Rabbi David Ingber

Here’s an illuminating interview by Jo Ellen Kaiser, one of my Tikkun predecessors:

Ingber: Renewal is many things and contains multitudes. We are a post-triumphalist, post-modern, liberal, progressive, egalitarian, mystical, psycho-spiritual, pan-halachic, movement, that seeks to integrate and honor body, heart, mind, and spirit, East and West pre-critical and post-critical, individual and communal, mythic and post-mythic, masculine and feminine, silence and ecstatic under one, large, HUGE umbrella called Renewal Judaism.

For me, Renewal is the tip of the dreidle whose sides are Orthodoxy, Conservativism, Reform, and Reconstruction – what Renewal can do is integrate these various perspectives. I don’t want to leave any part of myself out of my spiritual life.

Kaiser introduces the piece:

I first interviewed David Ingber, the charismatic rabbi at Romemu, at the gathering of Jewish Renewal rabbis in St. Louis. Ingber impressed me both by the power of his davenning and by his passionate commitment to Jewish Renewal as a movement. Jewish Renewal is undergoing a seismic shift, as its beloved Rebbe, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, prepares for his departure from this world.

Michael Lerner’s Jewish Renewal is a classic of the movement. My only experience of Renewal is through visiting his congregation, Beyt Tikkun, which was an amazing experience: the joy, dancing, and depth of both feeling and intellect. I have found my own spiritual home in Unitarian Universalism, but I would be delighted to see the UUs borrowing more from the joyous spirit of Renewal, if it was possible.

And here’s Jo Ellen’s longer piece about Renewal, published in March. Yes, I’m behind the times but I only just got to read these pieces, and better late than never.