The other week, I was listening to a podcast on Jewish Mindfulness. It was an interesting and foundational interview and really made me think about the future of Judaism, more specifically, the future and direction of Jewish Mindfulness, what an engaged Judaism looks like, and to even ask the question if God is a liberal or a conservative?
Love and Truth (Chesed v’Emet)
Hashivenu is a podcast produced by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College / Jewish Reconstructionist Communities and is hosted by its President, Rabbi Deborah Foxman. In the most recent episode, she interviews Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell, a Program Director with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS) and the coordinator of their Jewish Mindfulness Teacher Training Program, the same program in which I participated and completed last year.
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell is an up and coming Jewish mindfulness teacher and was one of my teachers in the program and a fine example of kindness and dedication to practice and intentionality. He often used the word “sweet” in his teaching, a word that is fitting and can easily describe who and how he is.
If I remember correctly, Rabbi Jordan sat for a few months in a Zen Buddhist monastery and studied at a local Zen center within the Kwan Um School of Zen while in university before electing to go to Rabbinical school at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and eventually training as a Jewish mindfulness teacher at IJS under Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg (with whom I also studied with while at IJS). You can say that Rabbi Jordan is a 3rd generation Jewish mindfulness teacher in the tradition of Sheila Peltz Weinberg and her teacher, Sylvia Boorstein.
In the podcast, Jordan speaks about mindfulness as a practice of “remembrance” and a “way of relating to our experience [a]nd capacity to just be with whatever is happening now.” Expanding on this idea, Rabbi Jordan also described Jewish mindfulness from the perspective of two particular middot – or “qualities of experience” – chesed and emet, “covenantal love” and “bearing witness to truth.” He then defined Jewish mindfulness as “a practice of training in deepening one’s capacity for being loving and honest with one’s lived experience moment by moment.”
An Appropriate Response
During the podcast interview, a discussion ensued about the cliché that meditation is really escapist and a selfish act of avoiding the world. Rabbi Jordan raised three important questions:
How am I seeing this world?
How am I seeing the fullness of my experience?
And [h]ow do I respond to that lovingly?
Similarly, in the Zen tradition, there are two koans in the Blue Cliff Record that, for me, also speak to something similar.
A monk asked Yun Men, “What are the teachings of a whole lifetime?” Yun Men said, “An appropriate response.” (Blue Cliff Record, Case 14)
In the following koan:
A monk asked Yun Men, “When it’s not the present intellect, and it’s not the present phenomena, what is it?” Yun Men said, “An upside-down response.” (Blue Cliff Record, Case 15)
The monk in these stories – perhaps even the same one – is really asking similar questions. What is the most important teaching of all? What is the most necessary lesson of all? Learning how to respond appropriately in the right manner and time, learning to respond lovingly at all times, learning how to respond to the drama of our life, this is the greatest teaching and lesson of our entire life.
These two koans also evoke other questions. Where do we find meaning in life? Where do we find God? Inside? Or outside? In the solace of meditation? Or in the hustle and bustle of relationships and community? Zen Master Yun Men smacks us upside the head and – in the most loving way possible – reminds us not to make such distinction. There is no way to serve God without serving man; and in serving man, we serve no other than God.
“Engaged” Judaism
In the course of the interview, the conversation gravitated toward how to bring one’s meditation practice off the cushion and “be able to take it into the world.” Rabbi Jordan emphasized the importance of meditation practice and said that “Jewish spiritual life, with very few exceptions, has always been about practice in the world” and described Judaism as a “tradition of engaged, worldly spiritual life.”
The conversation then shifted to politics, as Rabbi Foxman mentioned the 2016 elections. I understand that the presidential election season was very contentious and remains an important national discussion, yet I found myself feeling uncomfortable. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am generally not a political activist type and am cautious about and lean against the conflation of politics with religion.
I found myself flashing back to something that Rabbi Jordan mentioned earlier in the interview, “I really am a strong believer that to have a Jewish Mindfulness sensibility does not depend on sitting in meditation, necessarily.” I found myself thinking about the Engaged Buddhist movement.
