Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi: Essential Teachings – notes on the book

Selected with an introduction by Or N. Rose & Netanel Miles-Yepez Nataniel (2020, Orbis)

These are my own gleanings from the book. I hope they encourage you to buy the book. I have paraphrased in order to clarify my own understanding, but there are also direct quotations from the book. The notes in square brackets are my own thoughts and responses, rather than ideas gleaned from the book itself.

Foreword (Arthur Green)

Xi Reb Zalman used to say, “How do you say that in Jewish?”
Xii “what are the things a seeker really needs to know, and how can I say them in a simple, direct, but devotionally stirring manner?”
Xiii Some souls from the Shoah might complete their lives in later bodies.

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi: a life of renewal

21 “he encouraged the seeker to think of their own life experiences as a sacred source”
22 “teachings on the setting of intentions (kavanot), … [and] liturgical creativity”
22 “[he] believed that one of the primary goals of tefillah … is to help the devotee live prayerfully, with devotional focus in the world”
22 “Reb Zalman understood his work as both an inheritor and an innovator”
23 dialogue with non-Jews: “need for ongoing dialogue, study, shared ritual, and joint action in the world”
24 “build the spiritual technology of the future using the wisdom of the past”

1. Our changing relationship with God

Introduction

26 we’re “meaning-seeking beings”
26 “throughout Jewish history our prophets, poets, philosophers, and mystics have spoken of God in very different ways, depending on the context in which they lived.”
26 Like Heschel’s word ‘theotropic’ [God-seeking]
27 Z: “God did not create the world; God became the world.”
27 Z’s “understanding of dynamic Spirit; a feeling and thinking Force actively seeking expression through the unfolding of life.”
27 “intimate personal relationship”
[In God, there are no contradictions, only ‘ands’.]
28 “our human need for the Other”
28 To anyone bothered by the idea of a God figure, “This is the God that I need right now. Cut me some slack. You can come back with your objections later.”
28 “intuition, imagination and emotion”
28 “In the spirit of our teacher, we invite you to read these pieces slowly, reflect on the ideas and images, and ask if they resonate with your own experience and understanding. If so, what do you find most compelling? What agitates or provokes you? Why?”

The Word God – JWF[1]

30 “theology is the afterthought of spiritual experience” JWF6
31 learn to find “a way to live with a thought named ‘God’ … not by signing any belief statements”
The God you don’t believe in
31 “The god that you don’t believe in, I don’t believe in either.” JWF8
31 “’God language’ can be of great help to us in relating to the Infinite.” JWF8

Our root metaphors and masks for God – GP112-113[2]

32 William James: “In front of what do you place your prayer?”
32 “Part of the divine grace is that God will wear any mask that will allow me to communicate.”
33 in order to make God relatable for us humans, “we provide God with masks”
33 “When you say, ‘Who is it that you come before?,’ check out the images that allow you the most heartfelt exchange with God.”

Gaia: a new face of God

33 “The more abstract the truth we are trying to grasp, the more we must rely on our imaginations.” JWF168
34 “as our Sages said, the Torah speaks to us in human language [Zevahim 108b]”

What face of God do you need? JWF8

35 “What is the face of God that you long for in your deepest moments?”
35 “Perhaps it will be a name from our tradition, perhaps something you make up.”
35 “Start making a connection.”

An emergent God JWF22-26

35 Macleish (1958): “If God is God, He is not good. If God is good, He is not God.”
36 To have a real, loving relationship with God, you have to allow yourself to rage at Him when you need to.
37 Neilah liturgy ‘Abraham knew You from youth’, Reb Nachman re-interpreted as ‘Abraham knew You from Your youth’ i.e. before God matured. “God, too is learning.”
37 “Without absolving God or the perpetrators” what responsibility, however slight or far-removed might we share in the problem?
38 “We make God the steward of morality and build up expectations, expectations that sooner or later are bound to be shattered. If instead we strive to accept all sides of the equation, if we could get into a Möbius strip mentality in which both sides of the page, good and evil, are one and the same, then we start to get a real sense of that famous phrase from Adon Olam: ‘God is one, there is no other’.”

God: what part of speech? JWF19-21

39 “as part of that universes we are ‘godding’ in everything we do. … Consider how we might ‘god’ most effectively today …”
[God gods, God gods me. I am godding. I am godded. You god me; I god you. I am godded by the God-universe. I god the God-universe.]

