Tuesday, August 23, 2005

As if there wasn't enough


Now it's Zalman Schachter's turn to shine.

This week's Newsweek magazine's cover story is all about Religion and Spirituality. One of the ways to get close to G-d is through "Kabbalah", and who better to ask than ZSS.

"Born in 1924 in Poland, Schachter-Shalomi escaped to the United States in 1941, where he was ordained by the Lubavitcher Hasidim, the Orthodox sect that preserves the Judaism practiced in Russian villages 250 years ago. He became entranced by the mysticism of Hasidic practice: its meditative prayer, parables, ecstatic worship and embrace of Kabbalah. As a young rabbi in the postwar years, Schachter-Shalomi was sent to college campuses to bring Jewish students back to the fold. That led to his own spiritual search. He sought out Baptists, Roman Catholic monks, Native American elders, Sufis, psychologists, Buddhist masters and the Dalai Lama, to explore theological ideas."

Here's an interesting photo of him wearing a shtreimel (!) meeting the Dalai Lama



I say blame the Poilisher, after all that's where he was born, no?

The article continues:

"Today, based in Boulder, Colo., he and his students combine elements of Orthodox Judaism (morning prayers, strict observance of the Sabbath and a kosher diet) with a contemporary sensibility. The result is what he calls Neo-Hasidism. Like other liberal branches of Judaism, Schachter-Shalomi's Neo-Hasidism ordains women as rabbis, accepts gays and lesbians, and welcomes intermarried couples. But it goes further to embrace mysticism and the spiritual wisdom of other faiths, and it sees environmentalism as sacred."

Just plain wonderful.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I fail to see how "wanting to make G-d more real" translates into ordaining women, accepting interfaith couples, etc.

Anonymous said...

Let's hear what Kurenitzer has to say...

Zalman Shachter is a very sad paragraph in Lubavitcher history. I remember the Shilach who replaced him in Fall River, Ma, said that when he took over the Chabad House there, he found a box full of unopened letters to Zalman from the Lubavitcher Rebbe. However, since he didn't want to open the letters, I heard he burned them.
Ruvain Alpert / Bezalel Naor also writes about him in his Chabad retrospective "G-d's Middlemen."

Anonymous said...

It seems like he never omits his Lubavitch connection and roots, however distant they may be.

Anonymous said...

its a pretty enticing sect: selective following of tradition coupled to orthodoxy with a hechsher on all physical copulation...
I saw Mr. Salami himself 13 or 14 years ago, rosh hashana, chabad house of UCLA (cunin's place). He had a little cap and quitely sat in the back.....left before the seuda...
If his mind didn't work you could say that he is probably having a good time, but its seems to be the opposite...he probably lives a tortured existance....

Anonymous said...

Mr Salami! LOL

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

why would he show up at Chabad? wouldn't he be leading his own services?

Anonymous said...

Maybe Madonna will show up there next?

Anonymous said...

i don't know why but the salami was shucklin in the back of the chabad house near the kitchen entry.... Lets not buy into any media story about him or others that consider him an icon of any real movement.......if a group has no real rules, no one is following anyone because everyone makes up his own rules....he may though represent some people in spirit...but no matter how many wacko spirits you got nationwide, when it comes time to congregate and daven, ain't no minion fellas (oops and ladies) (oops and assorted folk), so the man doesn't need to run 'services'. and besides, maybe he has off from his contract on rosh hashona.

Anonymous said...

I have an old friend who wound up a macher in Zalman Balony's 'movement'. She is a rabbi (small 'r'). She was always an old hippie, an intellectual too. She supports the loon Jews who went to the territories protesting the IDF bulldozing of Arab terorists' homes. It's a shame how many good intelligent Yidden fall into this excretement.

Anonymous said...

ive heard that he comes to some shiurim in chabad of denver! and again he sits by himself in the back.

Anonymous said...

so who's to "blame" for his going off the deep end? The Rebbe, the FR?!

of course, the Apikorsim from Volozhin, Mir, Slabodka etc. had nothing to do with the Yeshiva they attended, it was just per chance.

riiiiiiiiight

Anonymous said...

can anyone tell me if what he does is Avoda Zoroh (I'm not asking about Chilul Shaboss) per se, or just plain Meshigass?

Anonymous said...

plain mishegoss.

Anonymous said...

is there no actual Buddhist worship going on there?

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

I happened to see a book called "Jewish fathers" where ZSS says his kids are amongst others named Sholom DovBer and Yosef Yitzchok. I wonder how old they are?