Title: Reconstructionism and Spiritual Life II
1Reconstructionism and Spiritual Life IIA
Conversation About Spirituality
PEARL Providing Education and Resources for
Leadership For Part One see
http//jrf.org/node/3112
Jewish Reconstructionist Federation
Transformative Judaism for the 21st Century 101
Greenwood Avenue Beit Devora, Suite 430
Jenkintown, PA 19046 215.885.5601 / fax
215.885.5603 www.jrf.org
- Rabbi Shawn Zevit, Rabbi Richard Hirsh, and Rabbi
Rachel Gartner - May 4, 2011-800 p.m.-915 p.m.
2An Opening Prayer c- Rabbi Shawn Zevit, May
2011
- We begin our holy work
- In space and time
- This moment, this Eternality.
- Open our hearts, Dear Gd
- Open our eyes, our mind
- To be present to this process
- Of building sacred community
- Be the strength and resilience
- Energy, creativity, and wisdom
- Compassion, love, and confidence
- In being and becoming
- In leadership and service
- For all of us who share
- This wonder-filled exploration
- Called Life.
3Jewish Tradition and Spiritual SeekingRabbi
Richard Hirsh
- Reconstructionist Judaism is respectful of
traditional Jewish observances but also open to
new interpretations and forms of religious
expression. As Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan
(1881-1983), the founder of Reconstructionism,
taught, tradition has "a vote, but not a veto.
Reconstructionists share a commitment to making
Judaism their own by finding in it joy, meaning,
and ideas they can believe. We continue to turn
to Jewish law and tradition for guidance, if not
always for governance. We recognize that in the
contemporary world, individuals and communities
make their own choices with regard to religious
practice and ritual observance. - We live in an age of spiritual seeking, a time
in which the search for transcendent values and
deeper meanings invites many of us back to our
own religious traditions, to rediscover the rich
insights of those who came before us on the
spiritual journey. Reconstructionist Judaism has
always been open to new approaches to thinking
about God, to alternative ways of experiencing
the Divine in our lives, and to honest wrestling
with the inherited insights of our ancestors.
4Exploring Judaism - Staub and Alpert Living as a
Reconstructionist, p. 79
- Recent studies suggest that there are different
spiritual typesSome people find holiness in
analysis and study. Some experience God most
readily in social justice or interpersonal
relationships. Others find transcendence in
observing the natural world or experiencing the
creative process. There is even a spiritual type
who best connects to God and religious life-
remaining true to God by smashing the idols of
religious hypocrisy No individual is purely one
of these types, but each of us has greater
propensities in some directions than others.
Viewing Judaism as a religious civilization that
encompasses all these paths, Reconstructionists
affirm the validity of each of them and seek to
encourage one another as we each find our own
way.
5Belonging to a Democratic Jewish Community in a
Post-Halakhic Age http//jrf.org/showresrid140
- If halakha is defined as the Jewish process of
celebrating, creating and transmitting tradition,
Reconstructionist Jewish communities would
certainly fit within the framework of
halakha.But if halakha has the meaning of a
rigid body of law, changeable only under very
rarefied circumstances, most Jewish people,
including Reconstructionists, no longer accept
its binding authority. While Reconstructionists
are lovers of tradition and support community
celebration of the Jewish sacred year and
life-cycle events, we also believe that the face
of the Jewish community is changing and that
individuals have the right to adapt Jewish
tradition to new circumstances.Reconstructionist
communities challenge Jews to participate fully
in our shared Jewish civilization. From building
a sukkah to appreciating Jewish music, from
caring for the Jewish young and old to leading
Torah study - community members should experience
Jewish civilization in our day as fully as they
experience secular civilization.Judaism will
continue to be a dynamic civilization only if we
choose to participate, create and transmit
vitality to future generations. Reconstructionist
rabbis work in partnership with committed lay
people to formulate guidelines that serve as
Jewish touchstones for our times. These
guidelines are presented and democratically
considered in Reconstructionist communities as
standards for enhancing the Jewish life of the
individual and the community rather than as
binding laws.
