Jay Michaelson

Jay Michaelson is a columnist for the ForwardZeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture (which he co-founded in 2002), and Reality Sandwich magazines, and the executive director of Nehirim: GLBT Jewish Culture & Spirituality.  He recently returned (in February 2009) from five months of silent meditation retreat in Massachusetts and Nepal.  Jay is the author of God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness, and Embodied Spiritual Practice (2007), Another Word for Sky: Poems (2008), and Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism (2009). A recent visiting professor at Boston University Law School, Jay has taught at Yale University, City College, Elat Chayyim, the Wexner Summer Institute, and many other institutions. Jay holds an M.A. in Religious Studies from Hebrew University, where he currently is pursuing his Ph.D., as well as a J.D. from Yale and B.A. from Columbia.

41 Articles Published | Follow:
A Jewish Perspective on the Jhanas, Part One

  The jhanas are states of heightened concentration that have been cultivated by Hindus and…

Is Life But a Dream?

God is true.  The universe is a dream. -Vivekananda Row,row, row your boat Gently down…

Why Ramakrishna Matters

Ramakrishna (1836-1886) was the Baal Shem Tov of Advaita Vedanta, the foremost nondual tradition of…

Spirituality as Satanism

Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are…

Against Integration

We're told the spiritual path is all about integration. Without integrating spiritual insights into our…

The Israeli-American Prime Minister Bids Farewell

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has never been known to take the high road. Even…

Monogamy And Monotheism

  I so want to be in love To believe monotheistically in you, that you…

Are There Any Jews in Narnia?

I'm used to trusting movies. The film industry is mostly made up of Jewish liberals,…