Everything Is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism

by Jay Michaelson

Book Overview

This exploration of the radical, yet ancient, idea that everything and everyone is God will transform how you understand your life and the nature of religion itself. While God is conventionally viewed... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590306716
• ISBN13: 9781590306710
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: Trumpeter
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

A New Type of Judaism

Everything is God is a book with a great deal of heart. The reader can easily tell that Jay Michaelson is a very sincere thinker on Jewish matters and in the wider world of spirituality. With this in mind, it is easy to forgive the book some of its shortcomings. For one, the work is not overtly Jewish. Michaelson quotes Hindu and Buddhist sources far more than traditional Jewish ones. The reader gets the impression that Michaelson is more comfortable in that world. Second, the book is organized in a way that does not help the reader access this difficult subject matter. Michaelson should have thought more about the arrangement of his materials. With that said, this is a grounded and beautiful work. Michaelson presents a picture of God, spirituality, and Jewishness which appealing, productive and humane.

Nondual Judaism made accessible to all

There is a growing segment of Judaism which is nondual in nature -- it joins other nondual paths such as Buddhism, Vedanta Hindusim, Sufism, and nondual Christianity as a specific iteration of the universal. Nonduality is found at the summit of nearly every mystical tradition in the world. Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism is groundbreaking in its scope, intellectual honesty, and devotional fervor. The book is divided into two sections: theory, and practice. Throughout are many quotes from Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta, the Baal Shem Tov, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Rabbi Arthur Green, and other nondual luminaries. Reading Everything is God is a blessing -- discovering the language and methods of nondual Judaism provides insights into delving deeper into other traditions, in particular Vedanta Hindusim. And, it is refreshing and rewarding to begin to understand that Judaism and other nondual paths are enriched, not impoverished, when they come in contact with other traditions.

Thinking About God

Michaelson, Jay. "Everything is God: The Path of Nondual Judaism", Trumpeteer, 2009. Thinking about God Amos Lassen Jay Michaelson is one of my heroes and he wears many different hats. What I like most about him is how he thinks and the way he helped to shape a new Jewish culture as well as his work as a GLBT activist. As Jews, most of us think of God as one supreme being and ourselves as separate beings, in other words, human take the "I" position and God takes the "thou". God gave us the charge to fulfill his mission and as Michaelson sees it God, self and the world are nondual sections of a greater unity. We must shed ego and self because we are only here temporarily and the nondual reality is very permanent. Michaelson is a mystic and therefore many of his ideas come from the teachings in traditional Jewish mysticism on the neo-Hasidic movement. It is the masters who are the inheritors of Jewish tradition and this is in opposition to those who seek individuality and wrestled with their own personal answers of how to live in the modern world. Nondual Judaism shares with the neo-Hasidic movement the various areas of thought, action and feeling and these three can be seen in contemplative devotion and ritual as well as in the actions of spirituality. God is seen as poetic, erotic and blissful and the images that we have of God come from our won experiences with intimacy. This, in turn, allows us to reach a much higher outlook regarding nonduality and we notice that our human emotions are the source of our religious language. We need also appreciate experience by remaining open to all kinds and making experiences a part of our lives. However, religious experience relies on communal expression and hence a Jewish community that ascribes to traditional Judaism. Nondual Judaism helps to create Jewish practice. Because there is the strong emotional bond of love of God. People tend to become more personal in the ay that God is looked at. Certain physical acts become a way of showing appreciation and love for God--the laying of tefillin, observing the dietary laws, and keeping the Sabbath. Michaelson maintains that the time has come to stop seeking God and stop wrestling with the divine concept and thereby we will not bring new meaning into a religion that has manages to survive for as long as it has. It is our job to behave and to submit and to accept all of life. Tradition is actually saved by nondualism and by observing the writings of the Torah. We are honoring our physical needs. We perform the rituals of Judaism but we do not let them rule our lives. When we break the code of Jewish law, we must also forgive ourselves because by keeping hold of the pain only slows us down. We are to accept ourselves as we are--with faults and with problems and we then can heal the pains that we feel. The wedding of Asian philosophies of nonduality with traditional Judaism comes across as quite a novel and sensible idea. We can then embrace a spirituality