"He taught us that meditation is part of our heritage."
Rabbi Alan Lew died suddenly today, at the age of 65, while on a run after morning prayers at a rabbinic conference in Baltimore.
The path that Rabbi Alan Lew followed is a familiar one to many Jews who have spent time deep in Buddhist practice. He left Judaism, disillusioned and disheartened at the lack of spirit he found there. He touched something deep in his journey into Zen practice, and then returned to Judaism, bringing the heart of meditation back into Judaism. Back because meditation was long a part of Jewish practice, but lost to many of us for a wide variety of historical reasons.
His life, a commitment to living the path of compassion through social activism, is an example to us all.
His books, The Spiritual Path of a Zen Rabbi, and This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared, are essential reading for anyone with a serious Jewish meditation practice. May his memory be for a blessing.
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