Papers by Moshe-David HaCohen
Alan Watts - published 1960
Edited by Alan Watts, 1972
Conference Presentations by Moshe-David HaCohen
In the second half of the twentieth century, American Jewry was faced with multiple issues that c... more In the second half of the twentieth century, American Jewry was faced with multiple issues that challenged its sense of identity and ideology. The aftermath of the Holocaust and the impact of the destruction of European Jewry alongside the powerful forces of acculturation at work in modern American society, posed the need for a reevaluation of traditional practices and ideologies and their place in Modern day society. The adjustments and challenges within American Jewry were consistent with those taking place in the American society at large.
Within this context, Shlomo Carlebach, a young European Hasidic scholar, was sent by the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe in the late nineteen-forties, to do pioneering 'missionary' work in America. Carlebach’s success depended upon his ability to be creative, innovative, and adaptive in his attempts to transform the acculturated youth that he targeted. By the time Carlebach died in 1994, he had become famous as “the foremost Jewish religious songwriter of the 20th century” and as a pioneer figure of Jewish spiritual renewal in America and worldwide.
Beyond his use of music and song, one of Carlebach’s main medium was through storytelling. Through his own unique and distinct style, Carlebach enchanted his audience with Hasidic tales and lore, creating an atmosphere of authenticity that both attracted and magnetized his audience. Rather than challenge modern society, Carlebach’s recreated stories which paradoxically provided a sense of past and present at once, synthesizing Hasidic legends with the trends and ideologies of his time. Similar to his acquaintance, Martin Buber, Shlomo Carlebach provided a romantic, bizarre, eccentric and selective account of Hasidic tales, which not only constitutes a link to the past - but created a sense of Jewish identity in the modern day world as well.
This paper will analyze the ideological themes concurring in Carlebach’s stories and the paradoxical sense of “modern-day authenticity” as portrayed through them.
A Meeting of the Ways: A comparative look at a Jewish Rabbi and a Hindu Guru's philosophical and ... more A Meeting of the Ways: A comparative look at a Jewish Rabbi and a Hindu Guru's philosophical and historical interaction with the "hippie counterculture".
In the latter years of the 1960s, a cultural revolution began to emerge across the Unites States. Surprisingly, the revolutionary leaders were young people coming from middle class homes, willing to sacrifice material comfort and stability in search of change. The youth felt frustration with "technocratic" society and sought to undermine the very foundations of the rationale of Western Society, which had lost the "authentic way of life". The discovery of psychedelic drugs in these years provided a feeling of freedom "beyond limits" that fit the new ethos, including sexual liberty and "free love".
While many in American society felt at odds with the young generation and deemed it impossible to bridge the gap with them, two unique spiritual religious leaders, a Hindu Vaishnava teacher and a Jewish Rabbi, decided to confront the challenge; each opened religious centers in the "hippie" center of Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, at the height of the "Summer of Love" of 1967. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, a Hindu religious Gosvami who goal was to preach Hinduism to the west, founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, heir to a prestigious Germany rabbinical family, set up the House of Love and Prayer in San Francisco.
While obviously quite different in their traditional religious backgrounds, Prabhupada and Carlebach both felt that the revolutionary changes were rooted in a quest to find meaning in life that the American way of life could not offer, and that a spiritual path would provide the answer for them. Swami based himself on Vaisnava Hindu teachings and offerings to the Hindu Gods (Krishna, Hare). The Rabbi revived Hasidic folktales and teachings, adapting them to fit the hippie outlook.
The interdisciplinary approach of this chapter will provide a unique comparison of Hindu and Jewish traditions in the context of the extraordinary historical and sociological circumstances of the period. The adaptations and inventions of tradition, questions of limitations and boundaries, syntheses of trends and ideologies, will be explored through an in-depth analysis of the teachings of two very different, yet surprisingly similar spiritual leaders.
The 7th Israeli Conference
for Contemporary Religions and Spirituality
University of Tel A... more The 7th Israeli Conference
for Contemporary Religions and Spirituality
University of Tel Aviv, 2012
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Papers by Moshe-David HaCohen
Conference Presentations by Moshe-David HaCohen
Within this context, Shlomo Carlebach, a young European Hasidic scholar, was sent by the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe in the late nineteen-forties, to do pioneering 'missionary' work in America. Carlebach’s success depended upon his ability to be creative, innovative, and adaptive in his attempts to transform the acculturated youth that he targeted. By the time Carlebach died in 1994, he had become famous as “the foremost Jewish religious songwriter of the 20th century” and as a pioneer figure of Jewish spiritual renewal in America and worldwide.
Beyond his use of music and song, one of Carlebach’s main medium was through storytelling. Through his own unique and distinct style, Carlebach enchanted his audience with Hasidic tales and lore, creating an atmosphere of authenticity that both attracted and magnetized his audience. Rather than challenge modern society, Carlebach’s recreated stories which paradoxically provided a sense of past and present at once, synthesizing Hasidic legends with the trends and ideologies of his time. Similar to his acquaintance, Martin Buber, Shlomo Carlebach provided a romantic, bizarre, eccentric and selective account of Hasidic tales, which not only constitutes a link to the past - but created a sense of Jewish identity in the modern day world as well.