Engaged Buddhism is an approach to Buddhism that began in the 1970s with the arrival of the Vietnamese Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh, and the establishment of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship by the grandfather of Western Zen, Robert Aitken Roshi, and his wife Anne Hopkins Aitken. Later, the Zen Peacemaker Order was founded in the 1990s by Roshi Bernie Glassman and his then wife Roshi Sandra Jishu Holmes.
In Engaged Buddhism, the focus of spiritual practice shifts away from formal meditation practice toward an emphasis on taking the insights of meditation practice into the world through social action and political activism, usually on behalf of left-leaning politics.
I don’t know if Rabbi Jordan is especially familiar with the Engaged Buddhism movement – I haven’t asked him – though I wonder if this is where the Jewish mindfulness movement is going as it develops and grows and the next generation of younger teachers emerge and mature?
The Stranger in Our Midst
Over the years, I’ve walked in many Jewish and Dharma circles and listened to many sermons, podcasts, and dharma talks, and have found one unfortunate thing in common to be frequently true. It is commonly assumed that whomever walks in the door or listens to the talk is politically liberal or progressive. Over and over, the Bible teaches to welcome the stranger, though we must work to take this seriously.
During the recent presidential election, the elections often came up as a topic for formal and informal discussion. One thing was striking. It was assumed that everyone there had a liberal or progressive bias. The choice up for discussion was not between Pres. Trump and Secy. Clinton, but was assumed to be between Secy. Clinton and Dr. Jill Stein, let alone Gov. Gary Johnson, Carly Fiorina, Sen. Ted Cruz, or any of the other national candidates.
I am of the firm belief that individuals on both “sides” of the political spectrum are well meaning and interested in doing good, though through different means. People across the political divide care about the important social-political issues of our day – such as poverty, healthcare, homelessness, substance dependence, international conflicts and war, etc. – yet disagree on how best to reduce the effects of this suffering and offer different perspectives on and approaches to their resolution.
In this post, I am not advocating one political position or candidate over another and do not intend to do so. However, I do want to do everything I can – and encourage us all to do everything we can – to ensure that no matter what a person’s political creed or beliefs are, no one is vilified and all are welcome.
This is no different from practicing in meditation. When a positive or pleasant feeling, thought, or sensation comes, we accept it. Likewise, when a negative or unpleasant feeling, thought, or sensation comes, we accept it. All are welcome! This is the practice of welcoming the stranger in our midst!
The “Work” of Spirituality
It is a living testimony to the power and extraordinary depth of the Bible that its influence and study continues even to this day. It is also important to remember and appreciate that we must not allow one particular interpretive strand to maintain a monolithic hold on interpreting the Bible.
The Bible can be used and heard in many powerful and wonderful ways. It was written in a specific day and time, though its underlying values are eternal and beyond any particular epoch.
For example, the Prophets can both inspire movements and ideas as wide as Liberation Theology – a Marxist, Catholic movement in Latin America that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s – and also be a foundational text for a Libertarian argument against the overreach of government and tyrannical rulers and elected officials.
Unfortunately, my experience has been that people can sometimes cast a shadow from their biases onto the Bible and in fact can use this to exclude people of different ideas and beliefs, even unknowingly. While this is not unique to any one political “side” or religious tradition – and is regrettably found throughout the world’s religions – my focus in this post will be on how this is done within the Jewish tradition of my experience.
When I attended High Holiday services at an Erev Rosh Hashanah service a couple of years ago, the sermon given by the Rabbi that evening was on a topic completely disconnected from the themes of the Jewish New Year and High Holiday Season and instead read out of the New York Times opinion pages or the MSNBC website. It was indistinguishable from a speech that can be heard at a Democratic Party convention. My heart cracked.
In a nationally broadcasted webinar on Jewish spirituality I participated in following the 2016 elections, the presenter assumed that all participants voted against Pres. Trump and were terribly distressed and distraught by his election. He called for participants to organize and rally against the President and assumed that Trump supporters would literally resort to physical violence should “they” not get what they want. I wonder where Jewish Trump supporters go for teaching on Jewish spirituality. I wonder where room is made for the other, for the stranger. My heart cracks.
There is at least one Jewish Renewal synagogue that I know of that defines itself publicly as a “community of [for] social progressives.” I wonder where Jews from other political perspectives find community and practice. I wonder where room is made for the other, for the stranger. My heart cracks.