Understanding faith JWF27-29

40 “Faith is what I call a mind-move … Faith does not make sense, nor does it feel safe.”
41 Story of Shneur Zalman and his hasid Moshe: Don’t know what God is, but we must affirm that God exists, and nothing else does; the soul is what knows and affirms this; faith is the way the soul knows this.

Beyond I and Thou (the prayer of the monist) GH105-7[3]

42 “the heart needs to flow to a dialogical Presence. It needs to have the Other to face and to love and to embrace.”[4]

2. The Spiritual Life and the Terrain of the Soul

Introduction

[Include wisdom from whatever source.]

Spiritual hunger JWF3-5

48 We need an Other to receive our confessions, questions, rage, thanks.
[Much of this describes moments of grace.]
49 “our ancient faiths have become oververbalized and underexperienced. We talk too much and feel too little.”

The soul’s waking JWF 30-33

50 “That part of us that always seeks to awaken even more, I call soul.”
50 “Even those things that we seem to have forgotten completely are merely dormant, like a spore that has been planted within us, waiting for the proper conditions to germinate and grow.”
50 “Our soul wants so bad that we feel physical pain, so we reach for a pill.”
51 “If these worldly desires had not been etched into our bodies, we would never develop the sensitivity needed for a spiritual being.”
51 “goal of separation, which is to put our individuality at the service of union, of Oneness.”
51 “everything … is ultimately rooted in the Divine”
52 “So we dance, God the Creator and God the created. We separate, come close, and separate again.”

Moments of clarity D14[5]

[Help people say what needs to be said.]
53 sh’leimut avodah “aspiration for a completeness or perfection in our service of God.”

The mystical approach to religious life GH6-7

53 “Religious dogmatists see little purpose in looking below the surface for hidden meanings and experience. Religious mystics, on the other hand, see little purpose in simply reciting prayer formulae and not looking beyond them.”
55 The ‘fall’ from Eden was a “set-up to allow the human being to individuate, to become a self-conscious, individual being.”

Stages on the path

55 Love, Power, Beauty, Community, Union

The soul’s flaw GH87-8

57 “we conceal our true self from ourselves … However, if it is confronted and contained it ultimately yields its secret and strength.”
57 “The soul’s main task is to work on and with that flaw.”
58 “lifelong relationship of struggle and revelation”

Levels of the soul

58 Nefesh, ruach, neshamah, chayah, yechidah

The human-soul complex

The four worlds

Bringing the worlds down to earth GP95-6[6]

62 “Unless we install spirituality into our ordinary lives, it will not help us much.”
62 Read ‘The holy ones praise You every day’ as ‘Those who are holy in the everyday praise You.’ “The real praise for God is not in the holiness that people have in their holy places, but in the everyday.”

3. The Sacred Work of Prayer and Meditation

Introduction

65 “the need to blend tradition and innovation”
66 R. Zalman “was not interested in simply jettisoning existing practices, but rather asking if and how they might be adapted to make them more meaningful for a new generation.”

The poetry of the soul Dxi-xii

[Shul / set prayer is ‘packaged food’. Talking to God is like growing your own food.]
67 “Without true prayer … a very deep yearning that we have goes unanswered. We try to satisfy that hunger for God in other ways. We mistake the yearnings of soul for the cravings of the body. We feed them with food and drink, drugs and sex, money and power, but these things just inflame our appetite further. We might seek higher things, intellectual pursuits, or artistic accomplishments. Even these do not touch us in that loneliest of places, the place that longs to be filled with God. That’s why prayer, to me, is not a luxury but a necessity, a safeguard for our survival and our sanity.”

A room too full of prayer

Besht story: doesn’t enter shul, because all the prayers are ‘stuck’ in the building, and not ascending to Heaven.

Doing the Divine thing GP19-20

68 “divinum, to do the divine thing”
68 “one who is davenen is actually in touch with God—even when they are walking in the street, they are nevertheless connected to God and davenen.”

Clinging to God

69 “following, emulating and tuning-in”
69 Kabbalist teacher to Gershom Scholem: “The only way in which I will teach you is if, for the next two years, you will not ask me questions.”
70 “Cleave to God modes!” i.e. to get close to God, be like God. For example, be kind, gracious, compassionate and merciful (Shabbat 133b).

