This recorded lecture (in Hebrew) was given at an evening in honor of the inaguation of Semadar Cherlow's book "Who moved my Judaism? Judaism, postmodernism and contemporary spiritualities" (Resling publisng house). The evening took place on June 27th 2016 at Matan (Women's Institute for Torah Studies) in Ra'anana.
One must refrain from ugliness And from what is ugliness-like, And from what is in its likeliness. (BaMidbar Raba 10:8) This article compares two corpora of folktales in Israeli culture - early rabbinical texts and European folktales. The article presents major examples of folktales of ugliness, and the attitude towards ugliness in both corpora, and analyses them in various manners (philosophical, gender-wise, anthropological).
"G-d came from Sinai, and rose from Seir unto them" (Deuteronomy 33:2) This column deals (in Hebrew) with the "easternization of the west" thesis, and its implication to Israeli search for the East. This small piece holds some complex critical moves, and makes some scholarly questions available, along with their relevance to contemporary western, and Israeli, life.
The spiritual journeys Israeli-Jews make to the Far East do not merely provide them with experiences and revelations, but also help them reclaim meaning, answer life’s questions, and shape their identity and lifestyle. Surprisingly, some journeys end in embracing Jewish tradition. Why – and how – do secular Israelis, who have never shown any interest in the spiritual matters and aspects of their native tradition, find, following their journey, that Jewish spirituality is relevant to their quest for meaning? This article conducts a critical discussion on the easternization thesis (which claims the West is undergoing a profound paradigmatic transformation), culminating in the conclusion that the East is not Westerners’ and Israelis’ true object of desire, but rather an object upon which they project their Western/Israeli discomfort, passions and images. Judaism, which has been going through an exoticization process within the framework of local New Age – much like the Far East in global spirituality – has been adapting itself to their coveted imagined model. The article (about 8,500 words) is included in an anthology on the subject of "the search for meaning in the Israeli cultual scene", published by Oxford University Press, and edited by Ofra Mayseless and Pninit Russo-Netzer.
This article examines the special contribution of the journet to the orient to the Jewish identity and relation to religion of Israeli backpackers. It includes the "easternization of the west" thesis and a variety of criticisms on the thesis is surveyed. These criticisms serve in turn to the analysis of processes that the Jewish Israeli identity undergo, following the meeting place with religions in India (and more generally, Far east). Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey. Without her you wouldn't have set out. She has nothing left to give you now. And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you. Wise as you will have become, so full of experience, you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean. (Ending lines of the poem "The City", C. P. Cavafy)
Why and what for does the contemporary Jew needs India? How does India help Jews find spiritual meaning in their lives? What helps rehabilitate Israelis' poor relationship with their spiritual/religious Jewish identity? This lecture depicts the special attraction of Jewish Israelis to spiritual journeys in India, and the process they go through following these journeys in their relation to Jewish tradition.
It seems the past is not fixed, but rather ever-changing. This study isn't about the history of New Age religion, but rather a critical analysis of the history sceince as it manifests in the scholarly discourse on the history of New Age.
This lecture is part of the research project on the current reincarnation of the liturgical poem 'Im Nin'alu' in contemporary western pop-culture. The lecture deals with issues and challenges of coping in the postmodern situation, and presents three models of contemporary spirituality through the study case that is discussed: a spirituality of return to tradition, a spirituality of yearning to the Other, and a remix-postmodern spirituality. I've co-published an English article on this subject in the journal Folklore. The lecture took place in the 2nd international conference of the center of Yemenite Judaism and its culture, conducted on September 2018, marking 400 years of Shalem Shabbazi's birthday, at Yad Ben Zvi in Jerusalem. A simultaneous translation (Hebrew-English) has been executed in the conference.
"Under Israel’s hypnosis law, everyone is guilty of hypnosis—therapists, artists, religious leaders and even mothers who sing nursery rhymes to their children." [Natalie Pik, in Even 2012] This article presents a critical examination of the Hypnosis Law that is unique to Israel - integrating an analysis of the law's wording, an observation of the professional struggle between licensed hypnotherapists and alternative therapists, and moral panics events revolving mind control in Israel. (By the way, since 2018 procedures have been taken in the Knesset that might lead to the law's cancellation.)