ALEPH Canada is dedicated to reclaiming the Jewish people’s sacred purpose of partnership with the Divine in the inseparable tasks of healing the world and healing our hearts.
It is now in three major sections. The first is an overview, given as a shi’ur in Boulder, Colorado at the Jewish Community Center on March 13, 2005. It was transcribed by Ruth Seagull and edited for this volume.
The second section is a set of shi’urim taped by Reb Zalman for the 1993 ALEPH Kallah. In his words, “It was a time of recuperation from surgery and I could not travel. With the help of Rabbi Gershon Winkler and his wife Lakme, we recorded this series of videotapes touching on various aspects of halachah The videotapes were then played for the Kallah attendees and the Winklers served as commentators.”
Reb Zalman identifies six areas addressed by Integral Halachah:
It flows from a meaningful theology to which we can give credence
It produces a doable halachah in harmony with the social agreements implicit in our society
It is addressed to average people and provides a spiritual technology accessible to them as well as to advanced students and contemplatives.
It is aware of other spiritualities, of both sister and nature religions, with which it is in conversation and exchange.
It recognizes that we need forms of kashrut that complement and support ecological concerns. At the same time, our ecological concerns were challenged and informed by biblical laws which protect the environment, such as Sh’mittah (Sabbatical year), Yovel (the Jubilee), and other laws connected with agriculture and animal husbandry.
While it is clear that we need to emphasize and strengthen Shabbat observance in our social milieu, the original interdictions concerning work need to be updated by making some things more lenient and others more stringent.
Finally, I have added a chapter at the end which is the edited transcript of my own (Daniel's) personal introduction to Integral Halachah.