Steering our minds D6

70-1 “[kavanah] is the steering wheel of all inner consciousness work. … Ultimately, … we want our kavanah to be transformational. We seek a complete realignment of the soul, mesirat nefesh, a handing over of the soul to God’s work. … That one word encompasses an entire body of inner work necessary to live consciously in the presence of God.”

The freeze-dried prayer book GP4-5

71 “The liturgy in the prayer book is really ‘freeze-dried prayer’. … Feelings are the ‘hot water’ you have to add to the dehydrated experience of the siddur. All prayer that is devoid of feeling feels unanswered, because it was not really asked.” Footnote, various Muslim and Jewish writers: “Words that come from the heart enter the heart.”

Being alone with God GP25-6

72 Elijah often went to be alone with God, and describe himself as ‘alone’ (levad, the root of hitbodedut)
73 “All we need to be aware of is that we know we are getting the attention of God, and God will listen to what we have to say.”

Contemplation and situational thinking GH18-19

74 Steps: 1) Study spiritual concept 2) Apply to personal situational context, to develop soul knowledge (ada’ata d’nafshei) 3) provokes new behaviour

Jewish meditation GP45-6

74 must include God
75 “I make a window for God to look into me as I’m meditating.” [Into-me-see]
75 “It is a mitzvah to place oneself in the presence of God.”

The prayer shawl

[How will my prayer life flow, through the fringes, into the world?]

The rainbow prayer shawl

[We can create ‘light’ for the world, in the same way. Make God-connection and maintain it while engaging with the world.]

Find yourself in the prayer

Gathering together GP33-4

79 envision yourself “as a biblical figure uttering a prayer preserved in the traditional liturgy”
79 “when infused with emotion” the prayer book can “be used as a tool for personal expression”
[Just as others offer minyan fellowship for me, I give it to them.]

Praying for the you in me D144

80 Suspend judgement of my fellow congregant; as I pray for them, I pray for me, and as I pray for me, I organically pray for them.
80 Lurianic kavanah: take on the mitzvah of loving neighbour as oneself.
81 “On a prayerful level, we are all part of each other and of the greater whole. So, look around and open yourself to Ahavat ha-beriyot, ‘love of your fellow creatures’.”

Who am I to give blessings? D155-7

81 “Everyone one of us has inherited from Abraham … the power to give blessings.”
81 Gen. 12:2-3 can be understood as ‘I will bless those whom you”
[A child fulfils a parent’s need to love. A pupil fulfils a need for a teacher to share wisdom and knowledge, and to empower. A musician needs an audience. A leader of prayer needs souls who want ritual leadership and inspiration.]
[Leaders need communities to affirm their leadership.]

Singing to God (even off key!)

82 ‘Soul singing’ and ‘offering up best intentions’

The palaces of melody and repentance

84 Cantor shouldn’t be too much in love with his own voice
[Contact your yearning to be better, wiser, closer to God—then say Oy—then sing.]

A thank you prayer

4. Sacred Living: Time, Space, Person [shanah, olam, nefesh]

Introduction

88 “urgent need to ask if our inherited ideas and practices needed alteration (whether subtle or dramatic) in order to continue to be effective tools for human flourishing”
89 “an integrated approach in which a person engages her body and spirit in the quest for holiness”

Commodity time and organic time

89 Judaism synchronises the two
90 “The full moon of the vernal equinox is Passover. The full moon of the autumnal equinox is Sukkot … The last phase of the moon in the last phase of the sun is Hannukah.”
Once upon a time
91 In illo tempore – mythic time
91 After Temple destroyed, “where could Jews look for God …? In the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. In other words: not in space, but in time.” (Yevamot 49b “Seek the Lord where He may be found” (Isa. 55:6) … Rabba bar Avuah said: ‘These are the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.”)
92 Yevamot 63a Clear the slate before your wedding.
92 Seek forgiveness and ‘at-one-ment’ so that God can arise in us.
[‘Make’ time for God.]