6 I. From Conception to Perception(Commentary
R. Richard Hirsh)
- A. Rabbi Larry Kushner Spirituality is a
dimension of living where we are aware of Gods
presence. (Eyes Remade for Wonder, p. 153)
Reverence is the only option. - B. Rabbi Art Green The proper question is, Do
you consider yourself a religious person? How do
you express that religiosity? What is the
relationship between your own spiritual life and
the symbols of Judaism? In what sense do you use
the word God or its Hebrew equivalent in your
religious life? (Art Green, symposium in
Commentary August 1996, p. 42) - COMMENTARY, Richard Hirsh What I want to
introduce here is the place from which we look
i.e., religion as a human project, not a divine
revelation not a different way of being but a
different way of looking. So, much of theology
presumes to tell us something about God and much
of spirituality often foregoes even asking any
questions about God and simply assumes God too
easily. A Reconstructionist approach to
spirituality could start from an interior
assessment of what may be just below the surface,
and a naming of that through Jewish symbols and
language. Ultimately, reverence is a posture,
an attitude, an assumption encompassing a sense
of wonder, appreciation, newness, and challenge.
7II. Spiritual Practice as a Means of
Cultivating a Perceptual Framework
- A. Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan The pragmatic method is
concerned with the effect the words of the writer
had on the inner life of the people or the way
what he said workedThe pragmatic method, seeks
to identify the direction which the thought first
formulated by the writer has taken. It tries to
get not at the static truth but at the dynamic
truth. It is this method alone which is of
actual aid in the religious life of a people or a
group. -
- B. Abraham Joshua Heschel The Biblical words
about the genesis of heaven and earth are not
words of information but words of appreciation.
The story of creation is not a description of how
the world came into being, but a song about the
glory of the worlds having come into being. And
God saw that it was good. This is the challenge
to reconcile Gods view with our experience. The
demand, as understood in Biblical religion, is to
be alert and open to what is happening. What is,
what comes about. Every moment a new arrival, a
new bestowal. How to welcome the moment? How to
respond to the marvel? The cardinal sin is our
failure to sense the grandeur of the moment, the
marvel and mystery of being, the possibility of
quiet exultation. (What Is Man?)
8II. Spiritual Practice as a Means of
Cultivating a Perceptual Framework (R. Rachel
Gartner commentary)
- COMMENTARY, on Kaplan, R. Rachel Gartner
- effect the words of the writer had on the inner
life of the people - Pragmatic approach to spirituality Spiritual
practice is about cultivating an ever- evolving
perceptual framework (or perspective) for
experiencing and interpreting what happens in our
individual lives as part of what happens in Life
as such. A framework which, over time, allows us
to weave a given experience into it, see how a
given experience fits into it or sometimes even
re- shapes the framework or experience and our
understanding of Life. The question of whether
or not that framework reflects an objective
reality about Life is interesting to me on some
level, but is not really in the realm of
perception, rather it returns us to the realm of
conception. This realm and its questions are not
primarily what I am compelled to investigate as a
religious practitioner and as a rabbi. However,
whether or not that perceptual framework is
empowering, comforting, ennobling is a pragmatic
concern, and one that interests me profoundly
both in my life and in my rabbinate.
