What the heck is a "Hasidic Rebel?" you ask. A blogger, of course, blogging from a society within America that in many ways is as different and isolated as Salam Pax's environment in pre-war Iraq. To fully grasp this, you'd have to understand a branch of Judaism known as Hasidim, which has some interesting similarities to the Islamic Sufis. PBS' "A Life Apart" (full script here) tells their story, and it's a surprisingly good and balanced introduction. See also their Essays on Hasidism for more structured background.
Our blogger friend is something of a free-thinker within this community, and he's reading a book that would raise a lot eyebrows there. He recommends it highly - "it's been a long time since a book has moved me so profoundly." Along the way he also grapples with some important questions. I thought this was was particularly relevant to our Shabbat format:
"I am reading Entrance to the Garden of Eden by Yossi Klein Halevi that was recommended by a friend. The author participates in Muslim and Christian rituals and services, and tries to find spirituality and inspiration and a feeling of closeness to G-d by observing and experiencing how other humans of different religions attain spirituality. The book is an interesting read, and one thing is for certain: if only there were more people like Yossi Klein Halevi and the people whom he describes in his book, the world would be an immensely better place.Want to read the rest? I hope to hear more from him on this subject once he's had some time to digest the book and think things through.His moving accounts of spiritual experience notwithstanding, I am highly doubtful whether there really is truth to such a path..."
Yes, I've been over to The Hasidic Rebel, and it looks like it could be interesting, so I recorded his URL, and will drop in on him again to see what's happening over there.
It might interest you to know that Larry Yudelman has established a special Yossi Klein Halevi Watch on his weblog with its own special URL. Because of the war situation going on with Iraq, I haven't had time to keep track of it. To begin with, I had no idea what this was all about, but bookmarked it because Larry seemed to think it was important. So, without further adue, if you want to look into it, here's Larry's URL for it:
*YOSSI KLEIN HALEVI WATCH*
I drop in on Larry once in a while on an irregular basis. Here's Larry Yudelman's weblog URL, in case you don't have it already. Check him out, too, when you have a spare moment:
*YudelLine*
Enjoy!
I was wondering what happened to Larry. I loved his Jewish Communication Network, was very sorry to see that site go down the tubes. It was the first large commerical Jewish website and had great commentary and news.
Then he had a blog that stopped updating last year and then I lost track of him. Thanks for the tip!
I like Halevi. I understand he stepped back from his Muslim-positive writings after the book was published, when Intifida 2000 broke out.
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