Boulder, CO – Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, a founder of the Jewish Renewal movement and a widely influential figure in contemporary Jewish thought and practice, has died in his Boulder, Colorado, home. He was 89.
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Schachter-Shalomi, known to his followers as Reb Zalman, died Thursday morning in his sleep after a long illness, Rivkah Walton of the Alliance for Jewish Renewal said.
Schachter-Shalomi started the renewal movement in the early 1960s as a way to use contemporary religious and political scholarship to re-examine Judaism after the Holocaust. The nondenominational movement draws on Judaism’s prophetic and mystical traditions, and Schachter-Shalomi was heavily influenced by Buddhism, Sufism and the Catholic mystic Thomas Merton.
“They do that, so how can we use that prayer technology, how can we use that spiritual technology to enrich Judaism?” Walton attributed the rabbi as saying.
The movement now includes 45 affiliated congregations and dozens of others not officially affiliated, and Schachter-Shalomi and the alliance have ordained rabbis that serve across the U.S. and the world, she said.
Schachter-Shalomi was born in Poland in 1924 and raised in Vienna. He became part of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement of Hasidic Jews, and his family fled Europe for the U.S. during the Holocaust.
He was ordained in 1947.
The rabbi was among the first in Judaism to ordain women, and he was part of a group of Jewish leaders who traveled to India in 1990 to meet with the Dalai Lama, who was seeking counsel on leading people who live in exile.
He also was a friend of Timothy Leary, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. The rabbi experimented with LSD to see if it could enhance spirituality.
“He wanted to find out, like the Native Americans, if hallucinogens could be used sacramentally,” Walton said. “He didn’t stick with it, but he was willing to find out.”
Schachter-Shalomi introduced a new tallit, or prayer shawl, with the colors of the rainbow arranged according to kabbalistic principles, instead of its traditionally white color with either black or blue stripes.
He also came up with a way of chanting both the liturgy and Torah in English using traditional melodies, instead of the traditional chant patterns in Hebrew.
The rabbi wrote recently that he was not naming a single successor but was calling on all the ordained and laypeople he taught to carry on his work and to work together for Jewish renewal.
“He said that for many years: This is a collective work of the Jewish people,” Walton said.
A funeral service is planned for Friday in Boulder. He did not want people to travel to attend, partly out of concern for the carbon emissions it would expend, Walton said.
Bd’E
BD”E
I made it thru until the last sentence, when I had to control myself from bursting out laughing. Carbon emissions. Never entered my mind that a concern about carbon emissions would preclude attendance at a funeral.
They say that when Carlbach died, Schachter-Shalomi came to the grave as they were putting on the dirt and called out “Don’t worry Shlomo the Rebbe will pull us out”
I will let you decide what that means, but it seems pretty obvious
He found a different way to do everything that has to do with Yiddishkeit.
Buddhism, Sufism, Catholicism, LSD, mamesh like we got it from Har Sinai.
And of course, he is a RABBI!
bd’e Reb Zalmen…….
I won’t be attending thus doing my share to reduce carbon emissions. I wonder why he went they direction he did.
Be cautious before deriding him. He has many descendents who are true bnei Torah who will be pained by caustic remarks.
Additionally, although he himself strayed, he made hundreds of true baalei teshuva.
Bde he was a special man with a holy neshama that accomplished more than any of you VIN commentors. See you on the other side Reb Zalmen
There were many Jews in America who, because they lacked a rigorous Jewish education, were drawn into movements of the type that Shalmoni led, which did not require an in-depth knowledge of Jewish scholarship — “Judaism lite”. I know some of these Jews who started kosher families and are leading strictly Torah-observant lives and whose children and grandchildren are today true Bnei Torah. He meant well and somehow he produced some good results despite of his off-the-wall teachings.
I remember him from the very late 60’s or early 70’s when he came to LA and tried to organize us young people. I did not like his style; he seemed more eager to impress the young girls than to be a spiritual being.
Shlomo Carlebach was different; he could kiss a girl, but not get involved with her. Shlomo loved every neshama and he showed it and you felt it. Schachter-Shalomi impressed me as a person trying to make it for himself.
Sorry if I offend anyone, but those are my memories of those two deceased gentlemen.
Ordained in 1947. By whom?
Reply to #11 .
You can’t expect the gedolim of today to measure up to the gedolim of the previous generation. It doesn’t work like that, there is “niskatnu h’doros”.
