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Turning Sour into Sweet, Darkness into Light
Reform Rabbi Herbert Weiner's Search for Mystical Enlightenment in 9½ Mystics: The Kabbala Today
in European Judaism
Author:
Dana Evan Kaplan
Dana Evan Kaplan
Rabbi, Temple Beth Shalom, USA
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Abstract
9½ Mystics: The Kabbala Today by Rabbi Herbert Weiner introduced the idea of mystical search to a generation of American Jews who were turned off by traditional synagogue Judaism and unsure of how to relate to the emerging counterculture. He met with a number of mystics to find out if their life-secrets can have meaning even for those who do not share the full intensity of their experience. Weiner's search relied in large part on Gershom Scholem's idea that there was a dramatic contrast between rabbinic Judaism and Kabbalistic Judaism. Kabbalah was like an underground stream moving through the heart of Judaism, bringing with it transformative mythic ideas, providing inspiration and spiritual excitement. Weiner's book successfully popularised Scholem's theories of what Kabbalah was, as well as the mystical thought of previously unknown mystics such as Rav Kook. 9½ Mystics transformed the American Jewish religious landscape, especially in the Reform movement.
Contributor Notes
Dana Evan Kaplan is Rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom of the West Valley in Sun City, Arizona. He was ordained as a rabbi by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem and holds a PhD in American Jewish history from Tel Aviv University. He has published extensively on American Reform Judaism and is the editor of The Cambridge Companion to American Judaism (Cambridge University Press).