Jewish Renewal: not for me, but still awesome? The jury’s out…
As part of my work at the Jewish Publication Society, at one point I did a fair amount of research on the Jewish Renewal Movement. I was mostly trying to get contact information for Renewal synagogues and rabbis, but in the process, I learned a fair amount about the movement itself. Here’s a taste of what I learned:
Members of this movement seek to spiritually reinvigorate Judaism by bringing kabbalistic and Hasidic philosophy into an egalitarian framework. The result is a Judaism infused with spirituality and liturgical creativity, blended with elements of Sufism and Buddhism, and stridently supportive of feminism, LGBT rights, pacifism, and the environmentalist movement.
The movement sees itself as neo-Hasidic; meaning, it embraces the Hasidic philosophy of creating a connection to God through joyous worship and a connection to the natural world, and blends that philosophy with modern, liberal egalitarian values.
Personally, Renewal isn’t really for me. But I found something very heartening about the fact that there is this core group of Jews who have such a strong spiritual connection to Judaism.
Not everyone would agree with me, however. I just stumbled upon this fascinating 2007 debate at Jewcy between Rabbi Arthur Waskow (one of the leaders of the Renewal movement) and Rabbi Daniel Bronstein (a prominent leader in the Reform movement, and rationalist extraordinaire). I’m not going to post the entire debate, because it’s rather long. But let me whet your appetite: the subject of the debate was “Is Jewish Renewal the Next Step in Spirituality, or Bommer Narcissism?”
Here’s how Jewcy sums up the two sides of the debate:
Say you attend a speech by the prominent Jewish Renewal rabbi Michael Lerner. Once you experience the way he whips up a rapt audience of trustafarians into an orgy of indignation (followed, like clockwork, by a soothing postcoital bath of self-satisfaction), then you actually start to agree with conservative critics who see the movement as a lingering expression of 1960s narcissism. After that kind of trauma, it’s hard to give the movement’s theology or rhetoric a fair shake.
And yet Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the founder and primary leader of the Renewal Movement, doesn’t seem to fit that description:
His understanding of God was intellectually sophisticated, not archaic, and his Judaism inquisitive about other faiths rather than fearful of them. He relentlessly engaged with the non-Jewish world, rather than retreating from it or placating it.
Now, I’m a big fan of instilling spirituality in Jewish practice (after all, I love love love really long Carlebach services), but I’m also a religious rationalist. I don’t beleive that Judaism can be all things, and I don’t believe that Judaism should ignore its intellectual, rabbinic soul. So having read through the entire debate, I’m leaning towards Rabbi Bronstein’s side… but he’s just arrogant enough in his assertions for me to take him with a grain of salt. Waskow does make some really valid points, and Bronstein simply insults them away.
What do y’all think of the debate? (Again, you can read it here.) Are any of you involved with the Renewal movement, or have come into contact with it? What are your thoughts?
