Contemporary Alternative Spiritualities in Israel

256 Pages·2017·2.85 MB·English

by  Shai Feraro, James R. Lewis (eds.)

PALGRAVE STUDIES IN NEW RELIGIONS AND ALTERNATIVE SPIRITUALITIES
CONTEMPORARY
ALTERNATIVE
SPIRITUALITIES IN
ISRAEL
EDITED BY SHAI FERARO
AND JAMES R. LEWIS
Palgrave Studies in New Religions
and Alternative Spiritualities
Series Editors
James  R. Lewis
University of Tromso – The Arctic University
Tromso, Norway
Henrik Bogdan
University of Gothenburg
Gothenburg, Sweden
Aim of the Series
Palgrave Studies in New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities is an
interdisciplinary monograph and edited collection series sponsored by the
International Society for the Study of New Religions. The series is devoted
to research on New Religious Movements. In addition to the usual groups
studied under the New Religions label, the series publishes books on such
phenomena as the New Age, communal & utopian groups, Spiritualism,
New Thought, Holistic Medicine, Western esotericism, Contemporary
Paganism, astrology, UFO groups, and new movements within tradi-
tional religions. The Society considers submissions from researchers in any
discipline.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14608
Shai Feraro • James R. Lewis
Editors
Contemporary
Alternative
Spiritualities in Israel
Editors
Shai Feraro James R. Lewis
Tel Aviv University University of Tromso – The Arctic
Tel Aviv, Israel University
Tromso, Norway
Palgrave Studies in New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities
ISBN 978-1-137-54741-5 ISBN 978-1-137-53913-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-53913-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016956888
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.
Cover illustration: © Westend61 GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo
Printed on acid-free paper
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature
The registered company is Nature America Inc. New York
C
ontents
Part I Jew Age Spirituality 1
1 A Sacred Time in the Sacred Land: Authenticating
the Past in New Age Judaism 3
Rachel Werczberger
2 Kabbalah Through the Utilitarian Prism: Contemporary
Neo-Kabbalah in Israel as a Form of Consumer Culture 21
Tomer Persico
3 Body and Soul in Yemima Avital’s Teachings and in Her
Students’ Testimonies, Philosophies and Practices 39
Einat Ramon
4 Individualization of Jewish UnOrthodox (Alternative)
Wedding Rituals in Israel 57
Anna Prashizky
Part II New Age Culture in Israel 81
5 The Incorporation of Spiritual Care into
Israeli Medical Organizations 83
Nurit Zaidman
v
vi CONTENTS
6 Inherent Paradox in Cultural Change: New Age
Rituals as Case Study 95
Dalit Simchai
7 The State and New Religious Movements 115
Masua Sagiv
Part III Some Popular Currents in the Israeli ‘Scene’ 133
8 Theosophy and Anthroposophy in Israel:
An Historical Survey 135
Isaac Lubelsky
9 Messages for the End: Eschatological Thought
in Twentieth Century Channeling 155
Adam Klin-Oron
10 The Menstrual Discourse in Israeli Yoga for Women:
Narrative and Ritual, Agency and Control 175
Carmit Rosen Even-Zohar
Part IV On the Fringes 197
11 Ritual Adaptations and Celebrations of the Mabon
Sabbat (Autumn Equinox) by Israeli Neopagans 199
Orly Salinas Mizrahi
12 Pentecostal Ethiopian Jews and Nigerian Members
of Olumba Olumba: Manifestations of Christianity
in Israel 221
Galia Sabar
Erratum to E1
Index 243
L C
ist of ontributors
Adam Klin-Oron is an anthropologist of religion at the Zefat Academic College
and the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. He has studied vacation culture among the
ultraorthodox, New Age channeling, the attitudes of New Age adherents to Jewish
law, and the reaction of the Israeli state to new religious movements.
Isaac Lubelsky (PhD 2005, School of History, Tel Aviv University) is the aca-
demic coordinator of Genocide Studies at the Open University of Israel. His recent
book, Celestial India (Equinox, 2012) is a comprehensive study of the history of
ideas that evolved as the consequence of East/West encounters during the nine-
teenth and twentieth centuries, and deals extensively with the early history of the
Theosophical Society and its contribution to the change of India’s image in
Western eyes and to the birth of India’s nationalist movement.
Tomer Persico has for the last five years lectured at Tel Aviv University’s Program
in Religious Studies. His dissertation dealt with techniques of meditation in the
Jewish tradition, past and present, and analyzed the cultural transformations lead-
ing to the observed shifts in meditative emphasis through the generations. Persico
is an expert on contemporary spirituality, and studies the varied current cultural
phenomena of the New Age, specializing in its intersection, and tension, with the
Jewish tradition in general, and Halakha in particular. He has contributed numer-
ous articles to newspapers and periodicals in Israel, and has five forthcoming arti-
cles on these subjects.
Anna  Prashizky received a PhD from the Sociology and Anthropology
Department at Bar-Ilan University. She is a lecturer at Western Galilee Academic
College. Her research interests are in the area of ritual studies, especially new alter-
native rituals in modern Israeli society.
