When A Rabbi Wanted To Zikr

Feb 27, 2020, 1 comments, 7 smiles [When Aryae's return from last night's beautiful Awakin Circle, I was reminded of an amazing story told 26 years ago by Reb Zalman, about his encounter with a blind Sufi sheikh in Hevron, Israel/Palestine. Reb Zalman wanted to do zikr with the sheikh and his community, and at first they were very skeptical about why this rabbi would want to pray with Muslims. The dialogue that ensued was quite amazing, and serves as a great footnote to last night's Awakin Circle dialogue. Excerpt below is from an audio tape of the Farbrengen with Rabbis Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Shlomo Carlebach, Z'Tz'L, at the Hillel Foundation on March 19, 1994. Transcribed by Reuven Goldfarb with the assistance of Eliyahu (Khaled) McLean.] Used to be, when I would go to Israel, I would run in, go up to Nablus, and there, outside of Nablus, is a place called Balata. Balata was one of ... Read Full Story