ארכיון Hebrew - Page 4 of 8 - Prof. Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro (PhD)

Essay: The Never-Ending Story – From the Land of Israel to Mother Earth

"Don't give us the old, but the ancient. And instead of the future, we'll discover the present. Instead of a plow, give us a hug. Let's flow and connect... We'll find our ways and turn back, return to ourselves - dive into the depths of our Selves." In this article, Ruach-Midbar describes the shift in values and narratives that accured in the Jewish-Israeli story within the New Age realm, as a replacement for the Zionist story that was cast in the image of the Enlightenment. The text (about 500 words, in Hebrew) was incorporated into the "Israeli Talmud - Tractate of Independence", edited by Dov Elbaum, with the support of BINAH.

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January 19, 2023

Critical theory / Economy and business / Popular culture and mass media

Essay: Spirituality in Business – A Weird Couple?

Is there a place for spirituality in the business world, or do the two necessarily contradict each other? In this article, published in a special issue of TheMarker on pioneering management, Ruah-Midbar analyzes the contradiction from a critical research angle, and clarifies that they mustn't contradict.

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January 17, 2023

Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah

Essay: A Reckoning of the Soul in an Artistic Style

"God willing - the worldwide contemporary spiritual awakening is finally attacking us too, and the art exhibition in front of us is one of the expressions of that." This quote appears in the main text of the catalog of the art exhibition "Heshon Nefesh", curated by Dafna Naor, and with the participation of 43 artists, presented at HiTouch in Herzliya Pituach in 2009. The text was written by Marianna Ruah-Midbar.

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January 17, 2023

Education and higher education / Feminism gender and sex

Limerick from the students on the end of the Gender, Religion and Spirituality course

M.A. students at the end of the academic year at the Department of Gender Studies at the University of Haifa composed limericks for the lecturers of the various courses. One of the five limericks was dedicated to Mariana Ruah-Midbar, who taught them a course on gender, religion and spirituality.

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January 17, 2023

Education and higher education

A blessings presentation from students in the Mysticism and Spirituality Department

A presentation initiated and produced by the students of one of the cohorts in the Department of Mysticism and Spirituality, upon graduation from the Zefat Academic College, in honor of Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro.

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January 17, 2023

Read more about the article Article: The Doors of Creativity Shall Never be Barred – The Iconization Process of the Piyyut “Im Nin’alu” in Contemporary Pop Music

Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Critical theory / Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Methodology and models / Popular culture and mass media / Postmodernism / Typology and comparative study

Article: The Doors of Creativity Shall Never be Barred – The Iconization Process of the Piyyut “Im Nin’alu” in Contemporary Pop Music

Yes, the liturgical poem (piyyut) “Im Nin'alu” signifies orientality. But what is Orientality? Is this traditional, perhaps even religious, Yemenite Judaism? Is this Yemen similar to exotic India? Is this a symbol of the mystical/spiritual "other" (as we already mentioned India...)? And maybe it is a symbol of Kabbalah, another contemporary "Other" that turns out to be similar to all the other "Others", including the "Other East"... In this article we follow the change process of “Im Nin'alu” as a symbol, which symbolizes different things each time. The peyote has - it turns out - gone a long way, erasing traditional Yemenite Judaism into the contemporary universal and spiritual-alternative space.

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January 10, 2023

Read more about the article Lecture: The Oriental as a Spiritual Symbol – The Reification of the Liturgical Poem ‘Im Nin’alu in Contemporary Popular Musical Performances

Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Critical theory / Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Popular culture and mass media / Postmodernism / Typology and comparative study

Lecture: The Oriental as a Spiritual Symbol – The Reification of the Liturgical Poem ‘Im Nin’alu in Contemporary Popular Musical Performances

For the west, the oriental is an object to project upon desires and fantasies. This is similar also in the spiritual context: New Age orientalism molds the "orient" (especially India) in its spirit, as an "Other" significant culture. Kabbalah undergoes a similar process, as an "Other" of the west. This lecture presents the meeting between the "Orient" and Kabbalah in a Yemenite (also "oriental") version - through an inquiry of contemporary performances of the liturgical Poem "Im Nin'alu".

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January 9, 2023

Education and higher education / Mind and psychology

Conference: Contemplative Pedagogy – Spirit, consciousness, and Magic in Education

This conference dealt with the space between spiritual, alternative, and contemplative education. It had workshops demonstrating these kinds of education, as well as research presentations of support (and criticism) on them. "Contemplative Education" is an umbrela term for education, teaching and learning approaches that turn the gaze into the mind and soaul of the individual, and to their deep link to life, other humans, and the world. Contemplative Education stems from a humanistic perceptionof human nature and the goals of education. It stresses the advancement of personal development and realization of the higher human potential, bot among students and teachers.

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December 7, 2022

Critical theory / Disputation or conflict / Feminism gender and sex / Israel / Magic and paganism / Methodology and models

Lecture: Neo-Shamanism in Israel – Authenticity and the Invention of Tradition

This lecture dealt with Neo-Shamanism in Israel, but… actually, how can one describe Neo-Shamanism in Israel when it's unclear what Neo-Shamanism is? And indeed, the tern is unclear. The lecture discussed the term and its problematization, the question of relation between Shamanism and Neo-Shamanism, the search for the common denominator of "Shamanic" phenomena, and more.

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December 6, 2022

Critical theory / Identity / Methodology and models / Typology and comparative study

Lecture: New Age – A Spiritual Secular Religion?

Is New Age a religion? Is it a secular phenomenon? Is a "secular religion" possible? These questions were dealt with in a lecture at a conference than conviened academia spokespersons, thinkers, and various public personalities, to siddcuss the definitions and conceptualizations of hybrid and blurry phenomena. The lecture disscussed the definitions of "religion", the emic and etic discourses, issues of labeling in the New Age field, the question of the essence of "secularism", the feasibility of "secular religion", the definition of "Spiritual But not Religious" (SBNR), and more. Furthermore, the lecture dealt with the blurring between definitions and conceptualizations within the alternative spiritualities, and analysed the motivation of creating this blurring.

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December 5, 2022