Organic times for prayer

93 ‘You are my child. Today I have begotten you. (Ps 2:7)’ “When we re-experience this great awareness, we are regenerated.”
94 “we have to make time. Our ability to connect with the universe is especially strong at dawn and dusk, sunrise and sunset …” FS5[7]
A mini-Sabbath at work
95 “step out of commodity time once or twice during the work day to recharge yourself with a hit of organic time.”
95 “find a quiet space where you can sit down, and make Shabbat for ten minutes by allowing your mind to leave the world of doing and enter the world of being.”
96 “open yourself up … to that verification which comes from the centre of the universe. You belong. You are loved. You’re integral. You’re reborn.” FS7-10

The Sabbath dance

[Gratitude for God’s abundance; abundance-consciousness]
[But what about those who are not experiencing it? Offer our abundance to them. NB Last line of birkat hamazon ‘You open Your hand and satisfy desire’, + ‘I have not seen a righteous person abandoned nor his seed begging for bread.’]
A bit of the coming world
97 “every Shabbat a bit of the future is condensed and brought into the present … It calls for seeing differently.”
97 “In the soul exists the ability to visualise perfections that have not yet been manifested in this world. … This is what allows one to visit a time not yet come—the Olam ha-Ba—and to see visions there.”
[Sabbath year and Jubilee are the same idea.]

Bringing Shabbos to life JWF57-62

98 “Our modern contributions are flexibility and creativity, which I believe are more important at this point than the rigidity around Shabbos that the tradition can sometimes display.”
98 Create a Shabbat tradition now that our descendants can embrace.
98 Put on Shabbos clothing
99 Shabbos foods; feed myself [and others] as Shabbos
100 Shabbat liturgy encourages playing instruments
100 Bathe for Shabbat
102 Introduce Shabbat innovations with emotional care.

The niggun and the texture of time GP29-31

102 A good niggun never ends
102 Yontef table is an altar
102 Psycho-halachah = ‘integral halachah’
103 Third meal à Take this into the week.
103 We need to sing our longing – an essential point of spirituality.
103 These are not just tunes, but prayers [Letters to God. Why the metaphor of a ‘letter’ and not a ‘text’? Because a letter takes more crafting, reflection and effort.]

Why do we kiss the Torah? CMK106-8[8]

105 Primordial light hidden from evil people in the Torah
106 “To observe tradition means to accept the way my parents saw the world.”
[Torah service à reach back to Sinai, to 1^st commandment, to anochi, to aleph, to the first breath of God.]
[We connect with our lineage, and the mythic Sinai moment.]

Is it really kosher?

107 Besht: we each have a new relationship with God
108 laws of religion à how to live in harmony with Creation
108 “God reveals and creates constantly in the ordinary. There we find the real expression of ‘God’s Minding’.” FS49

Body awareness FS42-4

109 Eco-kosher
110 Without a body we couldn’t pursue a life of the spirit, so look after the body

A body attunement exercise

Breathing the divine name

Sacred love-making

5. Jewish Renewal and Paradigm Shift

Introduction

116 “Judaism is like an ancient tree. At the heart of any mature tree is old wood. The old wood is crucial to maintaining the tree’s structure, its ability to withstand the changing winds, but no growth is going on there. The living process that are the growth of the tree, its message to the future, take place only in the tree’s newest and outermost ring.” JWF149
118 Daniel Siegel: “[Psycho-halachah] means a [halachah] which incorporates and accepts the validity of personal experiential data in determining what changes from past practice have value.”
118 “delicate balance between continuity and innovation’

Ancestral wisdom FS51-3

118 Reb Z. – there is a need to develop a “consensus of the committed”
119 “there is always the danger of being trapped and tyrannised by the past. People sometimes slip into the assumption that whatever was done back then was the real thing”
[Link to the past – don’t break from it.]
119 “allow ourselves to be influenced by the accumulated experience of the Jewish past”

Jewish Renewal

122 “We look to fulfil our spiritual needs, as experienced in the present, with a maximum of tradition.” WHF[9] (Intro)

Renewal is paradigm shift FFT17-18[10]

124 “Renewal itself is characterised by the struggle to marry the magisterium of a religious tradition, i.e. its inherited body of knowledge and wisdom, to a new reality map or paradigmatic understanding of the universe.”
124 “religions and religious forms are breaking down and slowly re-organising and re-forming over time.”
124 Assess the function of a practice in its own time, apply that purpose to create a new practice now.

The struggle between paradigms WHF intro

125 To make shift, have to return to ‘knowing’ i.e. Gnosticism [Gestalt or organismic experience]
126 [Sacrifice = giving up what you value … or sharing what you value?]
127 “see what the function of a particular behaviour was in the bpast and try to re-create that same function in the present”
127 Can’t navigate with rear view mirror

The essentializing of Jewish Renewal GHWU 49-53[11]

128 Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) “tradition is memory”
128 “We need to understand more of the function of what we do in Judaism and be less concerned with the details of how we do it.”
130 Mitzvah à tzavta à bind à God-connection
130 [Condense Judaism to its essentials so we can take it into the future.]

