ארכיון Prayer - Prof. Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro (PhD)

Article: Veiling and Unveiling in Jewish-Spiritual Psychotherapy

How does a psychotherapist with a spiritual-Jewish outlook treat people with a different spiritual outlook (and Jewish identity) from his own? Will the differences of worldview interfere with the therapy? This study presents the unique dialectic used by Israeli-Jewish psychotherapists who integrate spirituality in therapy - between veiling and unveiling their view and their therapeutic approach. The study presents the ways of integrating spirituality in clinical practice, their caution in revealing therapeutic spiritual tools, as well as the therapists' universalistic and inclusive approach.

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March 28, 2025

Israel / Popular culture and mass media

A Podcast on Prayer in Contemporary Alternative Spiritualities

In the podcast of the Open University and IDF Radio (Galatz), they dealt with "prayer" over a series of meetings. One of the (four) meetings hosted Prof. Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro,on the expression and formation of prayer in contemporary alternative spiritualities. The hosts of the podcast "Adraba" are Prof. Tamar Hermann and Prof. Yoram Kalman, and the radio researcher is Lou Kerek.

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December 27, 2023

Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Typology and comparative study

Lecture: Israeli New age and Jewish Praxis

In this research project, we've discerned a new religious identity category emerging in Israel - Spiritual Secularity. The research focuses on the issue of glocalism (globalism + localism) of the New Age movement (global) among Israeli Jews (local). The reseach presents Jewish Israeli New Agers' attitude to Jewish Law (Halakha) and custome, and deals with the tension between alternative spiritual values and Jewish traditional ones, and its various solutions - ranging from indifference to Halakha on the one end, and rejecting New Age on the other. The most interesting attitudes have to do with the processing of Halakha in the spirit of New Age (New Ageization).

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January 19, 2022

Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Typology and comparative study

A research Article: “Jew Age – Jewish Praxis in Israeli New Age Discourse”

In this article, I've first coined the category "Jew Age" that interconnects "Jew" and "New Age". What's unique in the Israeli-Jewish New Age, in comparison with the global arena of New Age? It is a society in which the central religion is Judaism, while in the western worls the main religion is Christianity (indeed, it is mainly a "secular" society in both cases, but it's hard to classify a spiritual sector as "secular"...). In order to study this significant difference, and reveal the unique Israel-Jewish coping eith the values of the new and global alternative spirituality, we've focused on a major difference between Judaism and Christianity - the issue of Halakha (law, praxis), the practical execution of commandments. The article presents the glocal (global+local) character of New Age in Israel, and the New-Ageization processes which Judaism and Halakha undergo.

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January 18, 2022

Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Typology and comparative study

A research Article: “Secular by the Letter, Religious by the Spirit: The Attitudes of the Israeli New Age to Jewish Law”

This Article (some 10,000 words in Hebrew) identifies a new religious category in Israel - Spiritual Secularity. It presents Jewish Israeli New Agers' attitude to Jewish Law (Halakha) and custome, and deals with the tension between alternative spiritual values and Jewish traditional ones, and its various solutions - ranging from indifference to Halakha on the one end, and rejecting New Age on the other. Nevertheless, the more interesting attitudes have to do with the processing of Halakha in the spirit of New Age (New Ageization). The article was published in Israeli Sociology, the most renowned journal of social sciences in Israel. An article on a similar subject was published in English, and the research was also presented in conferences.

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December 21, 2021