Wake up. For morning prayers, sit in silent contemplation. Have breakfast. Study Hasidic meditation. Study Kabbalah. Have lunch. Meditate. Study the Talmud. Do yoga. Have dinner. Chant the evening prayers. This is how students at a new summer program from Romemu, the congregation on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, will spend their days. The six-week program…
Just over half of all adults in the United Kingdom pray, even those who say they’re not religious, a new poll shows. One in five adults who say they’re not religious still pray — and half of those say they think God hears their prayers. A poll done by Christian aid agency, Tearfund, found that…
A Reform synagogue in suburban London is in possession of a mysterious amulet — and the synagogue is looking for the public’s help in deciphering it. Barry Hyman, president of Radlett Reform Synagogue, wrote in the Jewish Chronicle about a graphic of unknown age and origin that was “dumped anonymously in the shul.” It is…
An Orthodox community is in the midst of a philosophical crisis that’s pitting hard-line rationalists against New Age-leaning mystics — and the publication of a new book by a well-known rabbi has exposed and intensified the struggle. In his recently published “Alternative Medicine in Halakhah,” Lakewood, New Jersey rabbi Rephoel Szmerla gives Jewish legal justifications…
“Bob Dylan was born a Jew. Then he wasn’t, but now he’s back,” sang Adam Sandler in The Chanukah Song, voicing all of our dads’ anxieties over Dylan’s religious identity. A new biography “Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life” by Scott Marshall, aims to explore Dylan’s spiritual odyssey. Out on June 20th, Marshall’s book promises to…
It is no surprise that many American Jews are proponents of what they call greater spirituality. This is characteristic of what Ronald Inglehart has termed the “postmaterialist” generation. In his study “Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society,” based on survey data from 25 industrial societies, Mr. Inglehart argues that economic, technological and sociopolitical changes have…
You know the old joke, two Jews, three opinions? It’s true. But when it comes to judgment, unfortunately we take it to another level entirely. Our propensity to judge one another is a sad component of Jewish culture today, which is at odds with our Jewish values. And, this judgmental culture seems to be a…
— A New Age institute defended its decision to employ Marc Gafni, a former rabbi accused of sexual misconduct, as a “wisdom teacher.” The Center for Integral Wisdom is a think tank founded by Gafni. It is affiliated with the Institute for Integral Evolutionary Tantra, which recently announced that Gafni would teach a year-long course on New Age…
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