Tefillin in the new paradigm IH 70-2[12]

131 Be ready for change
131 Hillel – look at people’s minhag, not at the law
132 Obeying God à ecological responsibility and sustainability
133 Don’t wait for permission: experiment and experience. “it’s not an issue of waiting for someone else to give you permission to try something. Once people have actually experiemented with other ways and have reported on their experiences then the practice will begin to shift.”

Denominationalism and Renewal[13]

133 Denominations are not on a continuum – anyone can be pious.
134 Renewal is not a denomination, but a process seeping into all denominations
134 Diversity in Judaism is a plus, not a problem. We are all parts of a larger organism.
135 Judaism is an organ interdependent with many other religions that are part of a larger body.

Renewal for all

136 Ger toshav = “psycho-Semitic souls” (Jean Houston) = partial members of Judaism
136 Judaism is a path for its members, resident aliens, and resource for the rest of the world (e.g. our understanding of rhythms and home rituals)

Israel at fifty[14]

139 Turning a vision into a reality brings a Shadow
139 “We are scared mythless. It will take poets, dreamers, and mystics to reach into a yet unrealised future to dream the next story of our people.”
141 “When we have learned how to collaborate in peace at least as well as we collaborate in creating strife we will have a model for others. … others all over the globe are waiting for the results of our experiment.”
142 Israel = heart, one of many vital Jewish organs around the world
144 We are in 2^nd 50 years of modern Israel, when gevurah is in the ascendant.

6. Hasidism and Neo-Hasidism

Introduction

146 [Carry the ‘boon’ from non-Ordinary to Ordinary Reality.]
146 “Reb Zalman believed that prayer and meditation were foundational to the spiritual life, and that the goal of the seeker is to carry the insights and intentions of these sacred experiences to the rest of life.”
146 Founders of Hasidism challenged religious norms

The Ba’al Shem Tov and the quality of mammash WHF Preface

148 [Putting God first.]
148 “’The whole earth is filled with God’s glory (Isa. 6:3)’ suggesting God is available to everyone, everywhere, equally.”

The diamond-cutter Hasidism ML 31[15]

150 “God bestowed free will to us so that we might grow spiritually, and there this is how human life had to be.”
Translating Hasidism for today
151 Kotzker Rebbe “Why are you so worred about what goes into the mouth, and not about what comes out of it?”
152 When evaluating a meditation, insight, teaching or tale, “I measure it mostly according to my emotional reaction: Does it inspire me? Does it open me to something deeper? Does it make my soul bigger or smaller?”

The ecumenics of the Ba’al Shem Tov WHF Chap. 1

153 Besht “Do not despise anyone for their kind of service, for all ways lead to God.”
153 Different paths suit different people at different times.
154 “even the nicest teachings can be subverted by someone who has the wrong attitude, or by the wrong application of them”
154 “To speak of kindness in an unkind way is a contradiction. This is how the wicked stumble ‘in the ways of God’.”
155 “Franz Rosenzweig said that the whole problem with becoming what we can become, and doing what we need to do, may be a lack of a moment of generosity on our part.”

The totality of souls HA 141-2[16]

155 Reb Pinhas of Koretz (the Koretzer): “What is God. The totality of souls. Whatever exists in the whole may also be found in the part. Therefore, in any one soul, all souls are contained.”
156 God, the ‘Great Rebbe’, channels insight through whoever is best attuned at the time
157 teacher is able to give more when student is more receptive / attuned
157 Those around us can become more attuned to God when we do t’shuvah.

Teiku – Elijah lives! JM217-20[17]

158 [Elijah is important to Zalman because, unlike Moses the Ancient, he is alive now, and tuned to the needs and ways of now, i.e. a Renewalist.]
159 “when we need intergenerational connection, we invite Elijah to join us.” [As Eliyahu, I too am a Renewalist.]
159 [Lesson in humility: we can see only so far ahead, then we must defer to who comes after us.]
160 “realising the need for more grace than rigour in this world, the Rabbis tipped the scales of halachah (Jewish law and practice) in Hillel’s direction.”
161 “Is it true in our time?”
162 Hasidic tale from Buber’s collections “how your servant praises and honours you, even while greasing his wagon wheels!”
162 “deep dialogue with the past and responsive to life in the present”

The rebbe and the hasid FFS Pt 1[18]

