A Partner in Holiness Vol 1

Jonathan P. Slater

Description

Find inspiration for a satisfying spiritual life of practice through the combination of contemporary mindfulness meditation and classical Hasidic spirituality.

The soul yearns to feel connected to something greater and to know happiness despite personal suffering and seemingly endless need. Surprisingly, the perspectives of the late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Hasidic spiritual teachers offer a radically different Jewish theology that speaks directly to today's spiritual seekers whose faith has been shattered by both modernity and the Holocaust. These masters taught of interdependence, interconnectedness, selflessness, service and joy, anticipating the insights of contemporary science and twenty-first-century spirituality.

Bringing together the teachings of beloved Hasidic master Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev (1740–1809) and the practice of mindfulness meditation, Rabbi Jonathan P. Slater reveals a new entrance into Jewish spiritual life. Covering the Five Books of Moses, these two volumes present accessible translations of selections from Kedushat Levi, R. Levi Yitzhak's Hasidic Torah commentary, which emphasizes our spiritual capacity to transform consciousness and so our life experience. The selections are paired with Rabbi Slater's commentaries to illuminate their message.

Foreword ix
Preface xi
Introduction xiii

The Book of Genesis
Bereishit 3
Noach 12
Lekh Lekha 24
Vayeira 33
Hayyey Sarah 43
Toledot 52
Vayeitzei 61
Vayishlach 75
Vayeishev 85
Mikkeitz 97
Vayiggash 109
Vayechi 120

The Book of Exodus
Shemot 137
Va'eira 149
Bo 161
Beshallach 177
Yitro 190
Mishpatim 208
Terumah 220
Tetzavveh 235
Ki Tissa 249
Vayakheil 266
Pekudei 270

Notes 277

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Mysticism
• Israel
• Hebrew school
• Kabbalah
• Judaism
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 28 juillet 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781580238090
• Langue: English

