom. The passage goes:

PROVERBS 3:13-18
13 Happy is the one who finds wisdom,
The one who attains understanding.
14 Her [i.e. Wisdom's] value in trade is better than silver,
Her yield, greater than gold.
15 She is more precious than rubies;
All of your goods cannot equal her.
16 In her right hand is length of days, In her left, riches and honor.    Read more »

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

New Approaches to the Haftarah

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

In the traditional Chumash, each weekly Torah portion is followed by a Haftarah (a selection from the Prophets) that is somehow connected in theme or idea to the Torah portion, or to the time of year (like the special Haftarah for the Shabbat just before Pesach).    Read more »