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Over de Auteur

Rabbi Rami Shapiro, PhD, is the award-winning author of over 36 books on religion, spirituality, and recovery. He codirects the One River Foundation, is a contributing editor at Spirituality and Health magazine, and hosts the podcasts Essential Conversations with Rabbi Rami and Conversations on the toon meer Edge and the weekly Zoom talk show Roadside Assistance at the Corner of Tohu va-Vohu ("Wild and Chaos"). He received the Huston Smith Award for Interfaith Education and Service in 2020. toon minder
Fotografie: Holy Rascals

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Embracing Esau (1994) 4 exemplaren

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from cover

Dear Reader,

This book is a fictional collection of letters from "Reb Yerachmiel ben Yisrael" to my great grandfather, Aaron Hershel. The rebbe is a composite of several genuine Hasidic rebbes, and my Zayde (great-grandfather), was quite real.

My Zayde was immersed in traditional Judaism. As a young man he was a "circuit rabbi" bringing Yiddishkeit to isolated Jewish communities in small New England towns. What he taught is not unlike what you will find in these letters. He did, as this book says, sit in the corner of his home pouring over a small black notebook which never left his side. Although that book was never found, I imagined what it contained, and created these letters as a vehicle for passing on the teahcings my Zayde had learned.

Are these teachings made up? No. The teachings found in this book go back hundreds of years and are foundational to much of Hasidic philosophy. Is the meditation practice mentioned in the book authentic? Yes. It is called avodah be-bittul (the annihilation of all separate existence). The fact that these teachings and practices have parallels in other religious systems points to our common humanity and the universality of spiritual insight and practice.

B'Shalom,

Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro
… (meer)
 
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AikiBib | Aug 14, 2022 |
'A master teacher.'-Thomas Keating

'Don't let the small size of this precious book fool you. It's a rare jewel, a powerhouse of spiritual wisdom that you can read and rearead. Carry it with you and make it your companion on the journey home to the Source of our Being.'-Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., A Women's Journey to God and Seven Paths to God

'Open Secrets invites us into the most intimate of settings, the whispered wisdom passed from an authentic hasidic master to his student. It radiates warmth, passion for the Divine, and earthly confidence in sacredness. A treasure for the spiritual seeker of any tradition.'-Judith Simmer-Brown, Dakini's Warm Breath

The fictional hasidic master Reb Yerachmiel ben Yisrael writes to his student who has moved from the old country to America. In providing answers to Aaron Hershel's questions about why God created the world, the nature of reality, what it means to be Jewish, whether all religions are true, death, intermarriage, and much more, Reb Yerachmiel offers a Judaism as ancient as it is modern, a Judaism for everybody.

Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro is one of the most creative voices in contemporary Judaism. He is an award-winning poet and essayist and his liturgies are used in prayer services throughout North America. His previoius books include Minyan, The Way of Solomon, Proverbs, and Hasidic Tales.

Contents

Acknolwedgments
Preface
Introduction
An invitation
Judaism
Who is a Jew?
God
Creation
Humanity
Evil
Human nature
Torah
Mitzvot
Shabbat and the holy days
Israel
Intermarriage
Why be Jewish?
Soul
Walking inward
To listen and to love
Is it working?
Religion
Are all religions true?
Spirituality
Prayer
Dreams
Truth
Faith and reason
Be Holy
Jesus
Finding a teacher
Death
Glossary
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Gemarkeerd
AikiBib | May 29, 2022 |
This is a very thought provoking book. Wonderful layout, with each story on one side of the page and the notes opposite it. Great stories, the notations make it good for discussion. Each story is just a couple of pages. I found it to be lovely bedtime reading with easy stopping places. In a group each story could be read aloud and thoughts shared. I've not seen anything else like this. I'm glad to have stumbled upon it.
 
