The Gate of Tears | Poughkeepsie, NY

at Vassar Temple
140 Hooker Ave.
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Join Rabbi Michaelson for a scholar-in-residence weekend at Vassar Temple and Temple Beth El in Poughkeepsie.

Friday night at 7:30, at Vassar Temple, Rabbi Michaelson will talk about his new book The Gate of Tears: Sadness and the Spiritual Path:  “Even when the gates of prayer are closed, the gates of tears are open.”  So says the Talmud (BT Berachot 32b), and so many of us have seen that when the heart is broken, it is also the most open.  And yet, both our commercial culture and even many forms of contemporary spirituality seek to banish sadness and other difficult emotions.  Rabbi Dr. Michaelson’s new book The Gate of Tears: Sadness and the Spiritual Path, brings Jewish, Buddhist, and literary sources to explore how being open to sadness helps us open to the rest of life as well.

Saturday morning at Temple Beth El, Rabbi Michaelson will lead meditation before services at 9am, and speak about Jewish meditation during services.  At a lunch following services, he will present his work on Religious Liberty, Civil Rights, and Public Policy.  From Kim Davis to Hobby Lobby, America is now engaged in a national debate about when religion and civil rights collide.  When can a public employee refuse to do her job because she says it violates her religion?  When can businesses turn customers away, or opt out of providing insurance for employees, for religious reasons?  And how can “religious exemptions” meant to discriminate against LGBT people end up discriminating against Jews?