A New Way of Doing Judaism with Arthur Green

[@SeekersofUnity]

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[@stephenlehmann2895]

Done!

[@SeekersofUnity]

Thank you Stephen. Your support goes a long way in allowing us to continue creating and sharing things like this. Much love, Zevi

[@seankerr9158]

As a vipassanā person who’s gotten into Jewish stuff, I love this discussion. Vipassanā is a precious jewel and so is Torah, Kabbalah, etc. Feeling good, getting high, and fidelity to heritage and tradition are all bad metrics. Don’t be limited by calls for exclusivism either by the vipassanā folks or the Jewish side. Break those boundaries and be true to the complexity and hybridity of your own life and path. Fidelity to tradition is all about policing and being policed. This bird seeks freedom, not the gilded cage 💛

[@rada7864]

איזה כיף לשמוע אותו מדבר, מחמם את הלב! כל כך נכון ❤️תודה!

[@rada7864]

God is in our hearts, Zevi. Not in our brains. Have you ever cried like a child, overwhelmed by the sweeping emotion? :-) that's God!

[@vasilenapetrova5085]

OH MY GOODNESS I WAS PRAYING FOR SOME NEW ARTHUR GREEN COTENT!!!! THANK YOU SEEKERS OF UNITY!!!

[@stephenlehmann2895]

Green's answer to Zevi's final question asking what the community needs: honesty, depth, open-heartedness, spiritual integrity. A great summation of this conversation and, for that matter, all your work. Thank you!

[@kariannecrysler640]

Thanks for sharing such personal thoughts so honestly. I cried during your intro. Not in empathy but in joy. To follow the truth in your soul is courageous. Facing doubt, heartbreak, uncertainty, scrutiny, these are some of life’s most terrifying moments. Only a pure soul braves these dark things to follow a path to its creator. At first the pathway is so dark, but after a calming breath you see a dim light and journey towards it. Every path is different and some do loose their way for a time. But the certainty in your soul that you have found the truth at the end, is well worth the hardships to get there. Please don’t ever feel guilty for trying to connect/understand/love your creator. I think it would be flattering to what you seek.❤

[@go_all_the_way]

The intro by Shaul to this video is so heartfelt, well spoken and super relatable!! 💛

[@rkmh9342]

Thank you all so much. This conversation is medicine for me and i am thinking that i will rewatch it as many times as needed. Much love!

[@ReadingAde]

Thank you for sharing this and for including “footnotes” in the video. As a convert, Green was instrumental in my journey. Did he tell you when he will publish his siddur commentary?

[@ahobimo732]

What a wise and beautiful soul Mr. Green has. His answer @23:45 was so perfect it almost brought me to tears. Thank you for sharing this with us all, Zevi.

[@rkmh9342]

This conversation has been sitting with me for a couple of weeks, so i came back and rewatched it. What was tugging at the edges of my mind? Responsibility is medicinal. But every medicine can be toxic if it is not the correct time, i.e., correct usage. So we might be responsible for the gifts and privileges of being born into a tradition. But there is a time and place for that medicine to be healing instead of toxic. I understand the pain of feeling alone and excluded from your tradition. My people are gone, victims of genocide. I have friends from other traditions, peoples who have survived genocidal policies and wars and feel compassion for my experience. But it is so complicated. I do not know that even if my people had survived as a tradition whether i would always find the responsibility to that tradition medicinal. The feeling that i should somehow divorce the fact that I am my ancestors from being responsible to them (instead of to the generations of the future) haunts me. The inner work, in my current understanding, is being moved by the unique and terrifying responsibility to express our self-worth, self-worth that is indistinguishable from the self-worth of ultimate Reality. And while the expression of self-worth, to be human, will be social and embedded in a tradition, its basis is self-care. [Not to be confused with foundation!] It is not wrong to understand self-care as a measure of one's appreciation of your self-worth. But please, do not mistake self-care for self-indulgence. Self-care is to self-worth as self-indulgence is to self-idolatry. The expression of self-worth flows from conviction into generosity. It flows into the discernment to make space for yourself and your neighbour. The manifestation of self-idolatry flows into demanding the recognition of authority (not always your own 'authority' per se but often the authority of your interpretation of scriptures or tradition etc.) Thanks again Seekers of Unity. Much love! As a child, I misunderstood the metaphor of the mind and shell as requiring the rejection of any boundary, any self-defence mechanism, and that the self of self-negation was any self-protection -- wrongly thinking that self-protection demonstrated a lack of faith in Providence. Being raised by narcissists is a part of the problem. Surrounded by christian mythologies and stories of martyrs did not help either. Learning that we are not to test our luck thankfully came very fast, or we would not be having this conversation.