Extrait

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To rabbis Nancy Flam, Sheila Peltz Weinberg, Rachel Cowan, and Lisa Goldstein
With gratitude for faith, support, and love
To Arthur Green
Because you sent me out to find my path, I have been able to trace it back to you
Contents: Volume 1
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
The Book of Genesis
Bereishit
Noach
Lekh Lekha
Vayeira
Hayyey Sarah
Toledot
Vayeitzei
Vayishlach
Vayeishev
Mikkeitz
Vayiggash
Vayechi
The Book of Exodus
Shemot
Va eira
Bo
Beshallach
Yitro
Mishpatim
Terumah
Tetzavveh
Ki Tissa
Vayakheil
Pekudei
Notes
Hebrew Texts
About the Author
Copyright
Also Available
About Jewish Lights
Here Is What You ll Find in Volume 2:
The Book of Leviticus
Vayikra
Tzav
Shemini
Tazria
Metsora
Acharei Mot
Kedoshim
Emor
Behar
Bechukkotai
The Book of Numbers
Bemidbar
Naso
Beha alotekha
Shelach Lekha
Korach
Chukkat
Balak
Pinhas
Mattot
Mase ei
The Book of Deuteronomy
Devarim
Va etchanan
Eikev
Re eih
Shofetim
Ki Teitzei
Ki Tavo
Nitzavim
Vayeilekh
Ha azinu
Vezot Haberakhah
Acknowledgments
Suggestions for Further Reading
Foreword
Arthur Green
Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev is one of the most beloved folk heroes of Jewish tradition. He is best known for his love of ordinary people and his willingness to find holiness in all their deeds, even in their moral foibles. The tales about him repeatedly depict him arguing with God in defense of Jews, both individually and collectively. More than any other figure in the Jewish literary imagination, his life demonstrates the inseparable bond between love of God and love of humanity.
But Levi Yitzhak is also a real historical figure. He was among the leading disciples of Rabbi Dov Baer of Mezritch (1704-1772) and played a key role in the spread of the Hasidic movement. Persecuted and driven from several communal posts because of his then-controversial Hasidic faith, he finally became rabbi of Berdichev, one of the largest Jewish communities in the Ukraine, where he served from 1785 until his death in 1811. His book Kedushat Levi , published immediately after his death, is considered one of the great classics of Hasidic literature.
Like almost all of early Hasidic writings, Kedushat Levi is a collection of homilies following the weekly Torah portion and the holiday cycle. (One portion of it, that on Purim and Hanukkah, was published by Levi Yitzhak in 1798.) These homilies were first delivered orally in Yiddish, the only spoken language of Eastern European Jews. When prepared for publication, however, they were rendered into abbreviated Hebrew versions. Publication in the holy tongue, the literary language of the educated, was considered more respectable. Because of their summary nature, the texts are sometimes difficult to understand, the power of their original delivery lost in the course of abbreviation and rough translation. It is almost as if they reach us in dehydrated form and we have to add the liquid warmth of our own understanding to bring them back to full strength.
That is precisely what Jonathan Slater has sought to do in this collection. He has filtered a selected group of Kedushat Levi teachings through his own religious experience and inner life, making them accessible to a new generation of seekers. Each of the original oral teachings behind this volume was offered in a particular context, perhaps stimulated by the need or life situation of a specific disciple or member of Levi Yitzhak s community. All that has been lost to us in the course of transcription and the passage of generations. But Slater has not allowed that to make him give up. He addresses to the Hasidic sources precisely the question that these texts themselves constantly address to the Torah itself: How is this teaching relevant to us, living in our own time?
The teachings of Hasidism are extraordinarily rich and creative in exposition of prior Jewish texts, beginning with the Torah. They clearly attest to a deep faith and call constantly for personal spiritual openness and awareness of the divine presence throughout our lives. The cultivation of that awareness, da at , and the attachment to God that results from it, devekut , constitute the heart of the Hasidic message. But the sources are not so strong in telling us precisely how to go about attaining these states. Surely both the life of the commandments and the study of Torah were seen as ways to enter God s service. Intense prayer, both liturgical and private, were also a part of the traditional spiritual toolbox. But Slater correctly intuits that these are not enough, especially for the contemporary reader. Well known as a practitioner and teacher of meditation, he accompanies each text with questions for personal thought as well as devotional exercises, building bridges between texts that many today would find obscure and the widely popular practice of mindfulness meditation.
This book is made for contemplative practice, not for quick reading. You have before you the work of a contemporary mystical seeker reflecting on the teachings of a profound preacher of two hundred years ago. But that preacher himself was drawing on a rich array of prior sources. In entering the world of this book, you are invited to add another link to that great chain, allowing the wisdom of Jewish mystical teachings to enter your heart, leading you from the sources to the great Source of all. That wisdom will be changed and renewed as it comes through you, just as it has been changed in coming through Jonathan Slater and in coming through Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev. But be prepared: as you make these teachings your own, they will seek to change and remake you as well. Only in allowing that to happen will you begin to understand the very important volume you have before you.
Preface
Rabbi Nancy Flam
When setting out to hike in unfamiliar terrain, I m always pleased to find a display board posting a map in front of the trailhead. Of greatest value is the little red arrow with the essential words, You are here.
So where are we as we set off on this path of A Partner in Holiness within the larger territory of Jewish learning? We are in the vast and ancient old-growth forest of Oral Torah known as parshanut , or explanations of the weekly Torah portion ( parashah ), within the broad field of homiletical midrash , or interpretive meaning-making based on the written words of Torah. We are on that part of the path forged relatively recently by the revolutionary insights of the Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760) and his students. The fruit of this revitalized Jewish mystical perspective was scattered on the footpath smoothed by post-Enlightenment, free-thinking Jews of the twentieth century (initially by such figures as Yosef Hayyim Brenner, Hillel Zeitlin, and Martin Buber) who rediscovered something of beauty, truth, and inspiration in these early Hasidic teachings. They cultivated the seeds hidden within this fruit in new social and historical environments to sprout what we call Neo-Hasidism. A related path of Hasidic teaching for non-Hasidic Jews was later pioneered in North America by Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and deeply enriched by Dr. Arthur Green, not only in the latter s translations of classic Hasidic homilies with modern-day commentary but also in his popular books rendering an accessible and compelling Neo-Hasidic theology for the contemporary Jewish seeker.
And then something new happened of which this book is an exquisite expression. American Neo-Hasidism met American Buddhist mindfulness through, in large part, the shared teaching of Arthur Green and renowned mindfulness teacher Sylvia Boorstein. Jonathan Slater became a keen student of them both through their collaborative teaching at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. It is this synthesis of Neo-Hasidic worldview, language, and Torah interpretation with the worldview, language, and practice of American Buddhist mindfulness meditation that marks the specific trail we will be walking together through the pages of this book, with Rabbi Slater as our guide.
The great gift of this fortuitous meeting stems from the way in which mindfulness meditation-and the understanding of mind that informs it-shines a penetrating light upon the words of Neo-Hasidic Torah that would otherwise remain opaque to us. The Hasidic masters teachings were clearly rooted in personal experience, based on the truth of their own highly refined inner lives and reflection upon them. Additionally, the masters certainly engaged in their own practices to cultivate this inner territory of awareness and presence. But they did not generally share their precise methods of practice. Mindfulness meditation provides a systematic contemplative practice for training the mind and heart, cultivating the kind of consciousness that we believe the Hasidic teachers were advocating and encouraging. Mindfulness practice brings a depth and dimension to the masters words that would otherwise elude us.
It is possible that mindfulness meditation practice and wisdom will provide a new hermeneutic to help Torah be relevant and compelling for our time and place, much as Maimonides applied the lens of Aristotle, or Bahya ibn Pakuda the lens of Sufism, to