tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-104942432909993520.post4279249261627098023..comments2024-03-07T02:11:48.612-08:00Comments on Fusion 613: The fifty most influential rabbis in America and the rise of Habadfusion 613http://www.blogger.com/profile/04527618316229889614noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-104942432909993520.post-74488969734431563082011-04-30T15:02:31.629-07:002011-04-30T15:02:31.629-07:00Shalom Chaver shel le R' Brad:
There is a ma...Shalom Chaver shel le R' Brad:<br /> <br />There is a major irony with Chabad.<br /> <br />The Ba'al Shem Tov developed his movement to put mindless ritual aside in favor of loving kindness and kavenah, spiritual intention. The aim of a Jew was not for studying ritual and halacha, but to develop a cleaving, a devekut , with the Divine, and one's fellows.This came thru deep prayer and mediation.<br /> <br />He believed in panentheism. God exists and interpenetrates every part of nature, and timelessly extends beyond as well. Hence according to Chasidism, the Infinite Ein Sof is incorporeal, having no body, and is both transcendent and immanent. <br /> <br />The story is told of the unschooled boy who played a niggun on his flute , from his heart, as his prayer, and it was accepted by Heaven, more than all of the frum congregants dovening and shucking rapidly and routinely in Ivrit.<br /> <br />Just as the Talmud teaches us the dream-parable of Moses walking into Rabbi Akiva's academy circa 125 CE, and being so lost trying to understand Rabbinic Talmudic Judaism vis a vis his Hebraism, that R' Avika placed Moses in the back row with the new talmidim , so too could one write a Midrash today of what would occur if the BeShT walked into a Chabad house on a Shabbat.<br /> <br />While I find it unsettling that different sects, and various synagogues look at each other as competition, Chabad does draw Jews, as superficially they appear to be more welcoming, than the average temple. Chabad would never ask anyone to pay for a kiddush lunch. That bill comes due later on.<br /> <br />Hope you had a spiritual, renewing, and kasher Pesach.<br /> <br />Your Chaver:<br />Avrael<br /><br />Rabbi Arthur Segal<br /> www.jewishspiritualrenewal.orgRabbi Arthur Segalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03947065948583008845noreply@blogger.com