Not That Kind of Rabbi

Sometimes it's better to stop talking  and even better, to stop arguing our strongly held views. Better to pick up a crayon or a paintbrush and with no agenda just splash about in the wading pool of abstract images. That's one thing that Jewish artist, facilitator and filmmaker Jay Ginsherman is doing. This week on Not That Kind of Rabbi we get out of our heads and into our creative souls. Have a listen.

Paige Lowenstein was on the path to becoming a Rabbi in the traditional way. The well respected Reform seminary. Two years in she had a psychedelic experience on psilocybin mushrooms. That changed everything. She packed up and moved to the majestic redwood forests of northern California and finished her Rabbinic studies with Jewish Renewal's Aleph Ordination Program. Question is, now that your mind has been blown, what's next?

When Rabbi Natan Margalit looks at a dead tree on the ground he probably doesn't see what we see. He sees a divine spark of the creator. Everything, you see, is infused with that cosmic power. Reb Natan has a book out called the Pearl and the Flame. We had a great talk on this week's episode of NTKR. Have a listen.

There is, shall we say, a lot of turbulence in the Jewish world right now. Sometimes that turbulence becomes toxic and conversations are polarizing. One person who wants to change all that is the Executive Director of a progressive Jewish thought leadership and lobby group called Jspace. Her name is Maytal Kowalski and she joins me from Vancouver on Not That Kind of Rabbi.

Sometimes we see what our parents do and think that it would be a great idea to follow in their footsteps. Especially when they both chose the same profession. In this episode of Not That Kind of Rabbi I speak with a next generation Rabbi who did his best to resist the siren call of spiritual leadership. Didn't work. He's a Rabbi, but not that kind of Rabbi. Arik Labowitz is,and has been for a while, the Rabbi at Canada's largest Renewal Synagogue, Or Shalom.