There are gedolim today, you just need to find them. They are the masmidim who spend their days and nights in the bais medrash. They are the ones who sacrifice for torah.
They are Not the ones stoking up joints or poping LSD. They are Not the ones studying buddhism.
Its amazing how the liberals on this site are all “don’t be judgemental this guy was a big tzaddik”. Yet they will constantly critisize the real tzadikim.
There is nothing wrong with being judgemental, as long as halacha is your guide. Any torah jew knows you can’t go to the mikvah holding a sheretz. That’s what this guy did. when someone claims to be a tzadik yet tries to make kosher so many things that our religion says is treif, there is something truly wrong.
Sounds like an apikorsus to me
“renewal movement in the early 1960s as a way to use contemporary religious and political scholarship to re-examine Judaism…
was among the first in Judaism to ordain women…
experimented with LSD to see if it could enhance spirituality…
introduced a new tallit…
came up with a way of chanting both the liturgy and Torah in English…
Sounds like reform!
He was not frum. He taught that a jew can be successful without being frum. that teaching is evil since it caused potential balei tshuva to settle for a temporary high instead of the real thing.
Don’t judge a book by it’s cover…. BUT, you can judge an author by his book.
Jewish with Feeling: A Guide to Meaningful Jewish Practice. By Zalman Schachter-Shalomi Available on google books. Pages 58-62 Discuss the observance of Shabbos accordingto Schachter. Clothing may involve walking aroud naked. Gardening, playing an instrument, jumping in the hot tub with the family are some of Schachter’s better ideas of things to do “Likovod Shabbos”. There are worse as well……
I met Zalman Schachter 50 ago when he spent Hashonna Rabbah through Simchas Torah with (could you believe it) the Bobover Rebbe Zt”l in Crown Heights. The Rebbe was unaware that although this man was a Talmid of the Maharyatz of Lubbavich, his beliefs were totally inconsistent with those of his master, else the Rebbe would have ordered that he be ejected from his presence.
Although legally the defamation rules do not apply to the deceased, I will limit my recitation to the facts already posted on Wikipedia. I can only summarize why this person’s demise should go unlamented.
1.His personal life was in shambles and included a marriage to his non-Jewish secretary who was regardless forbidden to him, for Schachter was a Cohen.
2.He was Machalel Shabbos and ate treif in public.
3.He encouraged Jews to embrace Hinduism – Avodeh Zoreh R”L , and he equated the Pope and the Dalai Lama with LeHavdil , the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
4.He publicly denied belief in Techiyas Hamaysim.
If he brought many closer to Hashem, he brought many more closer to Vishnu,, Shiva, Devi and Brahma.
He may have been a very nice, kind humanitarian, but as far as the Torah is concerned he was clearly a רשע.
Reply to #11 .
You can’t expect the gedolim of today to measure up to the gedolim of the previous generation. It doesn’t work like that, there is “niskatnu h’doros”.
There are gedolim today, you just need to find them. They are the masmidim who spend their days and nights in the bais medrash. They are the ones who sacrifice for torah.
They are Not the ones stoking up joints or poping LSD. They are Not the ones studying buddhism.
Its amazing how the liberals on this site are all “don’t be judgemental this guy was a big tzaddik”. Yet they will constantly critisize the real tzadikim.
There is nothing wrong with being judgemental, as long as halacha is your guide. Any torah jew knows you can’t go to the mikvah holding a sheretz. That’s what this guy did. when someone claims to be a tzadik yet tries to make kosher so many things that our religion says is treif, there is something truly wrong.
From Schacter’s own website:
MESHULLAM ZALMAN HAKOHEN SCHACHTER was born on August 17, 1924 in Zholkiev, Poland to Shlomo and Hayyah Gittel Schachter. In 1925, his family moved to Vienna, Austria, where he spent most of his childhood. His father was a Belzer Hasid with liberal leanings, and thus educated Zalman in both a leftist Zionist high school—where he learned secular subjects like Latin and modern Hebrew—and a traditional Orthodox yeshiva, where he studied classical Jewish texts like Torah and Talmud.
There is another website which posts the following in his name:
In Europe, when Zalman Schachter was growing up, his parents had a non-jewish nanny who took care of Zalman. While taking care of Zalman and running errands she would frequently take him into the church where he would see her light candles. Apparently, Zalman tells of how beautiful he found this and the deep and profound impression it made on him.
This is where he claims he discovered the deep connection between spirituality and women that has “guided” his life. that’s where the foundation for what would become Jewish Renewal began, in a European church with a nanny.