[@thesjewishpsychedelicsandbox]

Great to see you meeting with my teacher!

[@SeekersofUnity]

It was an honor and a pleasure :)

[@allnaturalstate]

Thanks for uploading this! Arthur green is the freshest voice for me in neo hasidic circles. I read his book on Nachman of Breslov and heard a bunch of lectures from him about Jewish identity. I'm so happy that this collaboration happened. Maybe now that he's down to be a Rebbe I shud go and talk with him :)

[@SeekersofUnity]

You’re most welcome. Go for it :)

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

Great interview - thanks for it fellas!

[@SeekersofUnity]

Thanks Justin, you legend. Glad you liked it.

[@TheEsotericaChannel]

@@SeekersofUnity Art's the legend - got to hang out with him and have a few drinks one Purim - great times!

[@Silent-Speaker]

Absolutely beautiful! Heartwarming and fascinating. Thank you so much for bringing this to us! ❤️🙏

[@SeekersofUnity]

You’re most welcome Leo 🙏🏼

[@nicholasbattaliou5882]

Great to hear Arthur Green talking. I enjoyed Keter very much, and he responded warmly to me for quoting his book, when justifying my project.

[@declanhughes9896]

This video was an absolute treat to watch. I began to tear up during Shaul’s intro when he spoke of his struggle to be a “religious monogamist.” I understand I’m not the audience for this video per se, but it gives me affirmation and hope as a spiritual eclectic, and as someone who understands religion can be just as much-if not more-about the way one lives one’s life in relation to one’s spiritual tradition as one’s adherence to it, if that makes any sense. Lots of gratitude to Seekers for this one!

[@TheTruthseekerman]

This is so refreshing and important, thank you for this conversation.

[@SeekersofUnity]

You’re most welcome. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@TheTruthseekerman]

@@SeekersofUnity living outside of a Jewish community of ant kind, this information is very valuable.

[@antoniocsx]

Truly amazing material. Arthur Green is a kind and understanding master. His brilliant answer to "Is this a feel good judaism" should be unfolded into a book! And "let it be easy" -- what a lesson!

[@sagetmaster4]

I just started the video but already I am so, so, excited תודה רבה

[@EliAbramzon]

A wonderful sicha. I sadly admit that in my early years in religion I disliked Art Green, but I grew to like him. He's a real Chaham. A few observations: 1. Rabbi Johnathan Sacks zt"l once approached the Lubavitcher Rebbe regarding his growing appreciation of other people's wisdoms. The Rebbe answered that only those who are engaged and honor their own tradition can really appreciate other traditions, and not regard them as some folklore. 2. Any spiritual and mystical way is a path for the few, and it has to be consciously adopted. A smart person once observed that while it's common for people to be born into nations and religions, it's unlikely that anyone can be born into a mystical movement, like Chabad. I think that the bittul (ego dissolvement) and asceticism of the Alter Rebbe are not meant for so many people. What we see today is a diffusion and dissolvement of these practices among lay people. 3. That being said, I think that while (neo) Hassidism is a crucial ingredient for Jewish religion, it should also be regarded as spice or flavoring for the main dish. Without the 3,000 year old teachings from the Bible through the Talmud (with emphasis on Jewish peoplehood and history), you'll be left with something that resembles any Eastern mysticism (I realized that when hearing Bhagavad Gita classes by an Advaitan monk).

[@EliAbramzon]

Here's his shiur on Likutey Moharan 33, in an Orthodox Yeshiva (national religious) kzbin.info/www/bejne/raixpKZ9a7ucbbc

[@ettycymet9279]

Thank you Zevi and Shaul! Indeed the ones who know they have “clay feet” are true teachers. On the topic of bitul and the false “humility” paradigm, I wanted to add an alternative perspective that has helped me. Bitul can be experienced as the opposite of resistance. As physical reality, we are just flowing energy. Do you resist what is? You’re in ego. Do you flow? You’re in bitul. Physical beings can’t be 0, which by being nothing, it is the Everything indeed 🤗. We exist in the 1. Each one, a drop of the ocean. How much you feel the self as the ocean? There, you encounter flow. Surrender, not in despair or nullification. Surrender in openness and curiosity to That which is beyond my limited understanding, now. Ego must explain. Bitul allows flow. Thank you again for creating this platform and facing the tough questions with honesty and openness !

