Marc Gafni (born Marc Winiarz;1960) is an American philosopher,writer,and former rabbi who became a New Age spiritual teacher with a focus on integral theory,eros,and "outrageous love".[3][4][5][6][7] He is the president of the Center for Integral Wisdom,which he co-founded with Ken Wilber,and he is the co-founder and co-president of the Office for the Future.[8][9] He is the author of Radical Kabbalah and Your Unique Self:The Radical Path to Personal Enlightenment,[10] which won USA Book News Awards in 2012.[11]
Gafni's teachings,often described as integral or world spirituality,aimed to transcend traditional religious boundaries and offer a modern,inclusive approach to spiritual practice. In the late 1990s,Gafni made a significant impact in Israel by founding the Bayit Hadash spiritual center in Jaffa and hosting a popular television program,Tahat Gafno,on Israel's Channel 2.[5][12] His work during this period was characterized by a blend of traditional Jewish teachings with contemporary spiritual themes,appealing to a diverse audience seeking a deeper connection to spirituality outside conventional religious frameworks. Gafni's 2003 book,Mystery of Love,further established his reputation as a provocative thinker on the subjects of eros,sexuality,and relationships.
However,Gafni's career has been marred by serious allegations of sexual misconduct.[4][5][6][7][13] In 2004,he faced accusations of sexual assault during the 1980s from two women who were teenagers at the time. Despite Gafni's denials and attempts to frame the relationships as consensual,[14][15] the allegations led to significant fallout,including the return of his rabbinical ordination to Rabbi Shlomo Riskin.[4] More allegations emerged in 2006 from attendees of the Bayit Hadash center,resulting in its closure[16] and further tarnishing Gafni's reputation.[17][18][19][20] In 2016,further fallout was triggered in part by an article in The New York Times.[5][21][22]
In recent years,Gafni has continued to be a polarizing figure. He co-founded the Center for World Spirituality,later the Center for Integral Wisdom,with support from prominent figures like Ken Wilber and John Mackey. Despite ongoing allegations and public disavowals from former supporters,Gafni has persisted in his spiritual and philosophical work,publishing books such as Radical Kabbalah and A Return to Eros.
In the late 1990s,Gafni opened the Bayit Hadash (Hebrew:ביתחדש,lit.'new home') spiritual center in Jaffa.[17] From 1999 to 2002,Gafni also hosted Tahat Gafno (Hebrew:תחתגפנו,lit.'under his vine'),a television program broadcast on Israel's Channel 2.[3] Gafni also did a series of weekly television spots with Israeli comedian Gil Kopatch on biblical wisdom for everyday life.[27]
Gafni's teachings during this period have been described as integral or world spirituality,incorporating traditional religious studies with contemporary themes,aimed at spirituality for people who do not identify with one specific religion.[3][19] Gafni described himself and his students as "dual citizens" of both their native traditional religion and the broader themes of "world spirituality".[3] He wrote an essay,"A Hundred Blasts Shatter the Somber Silence",which appeared in Arthur Kurzweil's Best Jewish Writing 2003.[28] His 2003 book,Mystery of Love,advocated for a new set of teachings centered around eros,sexuality,and relationships.[29][30]
Allegations of sexual assault
In 2004,Gafni was accused by two women of sexual assaulting them during the 1980s when they were teenagers. In 2004,he acknowledged a nine-month relationship with a 14-year-old girl when he was 19.[4] He denied the relationship was abusive,describing it as consensual.[14][31][32] As a result of these allegations,Gafni returned his rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Shlomo Riskin to spare his former teacher "any further embarrassment" after Riskin expressed he wanted to revoke Gafni's ordination on the grounds that Gafni's theology had extended "beyond the bounds of Orthodoxy".[4]
Bayit Hadash allegations
In 2006,Gafni was accused by five women who attended the Bayit Hadash (Hebrew:ביתחדש,lit.'new home') spiritual center in Jaffa,which Gafni had opened in the late 1990s.[17] Gafni acknowledged relationships with some of the women.[23] However,he characterized the relationships as consensual and supported this by posting polygraph results on his website.[33] Because of the allegations,and because Gafni fled the country to avoid prosecution,[18][19] he was dismissed from Bayit Hadash,[20] which closed within days.[16] The Bayit Hadash co-founders and other prominent leaders expressed that they felt betrayed by how deeply Gafni had misled them as well as regret for having supported him.[34] His rabbinical ordination by Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi was revoked,[7] and the Alliance for Jewish Renewal condemned Gafni's behavior,stating that "Marc Gafni is not a rabbi or spiritual leader recognized by ALEPH:Alliance for Jewish Renewal."[7]