This paper will analyze the ideological themes concurring in Carlebach’s stories and the paradoxical sense of “modern-day authenticity” as portrayed through them.
In the latter years of the 1960s, a cultural revolution began to emerge across the Unites States. Surprisingly, the revolutionary leaders were young people coming from middle class homes, willing to sacrifice material comfort and stability in search of change. The youth felt frustration with "technocratic" society and sought to undermine the very foundations of the rationale of Western Society, which had lost the "authentic way of life". The discovery of psychedelic drugs in these years provided a feeling of freedom "beyond limits" that fit the new ethos, including sexual liberty and "free love".
While many in American society felt at odds with the young generation and deemed it impossible to bridge the gap with them, two unique spiritual religious leaders, a Hindu Vaishnava teacher and a Jewish Rabbi, decided to confront the challenge; each opened religious centers in the "hippie" center of Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, at the height of the "Summer of Love" of 1967. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, a Hindu religious Gosvami who goal was to preach Hinduism to the west, founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, heir to a prestigious Germany rabbinical family, set up the House of Love and Prayer in San Francisco.
While obviously quite different in their traditional religious backgrounds, Prabhupada and Carlebach both felt that the revolutionary changes were rooted in a quest to find meaning in life that the American way of life could not offer, and that a spiritual path would provide the answer for them. Swami based himself on Vaisnava Hindu teachings and offerings to the Hindu Gods (Krishna, Hare). The Rabbi revived Hasidic folktales and teachings, adapting them to fit the hippie outlook.
The interdisciplinary approach of this chapter will provide a unique comparison of Hindu and Jewish traditions in the context of the extraordinary historical and sociological circumstances of the period. The adaptations and inventions of tradition, questions of limitations and boundaries, syntheses of trends and ideologies, will be explored through an in-depth analysis of the teachings of two very different, yet surprisingly similar spiritual leaders.
for Contemporary Religions and Spirituality
University of Tel Aviv, 2012
Within this context, Shlomo Carlebach, a young European Hasidic scholar, was sent by the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe in the late nineteen-forties, to do pioneering 'missionary' work in America. Carlebach’s success depended upon his ability to be creative, innovative, and adaptive in his attempts to transform the acculturated youth that he targeted. By the time Carlebach died in 1994, he had become famous as “the foremost Jewish religious songwriter of the 20th century” and as a pioneer figure of Jewish spiritual renewal in America and worldwide.
Beyond his use of music and song, one of Carlebach’s main medium was through storytelling. Through his own unique and distinct style, Carlebach enchanted his audience with Hasidic tales and lore, creating an atmosphere of authenticity that both attracted and magnetized his audience. Rather than challenge modern society, Carlebach’s recreated stories which paradoxically provided a sense of past and present at once, synthesizing Hasidic legends with the trends and ideologies of his time. Similar to his acquaintance, Martin Buber, Shlomo Carlebach provided a romantic, bizarre, eccentric and selective account of Hasidic tales, which not only constitutes a link to the past - but created a sense of Jewish identity in the modern day world as well.
This paper will analyze the ideological themes concurring in Carlebach’s stories and the paradoxical sense of “modern-day authenticity” as portrayed through them.
In the latter years of the 1960s, a cultural revolution began to emerge across the Unites States. Surprisingly, the revolutionary leaders were young people coming from middle class homes, willing to sacrifice material comfort and stability in search of change. The youth felt frustration with "technocratic" society and sought to undermine the very foundations of the rationale of Western Society, which had lost the "authentic way of life". The discovery of psychedelic drugs in these years provided a feeling of freedom "beyond limits" that fit the new ethos, including sexual liberty and "free love".
While many in American society felt at odds with the young generation and deemed it impossible to bridge the gap with them, two unique spiritual religious leaders, a Hindu Vaishnava teacher and a Jewish Rabbi, decided to confront the challenge; each opened religious centers in the "hippie" center of Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, at the height of the "Summer of Love" of 1967. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, a Hindu religious Gosvami who goal was to preach Hinduism to the west, founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, heir to a prestigious Germany rabbinical family, set up the House of Love and Prayer in San Francisco.
While obviously quite different in their traditional religious backgrounds, Prabhupada and Carlebach both felt that the revolutionary changes were rooted in a quest to find meaning in life that the American way of life could not offer, and that a spiritual path would provide the answer for them. Swami based himself on Vaisnava Hindu teachings and offerings to the Hindu Gods (Krishna, Hare). The Rabbi revived Hasidic folktales and teachings, adapting them to fit the hippie outlook.
The interdisciplinary approach of this chapter will provide a unique comparison of Hindu and Jewish traditions in the context of the extraordinary historical and sociological circumstances of the period. The adaptations and inventions of tradition, questions of limitations and boundaries, syntheses of trends and ideologies, will be explored through an in-depth analysis of the teachings of two very different, yet surprisingly similar spiritual leaders.
for Contemporary Religions and Spirituality
University of Tel Aviv, 2012