Page "Michael Lerner (rabbi)" Paragraph 10

Lerner received rabbinical ordination in 1995 through a beth din ( rabbinical court ) composed of three rabbis, " each of whom had received orthodox rabbinic ordination ".

According to j. the Jewish news weekly, " mainstream rabbinical leaders of the Reform, Conservative and Orthodox movements " have questioned private ordinations such as Lerner's, arguing that non-seminary ordinations risk producing poorly educated or fraudulent Rabbis.

Similarly, some rabbis have challenged Lerner's decision to not be trained for the rabbinate in a classical Jewish Seminary ( although Lerner did spend three years as a student at Jewish Theological Seminary ).

Lerner has been quoted in Jewish Weekly as saying that the nonseminary track is one that " every Chabad rabbi takes, & every ultra-Orthodox rabbi ".

When Lerner attacked seminaries for being " more interested in producing organizational men for Jewish life than spiritual leaders connected to the deepest spiritual and social-justice minds ", Rabbi Alan Lew said " That is arrogant nonsense ...

I spent six years in extremely rigorous, round-the-clock study in the classic texts of our tradition.

Authentic Jewish spirituality is in the texts, not in some fancy New Age ideas or watered-down kabbalah ".

Lerner's synagogue Beyt Tikkun became an embodiment of what he described as " neo-Hasidism ," passionately pursuing the spiritual dimension of the prayers rather than rushing through them.

The goal, he insisted, is to connect to God, not simply mouthe every prayer in the prayerbook.

His synagogue grew, according to members, not only because of Lerner's willingness to take the social justice message of the prophets seriously, but also because the actual experience of being involved in prayer, meditation, singing and dancing in the synagogue became an ecstatic experience of transcendence for many of those who attended.