Creator Bio
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
1924–2014
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi was born in Zólkiew, Galicia (present-day Zhovkva, Ukraine) and was raised in Vienna. After immigrating to New York in 1941, he embraced the Chabad movement and was ordained at its central yeshiva in 1947. After breaking with Chabad in the 1960s, he turned to an experimental, New Age approach to ritual and prayer, incorporating elements of Hasidic mysticism, meditation, and dance into his prayer services. His approach to religious practice is embodied in the B’nai Or tallit (also called the Rainbow tallit), which he designed and encouraged followers to sew for themselves.
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
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B’nai Or Prayer Shawl
The idea for a multicolored prayer shawl (tallit) came to Zalman Schachter-Shalomi when he was meditating on a midrash about God creating the world while wrapped in a robe of light. Schachter-Shalomi…
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Toward an “Order of B’nai Or”: A Program for a Jewish Liturgical Brotherhood
We are basically dissatisfied with “the world.” Our dissatisfaction stems mainly from the fact that as well-adjusted members of it we would have to live as ardent consumers…