vii
viii LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Einat Ramon received her PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford University in
2000. Her dissertation (later published as a book in Hebrew) focused on maternal
images and ethics in the religious thought of the Israeli Labor Zionist thinker
A.D. Gordon. Ramon is a senior lecturer in Jewish Thought at the Schechter
Institute of Jewish Studies and the author of numerous academic and theological
articles in the field of modern Jewish Thought. Ramon was among the founders of
spiritual pastoral education and of its professional establishment in Israel. She is
the writer of the standards and an ethical code for Israeli chaplains. Ramon is a
certified Israeli chaplain and a graduate of the Israeli CPE educators’ program, and
the founder of the Marpeh MA Program at the Schechter Institute—the only aca-
demic program for the training of spiritual caregivers in Israel. She is a prolific
writer and researcher in this field.
Carmit Rosen Even-Zohar is a PhD student in the Unit of Folklore Studies,
Department of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of Haifa,
Israel. Her dissertation examines women’s journey narratives to India from the
perspective of folk literature poetics. She is interested in questions of New Age
spirituality and gender, literary, historical and psychological constructions of space,
colonialism and post-colonial criticism. Rosen has travelled extensively to India
and subsequently trained as a yoga instructor. She has specialized in yoga instruc-
tion for women, thus combining her theoretical interests in issues of spirituality
and gender with her practical ventures.
Galia Sabar has been researching social and political issues related to Africa and
the African diaspora since 1984. Her publications include five books, two edited
volumes and 30 articles in academic journals. Since 1998, her research has focused
on African labor migrants in Israel with special emphasis on their post-colonial
organizations and their complex relations with Israeli society and politics. Since
2006, her research has focused on African Asylum seekers, mainly from Sudan and
Eritrea, who have entered Israel via its lax border with Egypt. Her research focuses
on a wide range of social, political and religious institutions the asylum seekers
have established in an attempt to improve their daily struggles for survival.
Masua Sagiv is a PhD candidate and a research scholar at the Zvi Meitar Center
for Advanced Legal Studies at Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Law. Her d issertation
explores the endeavors of Israeli religious feminism to promote social change
through the law. Sagiv is also a member of the board of directors in MEIDA—
Israeli Information Center on Contemporary Religions. Her areas of research are
law and religion, law and society, feminism, and family law.
Orly Salinas Mizrahi is a folklorist from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
who studies various aspects of the Israeli Neo-pagan community in the course of
her MA and her soon-to-be completed PhD dissertation. Her current research
focuses on solitary and miscellaneous rituals, the Sabbats (seasonal) rituals and life
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS ix
cycle celebrations within this specific Israeli spiritual community. Mizrahi has been
a solitary Wiccan since the late 1970s and a member of the local Neo-pagan com-
munity for the past eight years. She lives in Jerusalem and has two grown sons.
Dalit Simchai attained her PhD at the University of Haifa, and teaches today at
the Tel Hai Academic College. She specializes in the study of subcultures and new
social movements, gender and feminism, as well as attempts to challenge main-
stream Israeli society. Her work on Israeli New Agers focuses on the various para-
doxes faced by these adherents. She has published books on the experiences of
Israeli backpackers in India and on Israeli New Age festivals.
Rachel Werczberger is a post-doctoral fellow in the Department for Jewish
Philosophy at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and a visiting lecturer in the
program for Religious Studies at Tel Aviv University. She received her PhD in
anthropology and sociology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her work
focuses on New Age spirituality, New Age Judaism and the anthropology of con-
temporary Judaism. Together with Prof. Boaz Huss she recently edited a special
issue of Israel Studies Review on “New Age Culture in Israel: Social and Political
Aspects”.
Nurit Zaidman is the Area Head of Strategy and International Management
and Professor in the Department of Business Administration at Ben-G urion
University of the Negev, Israel. She graduated from the Department of
Anthropology at Temple University, Philadelphia. Zaidman has published exten-
sively in the area of New Religious Movement and the New Age. Her work has
been published in journals such as Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion,
Journal of Contemporary Religion, Group & Organization Management, and
Organization. Her current research focuses on the incorporation and translation
of the New Age into mainstream organizations.