My Teachers


אָמַר רַבִּי חֲנִינָא
הַרְבֵּה לָמַדְתִּי מֵרַבּוֹתַי
וּמֵחֲבֵירַי יוֹתֵר מֵרַבּוֹתַי
וּמִתַּלְמִידַי יוֹתֵר מִכּוּלָּן

§

Rabbi Chanina said:
I have learned much from my teachers,
more from my friends, and
from most of all from my students.

Especially in a time of exponential, instantaneous, always-available information, I am abundantly grateful to teachers who have embodied, committed to, and transmitted lived wisdom.

It is my pleasure and privilege to introduce this ever-growing, inherently incomplete weave of lineages.

Root Teachers

  • Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi

    Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi z"l

    Reb Zalman was the founding zeide / grandfather of Jewish Renewal. I received semicha / rabbinic ordination from him posthumously (that’s a longer story for another time) and, through him, find myself woven into the lineage of the Baal Shem Tov, the itinerant teacher, nature mystic, and mysterious founding figure of Hasidism. I continue living on the growing edge of paradigm shift, deep ecumenism, socialized meditation, and techno-spiritual futurism with inspiration drawn from the blessing of Reb Zalman’s kindness.

  • Rav Kohenet Rabbi Jill Hammer and Shir in 2020

    Rav Kohenet Jill Hammer

    I met Reb Jill in a drum circle. We became close collaborators on several of her books, websites, and ritual projects. My proudest works include our collaboration on the Romemu Siddur and the prayerbook of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestesses.

  • A selfie of Roshi Bernie Glassman with Shir in Warsaw, Poland

    Roshi Bernie Glassman

    Beloved Bernie started the Auschwitz-Birkenau Bearing Witness Retreats, which I attended and helped facilitate for five years. Practicing the Three Tenets and receiving Council Circle Facilitation training are among the most nourishing practices I have taken on. I am a member of Zen Peacemakers International.

  • Rabbi Marcia Prager and Shir in front of the Elmen Street house were Reb Zalman used to teach

    Rabbi Marcia Prager

    Founding Dean of the ALEPH Ordination Program, I have been deeply enriched by the presence, compassion, and unflagging energy of this master of The Path of Blessing. Reb Marcia entrusted me with co-leading the Davvenen Leadership Training Institute for several years and connected me with many other teachers and students on the path of Renewal.

Current Entanglements

Will Johnson offers a radical path of somatic dharma. His book The Posture of Meditation is the text I most frequently carry on silent meditation retreats. I am a giddy new member of his Shimmering Seahorse and Sea Kelp Sangha.

Tias Little supported me through dark and disorienting free fall with his Somatic Awareness Training for Yoga Attunement and his general Zen- and Iyengar-infused approach to embodied mindfulness. His poetic sensibility and wry humor bring body and soul to life for me in vivid and effervescent ways. 

Early yoga teachers include (in approximate chronological order) Elena Brower (vinyasa), Tabby Biddle (Phoenix Rising), and Yogi Charu (yoga nidra). My life-course was altered when I stumbled on a first edition copy of B. K. S. Iyengar’s Light on Yoga. To the countless other yoginis and yogis that I have practiced with and learned from — namaste.

Ward Kerr gave me my first TM mantra and introduced me to “the hugging saint” Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi). Rabbi Marcelo Bronstein brought me to Elat Chayyim for the first time for my first Jewish silent retreat, led by Sylvia Boorstein. That place and those practices would become exceptionally important aspects of my life. There I would meet dozens of fellow soul-travelers, several root teachers, and experience my first plunges into silence, guided by David and Shoshana Cooper. Roshi Barbara Salaam Wegmueller and Anam Thubten guide my heart in sitting practice.

My early childhood education was fostered by the literally back-to-back institutions of the Abraham Joshua Heschel School and Congregation B’nai Jeshurun. My first Talmud teacher (torah she’be’al’peh a/k/a T.S.B.P.) Rabbi Dov Lorea impressed my soul with his deep kindness, commitment, and care. Rabbi J. Rolando (“Roly”) Matalon taught me that rebelliousness and revelation can coexist in a person, and that angels sound like when they chant Torah. Judith Tumin housed me when I was a teenage outlaw and handed me the badge “poet.” Shoshana Jedwab helped launch me as a songwriter and let me never forget that music is food. “Big Al” Rivers made me feel safe, loved, fun, and funny.

Deepening in Jewish renewal and Kabbalah led me to the Everyday Kabbalah and Kabbalah Month-by-Month of Mindy Ribner, who not only guided me in my first formal meditation circle (Beit Miriam) but was also the first person to ask me to lead the Kol Nidre service for Yom Kippur.

His early books on reincarnation in Judaism and the mysticism of music led me to become a close student of Rabbi DovBer Pinson. At Rav DovBer’s table, I met several teacher-friends, including the polymath Jay Michaelson, sacred storyteller Maggid Yitzchak Buxbaum (o.b.m.), and personal trainer Ari Weller. (Recent forays into my strength-training special interest require at least hat-tips to Andrew Huberman, Brent Brookbush, and Kelly Starrett.)

While I have not studied personally with any of these writers, their books have had a significant impact on my thinking and language: Arnold Mindel (process-oriented psychotherapy), Neil Postman (media theory), Ken Wilber (integral theory), Nick Walker (neuroqueer theory), Annika Harris (consciousness studies), and Alan Watts (religion and mysticism).