This powerful memoir chronicles the life of one of America’s most celebrated rabbis—Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi, or “Reb Zalman” as he is fondly known to friends and followers. The book traces his life from a youth in the shadow of the Nazis through the tumultuous 1960s in America to his position as a renowned religious leader today. Often controversial for his attraction to cultural mavericks and religious rebels, Reb Zalman’s colorful lifetime includes a striking cast of characters across faith traditions, including Timothy Leary, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Thomas Merton, the Dalai Lama, and more. The book traces Reb Zalman’s work creating the vibrant Jewish Renewal movement that emphasizes spiritual experience and continues to touch Jews around the world today. Reb Zalman often illustrates his talks with anecdotes from his life, and My Life in Jewish Renewal brings together the life story of this beloved leader for the first time. Reb Zalman often illustrates his talks with stories from his life, and My Life in Jewish Renewal brings together the complete life story of this beloved leader for the first time.

Lerner maintains that there are two voices in the Torah that have contended with each other throughout Jewish history: the voice of accumulated pain and cruelty that is passed from generation to generation and that masquerades as a patriarchal god, and the voice of God, whose massage of healing and compassion insists the world can be fundamentally transformed. Neoconservatives and some right-wing Israelis have used the Holocaust to justify a Judaism that is cynically "realistic" and demeaning of non-Jews. But that tendency to do unto others what was done to us can be overcome, Lerner says, and Jewish renewal attunes us to the voice of God and strengthens our ability to recognize the image of the divine in every human being.

The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew contains millennia of sage advice in an easy-to-read step-by-step process for recapturing your Jewish spirituality

Articulates a new, post-ethnic American Jewishness

A how-to for Jewish spirituality that works. "A spiritual seeker is a person whose soul is awake. In this book I make no assumptions about how much you know about Judaism, what holidays you keep, or whether you believe in God. I want us to start from your soul's experience and carry on from there." --from the Introduction "Virtually anyone remotely affiliated with Judaism should read this book," wrote Publishers Weekly, which listed Jewish with Feeling among its Best Religion Books of the Year. "Without question the best, most readable introduction to Reb Zalman's philosophy of Judaism, it is also the best beginner's guide to Jewish spirituality available today," wrote the Forward, "the perfect book for both the spiritual seeker and the curious skeptic." Taking off from basic questions like "Why be Jewish?" and whether the word God still speaks to us today, Reb Zalman lays out a vision for a whole-person Judaism. This is not only Sinai then but Sinai now, a revelation of the Torah inside and all around us. Complete with many practical suggestions to enrich your own Jewish life, Jewish with Feeling is "a mystical masterpiece filled with spiritual practices and an exciting vision of the future" (Spirituality & Health). Spiritual experience, as Reb Zalman shows, repays every effort we make to acquire it.

Classic study of Jewish libertarian thought, from Walter Benjamin to Franz Kafka Towards the end of the nineteenth century, there appeared in Central Europe a generation of Jewish intellectuals whose work was to transform modern culture. Drawing at once on the traditions of German Romanticism and Jewish messianism, their thought was organized around the cabalistic idea of the “tikkoun”: redemption. Redemption and Utopia uses the concept of “elective affinity” to explain the surprising community of spirit that existed between redemptive messianic religious thought and the wide variety of radical secular utopian beliefs held by this important group of intellectuals. The author outlines the circumstances that produced this unusual combination of religious and non-religious thought and illuminates the common assumptions that united such seemingly disparate figures as Martin Buber, Franz Kafka, Walter Benjamin and Georg Lukács.

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi is one of the most innovative and inspiring rabbis in the Jewish world today. Often considered the "grandfather of the Havurah movement" and the most influential advocate of the rapidly growing movement of Jewish Renewal, Reb Zalman (as he is known by his countless students and admirers) has earned a reputation as a courageous, profoundly spiritual contemporary master. Jewish Renewal, as Reb Zalman explains it, is based on Kabbalah, Hasidism, and other forms of Jewish mysticism. "Jewish Renewal does not want to abandon sacred and cherished traditions", teaches Reb Zalman. Rather, the "paradigm shift" advocates of Jewish Renewal call for asks that we recognize - as we have in the past - that there are newly emerging ways of looking at reality. Just as humankind had to adjust to the knowledge that the earth is not the center of the universe, so too do we today have to recognize that our understanding of our world has undergone significant change. Reb Zalman teaches that we must let go of the old paradigms rather than cling to these obsolete ways of thinking. In this book, Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi offers what he calls "the journey of my own recontextualization of Judaism as helped by Jewish mysticism". Reb Zalman points out that Judaism has undergone several "paradigm shifts" throughout its long history, such as the period after the destruction of the First and Second Temples, when, as Reb Zalman explains, "all of our practice and belief had to be reframed". Paradigm Shift: From the Jewish Renewal Teachings of Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, in addition to being a record of the major teachings of Reb Zalman over the past thirty years, is a call for Jewishrenewal once again. A passionate teacher of kabbalistic tradition, Reb Zalman offers a unique blend of Jewish mystical ideas as they encounter the forces and sensibilities of today. A book of great power and profundity, Paradigm Shift is one of the most creative and inspiring volumes to be published in years.

"Essential teachings of Rabbi Zalman Shachter-Shalomi, one of the most creative and influential Jewish spiritual teachers in the late twentieth-century"--

This fresh approach to prayer is for all who wish to appreciate the power of prayer's poetry and song, jump into its ceremonies and rituals and join the age-old conversation that Jews have had with God. Reb Zalman, one of the most important Jewish spiritual teachers in contemporary American Judaism, offers you new ways to pray, new channels for communicating with God and new opportunities to open your heart to God's response.

In this “journey of spiritual transformation” (Publishers Weekly) award winning author Rabbi Alan Lew follows the practices and rituals of the Jewish High Holy Days and guides readers through heartbreak, contemplation, and re-birth. There are times in life when we are caught utterly unprepared: a death in the family, the end of a relationship, a health crisis. These are the times when the solid ground we thought we stood on disappears beneath our feet, leaving us reeling and heartbroken, as we stumble back to our faith. The Days of Awe encompass the weeks preceding Rosh Hashanah up to Yom Kippur, a period in which Jews take part in a series of rituals and prayers that reenact the journey of the soul through the world from birth to death. This is a period of contemplation and repentance, comparable to Lent and Ramadan. Yet, for Rabbi Alan Lew, the real purpose of this annual passage is for us to experience brokenheartedness and open our heart to God. In This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared, Lew has marked out a journey of seven distinct stages, one that draws on these rituals to awaken our soul and wholly transform us. Weaving together Torah readings, Buddhist parables, Jewish fables and stories from his own life, Lew lays bare the meanings of this ancient Jewish passage. He reveals the path from terror to acceptance, confusion to clarity, doubt to belief, and from complacency to awe. In the tradition of When Bad Things Happen to Good People, This Is Real And You Are Completely Unprepared enables believers of all faiths to reconnect to their faith with a passion and intimacy that will resonate throughout the year.