163 Rebbe takes hasid’s story seriously
163 [Sigh = release of small self]
163 Don’t assume what is major or minor

Imagining yehidut SL 95-7

164 Read the hasid physically; still the mind; listen to the soul for needs, and know they can be fulfilled
165 Sense the obstacles; read the kvittel for surface and depth, and what it could have said; sense the hasid’s ancestors; stand in hasid’s skin; what will the hasid receive? Locate a similarity in yourself; ask hasid questions; elevate communication; deliver eitzah (prescription); quote Torah
166 Hasid asks questions; rebbe blesses; rebbe intercedes later in prayer

The geologist of the soul GSxi[19]

167 R. Menachem Schneerson: “The rebbe can tell you where to dig, and what to dig for, but the digging you must do yourself.”
167 “emphasizing the rebbe’s function over identity, and not taking responsibility for doing the spiritual work for the disciple”

Rebbe-talk: a conversation with Reb Zalman [and Or Rose] (in Sh’ma, 10-11)

167 “he [R. Yosef Schneerson] was talking directly to God and inviting us to join him in this sacred landscape”
168 [Shabbat and Pesach table set for God – or is God in those at the table? Perhaps both.]
169 R. Noah of Lakovitch (1774-1832) “I’m doing exactly what my father did: my father didn’t copy anyone, and I don’t copy anyone.”
170 Rebbe is a function, not a person. “I function as a rebbe, but it is not a constant. When I’m finished serving in that role, I’m done. I can go out, even take in a movie and get a pizza.” [Ritualise the rebbe encounter with boundaries?]
170 “What does this person’s n’shamah (soul) need in order to live more harmoniously with God and creation?”
170 “I have tried to cultivate my own inner life and my skills as a teacher, sh’liach tzibbur (prayer leader), and counsellor to that I can be of service to those who seek me out as a rebbe.
170 “We do not serve ourselves but a greater purpose.”

Hasidism and neo-Hasidism HA xviii-xx

171 “there is a dimension of holy sincerity and piety associated with living in the authentic presence of God, nkhan p’nei HaShem [Lam. 2:19], that applies equally to all”
171 [Hasidism brings novelty with it.]
172 Isaac opening Abraham’s wells is Jewish Renewal

Grafting to the Ba’al Shem Tov’s tree HA xvii-xviii

175 The shefa / flow can get blocked by self-appointed guardians of ‘tradition’ and roles, so we must circumvent the guardians.

7. Deep Ecumenism and the Interreligious Encounter

Introduction

179 “the vision of Earth from outer space”
179 “exchanging vital nutrients with others”

Trusting the Holy Spirit

Trade secrets from the monastery

184 [We all have similar spiritual needs and challenges, because of our common humanity and Divine origin. How do those evolve or manifest as different points in a person’s life?]

My friend Thomas Merton ML155-7

186 [Meditation has an object of focus. Contemplation goes beyond focus.] “Meditation was discursive reflection, and contemplation was something that moved away from words and got to that place where—when grace overcame the individual—he or she would experience infused contemplation, meaning the shefa (divine overflow) descends from the transcendent and fills the mind.”

The shaman blows the shofar FS xiii-xx

186 “basing my knowledge of religious experience on direct observation and experiment”
189 “you blow animal bones to blow the demons away, to clear the air, to connect with God, to bring about change, so say to the sleeping soul, ‘Hey, there, wake up! Pay attention!’”
189 “the common element of all religion, the inner experience which transcends external variations and differences”

Saying zikr with Sufis

Torah and dharma[20]

192 “I realised that God was an atheist—God did not have a God! When your mind gets out of ‘two-ness’ and into that ‘one-ness’, there is no God; there is only ‘I Am That I Am’ [Ex. 3:14]. Then you come to a pivot that flips very fast between full and empty.”
193 Bowing to emptiness and void is and honourable path.

Aleinu—It is our duty

Universalism and particularism: the Dalai Lama JF188

197 “triumphalism is a cancerous attitude”
197 “To give up our own special way of being misses the mark.”
198 Avoid New Age soup.
198 “as Jews, we are stewards of certain types of knowledge and experience that the world needs”
198 “Because of my love for all of humankind, I want to be Jewish.”

