Books The Sacred Art of Lovingkindness, The divine feminine in biblical wi, Hasidic Tales, Embracing Esau, Gefilte fishing | ||
Rami M. Shapiro (26 April 1951), commonly called “Rabbi Rami”, is an award winning author, teacher, and speaker on the subjects of liberal Judaism and contemporary spirituality. He served for ten years as Adjunct Professor of Religion at Middle Tennessee State University.
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Early life and education
Shapiro was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, and raised in a modern Orthodox Jewish household. Introduced to the study of world religion in high school he began a serious study of and practice in Zen Buddhism at age sixteen.
Shapiro entered the University of Massachusetts in 1969 majoring in philosophy. There he met Teresina Havens, then a retired professor of world religion from Smith College, who took him on as a private student studying both the Bhagavad Gita and Goddess-based spirituality. His work with Dr. Havens culminated in a private conference exploring the archetypal Divine Feminine in Hinduism and Judaism.
As part of a year abroad program, Rami attended the University of Tel Aviv where he focused on Jewish philosophy, especially the work of Martin Buber. While in Israel he studied Chabad Hasidism, and lived for a short time at Kfar Chabad, a Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic community. Returning from Israel, he enrolled full-time at Smith College (one of only eight men allowed to do so at the time) where he majored in Buddhist Studies with Professor Taitetsu Unno. Rami managed the zendo at Smith College and sat sesshin with Joshu Sasaki Roshi of Mount Baldy Zen Center. His degree in philosophy was conferred by the University of Massachusetts in 1973.
Upon graduation Shapiro married Deborah Flanigan and the two moved to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada where he earned his M.A. in Religious Studies at McMaster University with a concentration in contemporary Jewish philosophy, especially the work of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan.
Rami entered the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in 1976, and spent his first year of study in Jerusalem where he studied privately with Rabbi Kaplan who was then 99 years of age. After his year in Jerusalem, Rami continued his studies under the tutelage of Drs. Ellis Rivkin, Eugene Mihaly, and Alvin Reines seeking to blend his love of Judaism with his passion for Zen Buddhism, Taoism, and Advaita Vendanta (non dual Hinduism). While at HUC-JIR Rami worked with Rabbi Sherwin Wine and the Society for Humanistic Judaism, and enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1979, where he served as the full–time rabbi at Wright–Patterson AFB while completing his rabbinic studies in 1981.
Career and work
Rami moved to Miami, Florida upon graduation and created Temple Beth Or, a synagogue and think tank where he experimented with new forms of Jewish liturgy, practice, combining his experiences with Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. He continued his Zen practice with the aid of Gesshin Roshi’s International Zen Institute of Miami. In 1985 Rami completed a Ph.D. in Contemporary Jewish Studies from Union Graduate School using his work with the temple as the basis for his dissertation. Throughout his twenty years with Temple Beth Or, Rami studied with Rabbi Zalman Shachter-Shalomi, the founder of Jewish Renewal, a neo-hasidic movement within Judaism. In 2000 he was given the title of Rebbe (spiritual master) by Reb Zalman.
In 1984 Rabbi Rami was invited to become a founding member of the Snowmass Group, an annual gathering of contemplatives from various religions, held at St. Benedict’s Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado under the auspices of Father Thomas Keating. It was through the mentoring of Father Thomas that Rami met Dr. Ed Bastian, the founder of the Spiritual Paths Institute and became part of the institute's faculty. Among the faculty of the institute was Swami Atmarupananda who became Rami's primary Hindu teacher. After a decade of study, Rami received initiation in the Ramakrishna Order of Vedanta Hinduism under Swami Swahananda, Swami Atmarupananda's teacher. Rami lectures on the parallels between Judaism and Hinduism at various Vedanta centers in India and the United States.
In 2012 Rabbi Rami teamed up with Reverend Tim Miner and the Order of Universal Interfaith to co–found the annual Big I Conference for Inclusive Theology, Spirituality, and Consciousness.
Shapiro served for ten years as Adjunct Professor of Religion at Middle Tennessee State University.
In 2016, after leaving the university, Rabbi Rami teamed up with Rev. Claire Goodman and Frank Levy to create the One River Foundation,. One River promotes the study of Perennial Wisdom, the mystic heart found at the core of all religions. The foundation sponsors three projects: The One River Wisdom School, a retreat-based program for the study of sacred texts eastern and western, Holy Rascals, a training program for subverting the darker side of religion with humor, and The World Wisdom Bible, an anthology of Perennial Wisdom texts and teachings from the many of the world's religions that is distributed free of charge as a counterpoint to Gideon Bibles found around the world.
In addition to writing books and teaching, Rabbi Rami writes the Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler, a spiritual Q&A column for Spirituality and Health Magazine and hosts the magazines podcast, Essential Conversations with Rabbi Rami
Works
The World Wisdom Bible, Tuner Publishing (2017) Holy Rascals, Sounds True Publishing (2017)
In addition to these books, Rami has published widely in a variety of magazines, contributed chapters to over three dozen anthologies, and writes a regular spiritual advice column for Spirituality and Health magazine.