[@jamesault7832]

Thank you so much for bringing the dialog. It is insightful, honest and intense. It is also my experience that spiritual quest is a struggle but well worth the effort. Baruch HaShem!

[@SeekersofUnity]

You’re most welcome James. Thank you for joining us.

[@SahasraraIm]

I thought of Ram Dass's meditation: This moment is love. I am infinite. I am loving-awareness. The power of God is within me. The grace of God surrounds me. On Buddhism as far as I understand the focus is on practice. You are getting better at practice by acquiring new experiences while doing it. Whereas in Christianity is to be acquainted with the movement of Being in Creation, The Living Torah. When the words bring one in the rhythm, with the breath within the breath than that's where the transcendent and immanent meet.

[@claudiachurch4285]

Im Christian but loved this Gentlemen he is so wise , but in such a congenial self effacing way , very thought provoking

[@julianhayachid]

24:47 - if it brings you closer to what you seek - do it no matter how hard it is. If it doesn't bring you closer to it - let it wither away if it wants to. This is how traditions evolve, just like people.

[@fusunsanac]

Very inclusive conversation 🕊 Felt like a cool breeze on a hot summer day 🙏🏼❤

[@sarenthodinsson]

I really appreciate the metaphor of the ship and how each new generation has to build a new one. A very good point that even as we build across generations those how come after build new ships.

[@josetapadasalves]

yasher coach..thank you for this. I must say most of my personal struggles go very in line with yours and I thank HaShem for finding your channel and your search.. Arthur Green is a great teacher and I tend to recur to hassidism thought to bring me back to hashem.. but it has been so struggling as I moved very away from my kehilah that I was so immersed into it (I actually moved countries, and now I am in a place where I have not other jewish community on a human commutable distance..) hence nowadays I feel more and more the "burden" of the avoida, sometimes even on mid daven, i even think and try harder in these moments to push myself, but unfortunately I struggle to find the meaning (I tried to do zoom minianim, i daven, i put tfillin daily) but still i struggle to find my purpose and unfortunately i feel the dreaded comming of sorts that I will get to distance from yedishkeit. i also have a daugher with a non jew woman, hence at some point i thought I must bring her up into our tradition but I find it harder and harder. i know I'm the "poster situation" of assimilation, and what my frum friends always warned about living on the outside world, but somehow I feel such a guilt about this (or even about trying other exercises from other traditions, like I'm betraying what I'm praying daily).. seeing that you could liberate yourself from this gives me some hope..but to me honest I'm pretty desperate at the moment. thank you for sharing your journey. I will for sure support you and follow you in the times to come.

[@jeangophile]

Beautiful.

[@yosefnew5465]

Great stuff!

[@billyhill434]

30:00 I would argue that for one's own personal practice there is almost a necessity to engage with the outside world and to lift others up to high spiritual levels. “Subhuti, what do you think? If there were as many Ganges Rivers as the grains of sand in the Ganges, wouldn’t the amount of sand contained in all those Ganges Rivers be great?” Subhuti said, “Extremely great, World Honored One. If even the number of the Ganges Rivers is innumerable, how much more so their grains of sand?” “Subhuti, now I tell you truthfully: If a good man or good woman fills as many trichiliocosms as the grains of sand in all those Ganges Rivers with the seven jewels, and gives them away in charity, wouldn’t this merit be great?” “Extremely great, World Honored One.” The Buddha said to Subhuti: “If a good man or good woman is able to comprehend and follow a four-line verse of this sutra and teach it to others, their merit will be far greater.”

[@lewiakk5844]

The Sigh at 37:54 shows on his eidelkeit. There’s “more” but I don’t see it in practice.

[@zenboy863]

Chabad family's have very large amounts of children, I have heard of several with 13, even if a few become reformists the frum's numbers probably ensure they'll be the be the most succesfully group within Judaism.

