Jewish Renewal

The term Jewish Renewal refers to a set of practices within Judaism that attempt to reinvigorate Judaism with mystical, Hasidic, musical and meditative practices. In this sense, Jewish renewal is an approach to Judaism that can be found within segments of any of the Jewish denominations.

The term also refers to what is emerging as a distinct Jewish movement, the Jewish Renewal movement, which calls itself "a worldwide, transdenominational movement grounded in Judaism’s prophetic and mystical traditions." (From the "About Jewish Renewal" page at http://www.aleph.org.) The movement's leaders include rabbis Arthur Waskow and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. This Jewish Renewal movement casts Kabbalistic and Hasidic theory and practice within a non-Orthodox, egalitarian framework. This movement incorporates such liberal social phenomena as feminism, environmentalism and pacifism, and adds to traditional worship ecstatic practices such as meditation, chant and dance. In seeking to augment Jewish ritual, Renewal Jews borrow freely and openly from Buddhism, Sufism, Native American religion, and other faiths; this is termed syncretism. Many Jews outside this movement view religious syncretism as outside the bounds of Judaism.

History

Jewish Renewal, in its most general sense, has its origins in the North American Jewish counter-cultural trends of the late 1960s and early 1970s. During this period, groups of young rabbis, academics and political activists founded experimental havurot (singular: havurah) or "fellowships" for prayer and study, in reaction to what they perceived as an over-institutionalized and unspiritual North American Jewish establishment.

Initially the main inspiration was the pietistic fellowships of the Pharisees and other ancient Jewish sects.

Also initially, some of these groups, like the Boston-area Havurat Shalom attempted to function as full-fledged rural communes after the model of their secular counterparts. Others formed as communities within the urban or suburban Jewish establishment. Founders of the havurot included the liberal political activist Arthur Waskow and Michael Strassfeld (who later became a Conservative rabbi.) Although the leadership and ritual privileges were initially men-only, as in Orthodox Jewish practice, the "second wave" of American feminism soon led to the full integration of women in these communities.

Apart from some tentative articles in Response and other Jewish student magazines, the early havurot attracted little attention in the wider North American Jewish community. Then, in 1973, Michael and Sharon Strassfeld released The Jewish Catalog: A Do-It-Yourself Kit. Patterned after the recently-published counter-culture Whole Earth Catalog, the book served both as a basic reference on Judaism and American Jewish life, as well as a playful compendium of Jewish crafts, recipes, meditational practices, and political action ideas, all aimed at disaffected young Jewish adults. The Jewish Catalog became one of the best-selling books in American Jewish history to that date and spawned not only two sequels but a much more widespread havurah movement, including self-governing havurot within Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist synagogues.

By 1980 an increasing number of havurot had moved away from strictly traditional Jewish worship practices, as members added English readings and chants, poetry from other spiritual traditions, percussion instruments, and overall a less formal approach to worship. Some saw the Essene community, which inspired Jesus, as the right model.

The Winnipeg, and later Philadelphia-based, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, a Hasidic-trained rabbi who beginning in the 1960s broke with Orthodox Judaism. Together with such colleagues as Arthur Waskow, he established the B'nai Or Fellowship (now the ALEPH Alliance for Jewish Renewal) which served as a loose umbrella organization for like-minded havurot. In 1979, Waskow founded the B'nai Or magazine New Menorah; it was in this publication that he coined the term "Jewish Renewal."

Schacter was strongly influenced by Sufism (Sufi Islam) and Buddhism, even translating some of the prayers into Hebrew. He also focused more on urban sustainable living than rural culture, and suggested for instance interconnected basements of houses in urban neighbourhoods that would create collective space especially for holidays, while providing the level of privacy secular life had encouraged. Some of these ideas have influenced urban economics.

The greater cohesion and focus created by B'nai Or/ALEPH and its magazine led gradually to the spread of Jewish Renewal throughout much of the United States and, by the close of the century, to the establishment of communities in Canada, Latin America, Europe and Israel. By this time, the beginnings of institutionalization were in place, in the form of the administrative Network of Jewish Renewal Communities, the rabbinical association OHaLaH, and an increasingly formalized (if not widely recognized) rabbinic ordination program to replace Schachter-Shalomi's private ordinations.

Renewal and the Contemporary Jewish Community

Statistics on the number of Jews who identify themselves as "Renewal" are not readily available. Nevertheless, the movement has had a significant impact on most other streams of Judaism, particularly within the United States. Perhaps the greatest impact has been on the Reconstructionist movement, which began as an avowedly rationalistic and intellectual phenomenon but, under the influence of rabbinic and lay leaders with a Renewal orientation, has come to embrace Jewish mystical imagery and practice, particularly in its wholly new series of prayer books issued in the 1990s. Signs of Renewal influence can be found elsewhere; it is not uncommon for Reform and Conservative congregations to feature workshops on Jewish meditation and various Judaized forms of yoga. The often-controversial trend in non-Orthodox movements towards increased ritual and leadership privileges for woman, lesbians and gays arguably has its origin in the liberal political activism of those havurot which formed the kernel of Renewal.

Critics of Jewish Renewal claim that the movement emphasizes individual spiritual experience and subjective opinion over communal norms and Jewish textual literacy; the above-mentioned formalization of the ALEPH rabbinic program may be a response to such criticism. Many find fault with what they consider to be excessive borrowing from non-Jewish traditions; such large amounts of non-Jewish practices and ideas have been borrowed that non-Renewal Jews see the Renewal movement as moving outside the boundaries of Judaism altogether. They hold that just as Jews cannot adopt Christian beliefs and practices and still consider themselves to be followers of Judaism, one cannot adopt Buddhist, Sufi, and polytheistic beliefs and practices and still consider themselves to be part of Judaism.

Renewalists counter that Judaism has long since assimilated Canaanite, Babylonian, Hellenistic and Muslim elements without harm to its integrity. Others, including some within the Renewal community, maintain that the movement has been more successful in providing occasional ecstatic "peak experiences" at worship services and spiritual retreats than in inculcating a daily discipline of religious practice.

As well, within the movement, some have observed a tension between those who prefer to focus on liberal, even radical, social activism on American, Middle-East and global issues; and those who favor an emphasis on meditation, text study and worship. These, together with the challenge of training and recruiting future generations of leaders, are the issues facing Jewish Renewal today.

External links

• ALEPH Alliance for Jewish Renewal (http://www.aleph.org/)
• OHaLaH: The Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal (http://www.ohalah.org/)
• Elat Chayyim: Transdenominational Jewish Retreat Center (http://www.elatchayyim.org/)nn:Jewish Renewal