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njcur | 1 andere bespreking | Jul 8, 2019 |
Rabbi Rami Shapiro is no ordinary poet. A student of Zen Buddhism and Hasidim, he was challenged to become a 'Zen rabbi' in 1973. He got ordained as a Reformed rabbi (1981) and served a congregation for twenty years. Today, he writes, leads retreats, and co-directs One River Wisdom School. Much of the poetry in Accidental Grace: Poetry, Prayers and Psalms was birthed for liturgical use in the congregation of Beth Or (in Miami), but is accessible to people across religious traditions.

As I thumbed through this book, my first question was "What the heck is a Zen rabbi?" This is a curious blending of religious traditions, to say the least! Shapiro writes:
At first I thought a Zen rabbi was a rabbi who wrapped a tallit/prayer shawl around the Buddha: making Buddhism kosher by finding ways to read Buddhism into Jewish text and tradition. I wasn't wrong, but I wasn't quite right. As it turns out, a Zen Rabbi is a rabbi who isn't all that concerned with being a rabbi or a Jew. A Zen rabbi is a rabbi who, if she met Buddha on the road, wouldn't kill him, but would take him out for bagels and lox. A Zen rabbi is a rabbi who thinks that God is reality manifesting as everything, the way an ocean manifests waves. (p. x, from the introduction).

Shapiro blends traditions, sounding Jewish one moment, the next like an Eastern mystic. His source material remains the Hebrew scriptures and extant writings ('everything has a hook in traditional Jewish texts,' xi); yet he deconstructs much of this, sending it through his 'Zen shredder.' He rages against text and tradition but speaks reverently of the ineffable God who cannot be named.

Shapiro's poems (proper) are bordered by his treatment of two types of texts from the Ketuvim(the writings in the Jewish Tanakh). He begins with the Psalms, offering poetic paraphrases and meditation on twenty psalms. The word "God" doesn't always appear in these Psalms and there is no version of the tetragrammaton (YHWH). Shapiro most often refers to God as "You," with occasional titles like, "Holy One of Being" and "Ground of all ground"(Ps. 90, p.14). References to "Israel" and "Zion" are excised from most of his rephrasings. The exception, is Psalm 137, which describes the Jewish experience of their exile in Babylon. Here Shapiro says with the Psalmist, "I sat down by the rivers of Babylon. . ."and "If, I forget you, O Jerusalem. . ."(22). But he modifies the psalm's baby-killing conclusion to read, "Please, God, silence the vengefulness within me/that justifies battering the babies of my enemies/on the rocks of their city until their bodies dissolve in pools of blood and fat"(23). He pays homage to the psalms, but also critiques, and rewrites them to reflect his own understanding of the God described in the text.

In the final section of this book, Shapiro presents a parabolic and dramatic retelling of the book of Job. His first act describes the wager between God and Satan and the havoc this wreaks on Job. The second act presents Job's argument with his three friends about the cause of his suffering. Act three appears in two scenes: scene one has God appear in a sandstorm; scene two describe an aftermath conversation between Job, Satan and God. Shapiro touches on the ambiguities and absurdities in the Job narrative, offering a humorous, if irreverent conclusion.

The poems in the middle of the book vary. Some reflect on particular scriptures or liturgical settings. Some talk about spirituality: Sabbath, Torah, the Holocaust, pain, death, joy. Some poems are prayers to God, while others describe the divine in significant and mundane moments of life. There are poems which rage, and poems that praise.

When a Christian publishing house (Paraclete Press) puts out a book of poetry from a 'Zen Rabbi,' it is worth taking notice. It is not every day these traditions converge amicably without something of their particularity being sacrificed. I am a convinced Christian and no relativiser of the world's religious traditions, but I can appreciate insights from other traditions. I found myself appreciative of Shapiro's playfulness with Scripture and his imaging of the God "beyond imaging." Many of his poems on the spiritual life are quite moving. I loved his description of the Spirit, and how we don't just "breathe," but "are breathed" (Attending, 36). At some points, his spirituality was too vague for my tastes, but overall, I appreciated this collection. I give this four stars.

Note: I recieved this book from Paraclete press in exchange for my honest review.

 
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
Jamichuk | May 22, 2017 |

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