9II. Spiritual Practice as a Means of
Cultivating a Perceptual Framework (R. Rachel
Gartner commentary- contd)
- the direction which the thought first formulated
has taken, the dynamic truth - To my mind, truths of the human/trans-human,
natural/trans-natural experience are not exactly
dynamic but the way we experience these truths
is. Truths like things come and go there is
pain there is resilience and so forth are in my
mind in some essential way not dynamic, but the
way we experience and interpret them is dynamic
and the way they show up in our lives and
communities is dynamic. - religious life of a people or group
- This cultivation can be a communal seeking and
cultivation of an empowering, comforting,
ennobling perceptual framework, or an individual
one. In my work, I am most interested in the
intersection of the two. The two intersect in my
work primarily through in-depth deeply personal
engagement with liturgy/text either in Spiritual
Direction or in group meditation and sharing
sessions. The way I practice Spiritual Direction
is not at all about teaching concepts, rather
its about helping people develop perceptual
frameworks, informed, when appropriate, by Jewish
teachings and texts. I engage texts when they
feel to me like they connect with the emerging
perceptual framework of the directee and might
help deepen or take that perceptual framework to
a new place. - One way I do this is by creating contexts in
which life and Jewish text can intimately mix,
mingle and ultimately (hopefully) morph so that
ones life illuminates the meaning of the text,
and the text can come to illuminate the
meaning(s) of ones life/Life. - Religious life of the group is enhanced through
the cherubim model it comes out in chevurta and
other larger groups in the conversations and
what passes in between participants.
10II. Spiritual Practice as a Means of Cultivating
a Perceptual Framework (Commentary on Heschel, R.
Rachel Gartner)
-
- Here, Heschel interprets the biblical account of
genesis of heaven and earth not as a factual
account that fits into a neat conceptual
framework of how the world was made. Rather, he
interprets the biblical account of heaven and
earth as - (a) being reflective of the thought first
formulated in the writer and, - (b) meant to induce in the listener the effect
on the inner life of the listener a specific
perceptual framework in this case a perceptual
framework of appreciation, newness, welcoming,
sensing of grandeur, marveling at mystery, quiet
exultation.
11III. From Conception to Perception Ways of
Knowing(Commentary Rabbi Richard Hirsh)
- Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan God must not merely be
held as an idea He (sic) must be felt as a
presence if we want not only to know about God
but to know God...There is a difference between
knowing God philosophically in His manifestations
and experiencing Him religiously in worship.
(Mordecai Kaplan, The Meaning of God in Modern
Jewish Religion, chapter God Felt as a
Presence, p. 244, 249) - COMMENTARY, RH 1) Kaplan Reconstructionism
do not only know the god idea or talk about God
only in an academic, analytical or intellectual
manner. The religious quest is to experience
something that places our personal-temporal
lifespan into a larger context.
12III. From Conception to Perception Ways of
Knowing(Commentary Rabbi Richard Hirsh, contd)
- B. Rita Nakashima Brock Heart knowledge, the
deepest and fullest knowing involves a union of
body, spirit, reason, and passion. What we get
from our hearts is true, valid information. For
we know best by heart. (Journeys by Heart) -
- COMMENTARY, RG Perceptual frameworks are not
constructed through information, argumentation,
scientific facts, or even religious dogmas.
Rather, they are built on intuition, unitive
experiences, feelings, and ultimately what,
borrowing from theologian Rita Nakashima Brock, I
call heart knowledge.
13IV. Cultivating Perception The Meeting Place
between Personal Experience Jewish Expression
- Kaplan When we worship in public we know our
life is part of a larger life, a wave of an ocean
of being the first-hand experience of that
larger life which is God. - (KOL HANESHAMAH Shabbat Vehagim p. 57)
- http//stores.jrfbookstore.org/-strse-Prayer-Books
-cln-Kol-Haneshamah-Series/Categories.bok
14V. Separation Connection(Commentary Rabbi
Richard Hirsh)
- A. Marcia Falk I would describe my own
experience of the divine as an awareness, or a
sensing, of the dynamic, alive, and unifying
wholeness within creationa wholeness that
subsumes and contains and embraces me, a
wholeness greater than the sum of its parts - (Marcia Falk The Book of Blessings, p. 419)
15V. Separation Connection(Commentary Rabbi
Richard Hirsh, contd)
- B. Danny Matt once explained the relationship
of the World of Separation and the World of
Unity this way we have a word for leaf, twig,
branch, trunk, roots. The words make it easier
for us to categorize and comprehend reality. But
we must not think that just because we have words
for all the parts of a tree that a tree really
has all those parts. The leaf does not know, for
instance, when it stops being a leaf and becomes
a twig. And the trunk is not aware that it has
stopped being a trunk and has become the roots.