The problems we face today

199 “implausible security of the ‘old time religion’
Source of Time and Space

8. Spiritual Eldering

Introduction

205 In December years, Zalman reflected on his “failures, regrets, and unfinished work, as well as his successes, accomplishments, and joys”
205 Zalman modelled “the need to apologise and to offer forgiveness—seeking to heal broken relationships whenever possible”

From age-ing to sage-ing FAS 1-7[21]

206 Feeling anxious, alone, depressed, vulnerable
206 “could I convert my extra years into a blessing rather than a curse?”
207 [harvesting & legacy & loose ends]
207 “sloughing off an old phase of life that I had outgrown”
207 “If I had to die now, what would I most regret not having done?”
207 “set new priorities for my professional life and personal relationships”
209 Wisdom of tribal elder; brain renewal; ecology movement
210 what’s the “purpose of our extended longevity”?
210 “elder as an agent of evolution”

Can elders save the world?[22]

211 “nightly examination of conscience”
212 Jan-March [age 0-21] Sensation / Assiyah; April-June [age 22-42] Feeling / Yetzirah; July-Sept [age 43-63] Reason / Beriyah; Oct-Dec [age 64+] Wisdom / Atzilut
212 We plough and sow, but we must also learn to harvest
214 Imaginary October “testimonial dinners for people who did me wrong”: “Today I honour you for having been a difficult teacher, and I let you go free.”
214 Hasidic master: “When someone comes to me with their problems, I listen to their Higher Self give me the solution. Then I offer the solution they have brought to me.”
215 Elders could do peace-building in conflict zones. “What if we are caught in the crossfire? It’s better than dying of emphysema …”
216 “leave a moral legacy. This means deputising the next generation: this is what is unfinished; would you continue that for me?”
217 “It’s so much easier to do this work with other people; the atmosphere gets filled with that electric, shared wave of people doing their inner work.”

Hot-housing consciousness

218 Learn a new language of a new skill if possible, not only with your mind, but also with your body.
218 Imagine the before and after of something you read or see – expands the mind.
218 List positive memories and experiences
219 Cultivate good thoughts before sleep; mentor; share your stories; dance expressively
220 In ‘December’ years, prepare by thinking of those who are waiting for you.

December days

Scripting our last moments on Earth

A rehearsal prayer

Prayer for peace (September 11)

Closing reflections

227 Acharya Judith Simmer-Brown. Zalman’s epitaph: “He loved us to God.”
229 Father Matthew Fox. Zalman asked MF’s mother to give him her blessing. Wearing a tallit is “a way to enter the Via Negativa in prayer”. “You must start gathering your talks and papers and the rest to leave your legacy behind. This is part of preparing for death. Don’t forget, and don’t delay!”
230 Tirza Firestone. When an event was getting very big, “it will be as big as the Shekhinah needs it to be”. 231 “He was telling me that my ordination, indeed my life, was a stage for a much larger purpose than my own. It wasn’t about me. It was about a tzorekh Gavohah (supernal need), a divine purpose that required me, and all of us, to bring it to fruition. He was also reminding me to let go of my ego’s tight grip and allow a force greater than me to handle things.” “In his prayer room he had a basket filled with the names of those for whom he was praying.” “He fretted that our work innovating Judaism and the burgeoning shoots of a new paradigm might get lost. He urged us to ‘save’ our lives—meaning to integrate, publish, pass on our spiritual revelations so that the fruits of our life labours might nourish the world.”

Footnotes

[1] JWF = Jewish With Feeling

[2] GP = Gates of Prayer

[3] GH = Gate to the Heart

[4] All Breathing Life Adores Your Name, p. 155

[5] D = Davening: a guide to meaningful Jewish prayer

[6] GP = The Gates of Prayer

[7] FS = First Steps to a New Jewish Spirit

[8] CMK = Credo of a Modern Kabbalist

[9] WHF = Wrapped in a Holy Flame

[10] FFT = Foundations of the Fourth Turning of Hasidism

[11] GHWU = God Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown

[12] IH = Integral Halachah

[13] ‘Denominationalism and Jewish Renewal’, 26-33

[14] ‘Entering Israel’s second yovel’

[15] ML = My Life in Jewish Renewal

[16] HA = A Heart Afire

[17] JM = Jewish Mysticism and the Spiritual Life

[18] FFS = Fragments of a Future Scroll

[19] GS = The Geologist of the Soul

[20] ‘Torah and dharma: Torah hyphen dharma’

[21] FAS = From Age-ing to Sage-ing

[22] ‘Respecting elders, becoming elders: can elders save the world?’