[@MarcieIsForager]

I had a question to everyone here really and its kind of in line with the thumbnail really. As i got into mysticism and its attached goal of unity with the divine i could never really grasp why within the realm of mysticism religious traditions persist. Now this may sound too overly dismissive or offensive which is not my goal. All these traditions have beautiful insights to offer and give fascinating lenses into divine but at the same time mysticism always struck as something beyond the religion in sense and beyond cultures. Maybe im rambling too much ans missuneerstanding something fundamental i would greatly value all of your insights into this.

[@brynawaldman5790]

One reason is that visionaries tend to get visions that conform to their upbringing. If the Undefinable Source is beyond human comprehension, when we reach to connect with It (connecting up, or down, or within, or around, depending on the metaphor being used) it reaches to us, too, honoring where we are coming from. Today we can all learn about most other cultures, & the light work community gets visions from all of them, but imagine a person from a century ago: a European getting a vision of Blue Tara, or a Japanese getting a vision of White Buffalo Calf Woman; it would confuse & would not serve love or healing.

[@waaaaaaah5135]

I don't see how Judaism divorced from religious practice can survive when there are lots of other competing religions that can offer something similar and do not have the 'baggage' that Judasim brings with it.

[@RE-kk2cq]

truth is the way up the mountain

[@RE-kk2cq]

all time is now to GOD

[@RE-kk2cq]

we live in the Kali age

[@RE-kk2cq]

Love all the children and all their natures even if they need to be seperated

[@RE-kk2cq]

when burdened with guilt recognise truth, use the guilt to grow

[@RE-kk2cq]

who has lived a poor life so that one may live a wealthy life.

[@shternshwashplonot]

first

[@Reb_Joel]

Good questions, but lousy answers!!!

[@tommerenator]

This talk, especially in light of the recent allegations against Art, shows clearly what I have known since growing up within "conservative" Judaism in Boston in the early 2000s. This is not a stable form of Yiddishkeit. This path is doomed, together with all those that follow it. I urge readers to rediscover Yirat Shamayim, and do away with this commodified, sleepy Judaism. And come to Israel, in the light. To live in Chul today is an abomination. Avodo Zoro Mamash.

[@1otterclan]

Yuck

[@davidlasoff8261]

With respect, the notion that seeking unity could be anything but a naive and futile endeavor, strikes me as strange and not well-determined for the effort invested. It is a goal with a fruitless destiny, somewhat like going after a mirage in a desperate search for water that won't and can't be there, perhaps. The entire human experience as well as how the natural world functions are characterized by disharmony, disequilibrium, and for intellectuals, a good measure of disquieting reflection upon the contradictions and paradoxes of life, at least for the those who do not allow themselves to remain oppressed by archaic forces like organized religions whose establishment and traditions, however construed, have always depended upon thoughtless adherence. And, this is both good and bad in itself as well as the evolving and non-permanent outcomes that this tension-riddled existential fact of life produces both individually and in society. Better to seek tolerance, understanding, compassion, liberation and a willingness to appreciate a fundamental idea: that unity was never something Hashem was up to by creating the universe with people in it.

[@JeanMarcelino-qr9ju]

Judaism is fairytale 😂😂😂

[@giffica]

Sorry to be honest here, but mistaking knowledge for wisdom is a real slip up here, and a fundamental reason any of the reconstructing-reforming movements of the last 2000 years have failed. "Bring in some new things" is where it really goes off the rails. Meditation? New? Everyone on this channel is aware of Merkavah Mysticism, and the rabbinic reaction to meditation as an elevating, mystical practice once the Buddhist traditions began to bleed over into Mesopotamian Jewry. The very core of Judaic mysticism is a rejection of Meditation, adn the Talmud is quite clear on the benefits, or lack there of. The assumption any of this is "new" when not a single new idea, concept, thought has been uttered since Moses's day. The presumption that anything is new, that the old sages didn't know, or plan for, is part of this movements intellectual hubris, and inability to know what to change. The success of an ideology is in the ability to NOT change, or, the ability to change very, very little. Growth is becoming unchanging, not becoming an amorphous blob. Arriving at ideas that you don't need to change, and are immortal, is the basis of Torah. Just like the Karaites, these movements will be dust, and nothing but a footnote on a youtube retrospective of the technological (including industrial) impact on judaism.

[@SeekersofUnity]

Thank you for your honesty. It’s always appreciated :)