My profile of Chava Weissler went live in Zeek earlier this week! Chava is a writer, scholar, and folklorist who teaches Judaism, folklore, and women's studies at Lehigh University. Her book on tkhines (Jewish women's prayers of the 17th and 18th centuries) is one of the most widely-read resources in that field; she's working now on a book about Jewish Renewal.

I spoke with her about her work on the Havurah and Renewal movements, their similarities and differences as alternatives to the more mainstream denominational paradigm, the blurry boundaries which come with being a participant-observer, and why she's fascinated with the Jewish life of "non-elites." Here's a taste:

ZEEK: I read in your bio that you were interested in how these "counterculture" folks created surprisingly traditional Jewish lives for themselves. Is there overlap between that work/that finding and the work you're doing now researching Jewish Renewal?

CW: Yes! I often use the following metaphor: the Havurah movement represents the Misnagdim and the Renewal movement the Hasidim of the Jewish counter-culture. The style of the Havurah movement is more cognitive, and the style of Renewal is more expressive and devotional. Also, the Havurah movement has a deep aversion to the "rebbe" model, while the Renewal movement has seen it as a way into a heightened spirituality.

ZEEK: The Hasidim/Misnagdim analogy is a fascinating one, though I can see how some folks in the Havurah movement might have bones to pick there.

CW: Especially because we saw ourselves as reinstating Hasidism, or parts of it. Some years ago, a well-known Renewal teacher taught at the Havurah Institute. I asked him how he felt it compared to the Kallah and Renewal. And he said, 'the havurah movement is so unspiritual, it really bothered me... when they have a study class, they go in, open the text, study, close the text and you're done. When I teach a class, we sit in silence, we open our hearts to the text, we sing a niggun, we study the text, we process what's happened to us, then we sing another niggun and sit in silence again to receive what we've received.'

My havurah friends were outraged that he would say the Havurah movement isn't spiritual! But it’s a different model of spirituality and also of study...

Read the whole thing here: Chava Weissler: Tradition and Renewal.