Reb Zalman

A Heart Afire: Stories and Teachings of the Early Hasidic Masters
by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Netanel Miles-Ypez
(Jewish Publication Society of America, 2009)

Better Hasidism Through Zen Buddhism (And Sufism, and Science Fiction…) | RDBook | ReligionDispatches.

This is very exciting! Rabbi Zalman is a wonderful friend and supporter of Sufism and the Inayati. According to this article he says (along with our Facebook friend Netanel Miles-Ypez) –

“For many people, Hasidism is identified almost exclusively with the ultra-orthodoxy of Jews in Brooklyn and Meah Shearim. But we believe that Hasidism is actually something larger, something perpendicular to a continuum that stretches from the farthest reaches of liberal spirituality to the most strictly defined orthodoxy. That is to say, there is a dimension of holy sincerity and piety associated with living in the authentic presence of God, nokhah p’nai ha-Shem, that applies equally to all, whether one is a Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, or Orthodox Jew or even, as we have discovered over the years, an evangelical Christian or Universalist Sufi! That is the Hasidism that we seek to present here.”

I hope you enjoy this article, and I hope to get a copy of this book soon so watch for a review here in this blog.