The Gates of Prayer: Twelve Talks on Davvenology

The Gates of Prayer: Twelve Talks on Davvenology by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi is a difficult book to dislike.  Listening to Reb Zalman speak, with his gentle tone and easy going dispensation of knowledge and wisdom, is like sitting down at a your grandfather’s table and listening to stories of family history. It is a heimish.

These talks came late in his life, and you can tell that he is uncomfortable with the amount of non-Jewish material that has made it into Jewish Renewal.  This is particularly the case with mediation.  There is a Jewish mediation, he tells us; we don’t need to use other traditions.

True, but the magic of Judaism is that it has, again and again, taken customs and traditions and made them Jewish.  Just as Israeli Hebrew takes English words and places Hebrew endings and makes them Hebrew, so too Judaism with other religious practices.  It is Jewish as soon as Jews perform it; as long as the core values of Judaism are not breached (like G-d Oneness) there is room for play.