Indeed, the roots do not know when they stop
being roots and become soil, nor the soil
moisture, nor the moisture the atmosphere, nor
the atmosphere the sunlight. All our names are
arbitrarily superimposed on what is, in truth,
the seamless unity of all being. And that is when
the World of Separation gives way to the World of
Unity. It lasts for only a moment, the twinkling
of an eye. Then it's gone and we're bounced back
into this World of Separation." (Rabbi Lawrence
Kushner, Kabbalah A Love Story)
16V. Separation Connection(Commentary Rabbi
Richard Hirsh, contd)
- COMMENTARY, RH What I want to stress here is
the fundamental decision we are challenged to
make -- whether life is primarily defined by
polarities, opposites, distance, dissonance or
whether it is primarily defined by unity,
contact, the one versus the two. Are we
apart from or a part of? This too is
primarily an act of perception and position and
decision but one that conveys an
investment/faith in the ultimate nature of
things.
17Personal Spiritual Connection
- Throughout my life, I had searched for a
spirituality that felt right for me. I had
belonged to a number of synagogues and read many
books, but never found a community or a
philosophy with which I could identify. But
during my first Shabbat service at Kehillath
Israel, I had a sense that I had finally found a
'home.' A class called 'God and Spiritually - a
Reconstructionist Approach' helped me affirm
intellectually all the positive feelings I
experienced on my first visit to the synagogue.
During the class I realized that the entire
community was helping me validate my own
intuitive, spiritual perceptions. I am very
grateful that Kehillath Israel has turned out be
a place that nurtures my spirituality through
experience and education. - Member, Kehillath
Israel, Pacific Palisades, California -
- "For me there is no separation between
spirituality and living. Spirituality is at the
core of Life . -Debbie Freidman, zl, Lilith
Magazine 1988
18Further Resources
- Reconstructionism http//jrf.org/reconstructionis
m - Reconstructionism Today Articles
- http//jrf.org/resources-librarytid512showR
eligious Values - Who Is A Reconstructionist Jew?
http//jrf.org/showresrid140 - Reconstructionism and Prayer http//www2.jrf.org/
rt/article.php?id159 - Audio Programs http//jrf.org/heart-mind-spirit
- FAQ's on Reconstructionist Approaches to Jewish
ideas and Practices - http//jrf.org/showresrid487
- How To Successfully Integrate and Use
Reconstructionism in Synagogue Processes - http//jrf.org/pearl/2008/how-to-successfully-int
egrate-and-use-reconstructionism-in-synagogue-proc
esses - What Is Reconstructionism, Anyway?
- http//jrf.org/resources/files/What20is20Recons
tructionism.pdf
19Further Resources
- http//jrf.org/resources-librarytid35showSpi
rituality - http//www.rrc.edu/ethics-center/publications/publ
ications - http//stores.jrfbookstore.org/-strse-Prayer-Books
/Categories.bok - (Omer Series available at http//jrf.org/pearl)
- http//jrf.org/pearl/2009/growing-the-soul-of-your
-community - Omer Project "A House of Prayer for All
Peoples" Diversity in Growing Sacred Community - Omer Project Spiritual direction "Growing
God-ward" - Omer Project Varieties of Spiritual practice
- Omer Project Liturgy and Prayer
- Omer Project Growing Self and Community through
Creativity and the Arts - Omer Project Tikkun L'eyl Shavuot The Many
Paths to Revelation of Torah - Omer Project Growing Spirituality in Education
Learning Across the Lifecycle - Spirituality and Social Justice
http//jrf.org/showrtrid673 - Re-inventing Synagogue Life and Prayer
http//jrf.org/showrtrid508