Who Is Rebbe Zev?

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aboutZev1   Rabbi Zev-Hayyim Feyer received סמיכה (Smichah, Ordination) in 1977. In keeping with the ancient Talmudic and early Hassidic traditions, he did not attend  Yeshivah (Seminary); rather, in 1970, he attached himself as a student to Rabbi Joseph Gelbermanז”ל  of New York and studied for some seven years under the  direction of Rabbi Gelberman and Rabbis Shlomo Carlebachז”ל  and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi ז”ל. Finally, in 1977, when his mentors determined that he was ready,  they ordained him a rabbi. aboutZev2
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 In the early 1980s, Rabbi Feyer served for two years as the spiritual leader of Temple Bnai Israel, a Reform congregation in Anderson, South Carolina. He has also  led less formal fellowship groups (havurot) in Washington, Atlanta, and Fort Lauderdale. From 1994 to 2002, he served as a hospital and hospice chaplain in  Charleston SC, Kansas City, and San Diego, with specialties in Mental Health Chaplaincy and AIDS/HIV Chaplaincy. He holds the degree of Master of Arts in  Religion from Claremont School of Theology, and he is enrolled in a PhD program in Hebrew Bible, also at Claremont School of  Theology. He is a member of the National Advisory Board of the Jewish Peace Fellowship, the Council of Elders of the Shomer Shalom  Institute for Jewish Non-Violence.

Rabbi Feyer has taught classes and led workshops (say, rather, “playshops”) and seminars at churches, synagogues, mosques, and other  spiritual centers throughout the United States and Canada. His subjects include Kabbalah (the Jewish metaphysical tradition and the  foundation of all Western mysticism), Self-Esteem, Prosperity, Forgiveness, the Metaphysical Interpretation of Scripture, Spiritual Tales  of Many Traditions, the Divine Commandment of Non-Violence, the Unity of Religious Traditions, and many related areas. His audiences have included synagogue  groups, Islamic centers, Silva Mind Control Centers, and Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Lutheran, Nazarene, Unity, Religious Science,  Science of Mind, Divine Science, Unitarian-Universalist, and Metropolitan Community Church congregations in twenty-seven states, the District of Columbia, and  three Canadian provinces.


  
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 When asked about his approach to Kabbalah, Rabbi Feyer says that Kabbalah, while clearly and unmistakably the Jewish  mystical tradition, is also much more than that. Unlike many other religious traditions, whose mystical elements are hidden or  consigned to the status of an additional or peripheral aspect, Judaism finds its mysticism to be its heart and soul, its essence, its  very life-force. Furthermore, Kabbalah, in addition to being the heart of Judaism, is also, as Rabbi Feyer puts it, “a body of  ancient universal mystical wisdom, preserved in a Jewish form but applicable to every faith tradition.” 

In describing his own theological orientation, Rabbi Feyer declares, “I am a Jewish practitioner of generic religion. As a G*d-worshipper, I believe, I  ought to be at home any place G*d is worshipped. At home, not just a visitor. I am also a radical monotheist; I do not believe in a ‘your G*d’ and a ‘my  G*d,’ but simply in G*d, Who manifests in a vast variety of ways. Religion – all religion – is intended to be a force to bring people together – together  with each other and together with G*d – and not to drive them apart. All our many Names for G*d do not divide G*d and should not be permitted to  divide us. Separations and divisions are inherently irreligious acts.”

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