In a recent blog post written Rabbi Deborah Waxman on the [Reconstructionist] Movement Update from the President, Rabbi Waxman identified four main areas of “work” for the Reconstructionist movement, the very first being to “train moral leaders from a progressive perspective.” I wonder where Jews from other political perspectives train and practice as a Jewish leader or Rabbi. I wonder where room is made for the other, for the stranger. My heart cracks.
According to a study done by the Pew Research Center, 71% of Jews voted for Secy. Clinton and 24% of Jews voted for Pres. Trump in the 2016 election. When broken down by Jewish denomination, the American Jewish Committee (as reported in a Religion News Service article) reports that 54% of Orthodox Jews voted for Pres. Trump and that this percentage drops to between 8% and 24% for the non-Orthodox denominations.
While the majority of Jewish voters vote with the Democratic Party candidate for President, it is imperative that we not estrange a relatively large portion of the Jewish populace as a community. It is terribly important to maintain our integrity and welcome the stranger even within our midst and make genuine efforts not to assume and establish an expected political orthodoxy of progressive or left leaning politics. This is not only the work of mindful politics, it is a necessary part of the “work” of spirituality. The work of spirituality is to repair the heart!
The Prophetic Call
In the newly released book, Recharging Judaism: How Civic Engagement Is Good for Synagogues, Jews, and America, Dr. Susannah Heschel writes in the preface that her father once said, “Let there be a grain of prophet in every person.” For me, the question is if our religious and spiritual values inform our political beliefs or do our political affiliations and ideas inform our religious beliefs?
In the Zen tradition, after each meditation session, four vows are chanted. The third one is a variation of, “The Dharma gates are boundless, I vow to enter them.” This is another way of saying that the dharmas – often defined as the teachings or truth – are everywhere! The teachings are everywhere! The truth is everywhere! There are life lessons at every turn! And we vow to enter that and remain open to this very experience and truth! This is the prophetic call!
While listening to another podcast interview on Judaism Unbound with Rabbi Dr. Barbara Shulamit Thiede (can you tell I like listening to podcasts?!), Rabbi Shulamit was speaking about the prevailing myth that Rabbinic Judaism took hold right after the destruction of the 2nd Temple. Rabbi Shulamit Thiede is an academic in Jewish Studies and a Rabbi in the Jewish Renewal movement. She mentioned this point to underscore the idea that Judaism was created – and in true Jewish Renewal fashion – was renewed from the very practice of ordinary Jews (she published an article related to this topic here).
Rabbi Shulamit posed a question that she asks of her students at UNC Charlotte. If Judaism changed as you knew it, and you only had one thing of the tradition to keep and maintain, what would it be? She suggested that for Orthodox Judaism, this would be halachah, or Jewish law. I would add that for the non-Orthodox Jewish world in contemporary times, this might be social action. For me, it is God. For me, it is hearing the prophetic call in everything, in everyone, and in all experience. And the best way I know to hear the prophetic call is on – and off – the meditation cushion! This is hearing the prophetic call! “Let there be a grain of prophet in every person!”
Welcome the Stranger!
In the words of another Jewish “sage” and student of Rabbi Gamliel two thousand years ago named Saul, in God there is “neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female” (Galatians 3:28; NASB).
God is neither liberal or conservative; white, black, brown, yellow, or red; Jew, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim; Arab or Israeli; farmer or city dweller. Yet, Godliness is found in the Republican and Democratic parties; in Red states and Blue states; in Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam; and in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and around the globe.
May we all welcome the stranger in our midst. May we all welcome the stranger and Divine in the corners and recesses of our hearts and in the corners and recesses of our streets; in our home and in our families; in our schools and in our workplaces.
May we recognize and welcome the Divine in the face we see in the mirror and in those we meet for the very first time; in those we agree with and in those we disagree with; within the synagogue walls and in the homeless man lying on the ground; in the forests and valleys and in all that is creation.
This is the “work” of spirituality! This is “engaged” Judaism! This is mindful Judaism!
As always, if you are interested in learning more about Jewish Mindfulness Meditation or how to create a more meaningful spiritual path for you and your loved ones, please make sure to sign up and click the “Stay Connected Now!” button below!
Adam Fogel
www.mindfuljudaism.com