Once back in the United States,Gafni sent a remorseful letter to his congregation saying he regretted his actions and added "Clearly all of this and more indicates that in these regards I am sick. I need to acknowledge that sickness and to get help for it."[23][17][20]
Center for World Spirituality
In 2011,Marc Gafni,Sally Kempton,and Lori Galperin founded the Center for World Spirituality,which later evolved into the Center for Integral Wisdom.[citation needed] At the Center,Gafni and Ken Wilber founded a Wisdom Council to envision a spirituality based on Integral Principles.[35] The Wisdom Council,which is no longer active[citation needed],included members such as Gafni,Wilber,Tony Robbins,Warren Farrell,Lori Galperin,Sally Kempton.[36] The co-chair of Center for World Spirituality was Whole Foods CEO John Mackey.[37]
Gafni was a Scholar in Residence at the Integral Institute and the Director of the Integral Spiritual Experience but was asked to leave after allegations of sexual involvement with a student were raised.[38] Integral Life,one of Gafni's promoters,deleted his contributions from its website and announced that it was distancing itself from him.[38] Tami Simon,CEO of Sounds True,canceled her planned publication of Gafni's book,Your Unique Self,and issued a statement denouncing him.[39]
The board of directors of the Center for World Spirituality,issued a statement of "unequivocal support" for Gafni.[40] Ken Wilber,after taking "a 90-day leave of absence",[41] published a formal statement saying that he will "rejoin the Wisdom Council of The Center for World Spirituality",describing Gafni as a "gifted teacher" and a "genuine spiritual leader".[42][43]
Radical Kabbalah and Your Unique Self
Gafni wrote Radical Kabbalah,a two-volume work published by Integral Publishers in 2012. Zak Stein wrote a review of Radical Kabbalah in Integral Review calling it "a work that comes along once in a generation".[10]
In 2012,Your Unique Self:The Radical Path to Personal Enlightenment was published by Integral Publishers,[44] with a foreword written by Ken Wilber,[45] It won a 2012 USA Best Book Awards in Spirituality:General category.[11]
Further allegations and repercussions
In January 2016,Judy Mitzner said that she was one of two teenage girls whom Gafni allegedly molested in New York City in 1986.[46] She reiterated those assertions on the Dr. Phil show of January 19,2018,in which Gafni appeared.[47] Mitzner was 16 and Gafni was 24 and he was her Jewish Youth Leader at the time.[48]
Also in January 2016,a woman wrote that she was married to Gafni from 1999 to 2004 in an anonymous opinion piece in The Times of Israel. The article was in response to a New York Times article about Gafni the preceding week.[5] She catalogued what she described as her story of abuse and wrote that she had gone public to "Protect some girl. Protect some woman. Some student. Some unsuspecting soul."[49]
Within two weeks of the publication of the piece in The Times of Israel,Sara Kabakov revealed in The Forward that she was the other formerly unnamed teenage girl who had been abused by Gafni in the early 1980s,beginning when she was thirteen years old.[50] Gafni commented,"she was 14 going on 35,and I never forced her."[6] In a subsequent article,The Forward published Gafni's response together with the analysis of sexual abuse experts. Gafni states they were 14 and 19 year old teenagers and describes their relationship as "a mutual expression of teenage love."[14][lower-alpha 2] Afterwards,Kabakov responded to Gafni's comments and reiterated her assertion that the relationship was not consensual.[53]
A number of new-age spiritual leaders,who had previously worked with and endorsed Gafni,publicly withdrew their support and wrote a public statement disavowing themselves from him,including Deepak Chopra,Joan Borysenko,Andrew Harvey,Jean Houston,and Stephen Dinan.[54] Also in 2016,triggered in part by an article in the New York Times,as well as by a petition from over 100 rabbis denouncing Gafni,[21] a group of Gafni's close former students published a public letter disavowing him as a teacher,accusing him of multiple forms of abuse,deceptions,and betrayals,and explaining why they consider him to be dangerous.[22]
Protesters also targeted Whole Foods due to the involvement of its CEO,John Mackey,with Gafni. Gafni wrote:"This group of protestors,led by many of my competing adversaries,is using Mackey as a platform to continue their smear campaign designed to destroy my reputation and career."[55] Mackey issued a public statement,saying:"While combating sexual abuse or harassment is essential and something I fully support,so is providing a fair forum for those being wrongly accused. Publicly [sic] lashing out against someone based upon false or distorted information about sexual events is itself a form of abuse."[55] John Mackey rejected the demands that he should distance himself from Gafni with the following statement:"Loyalty and the presumption of innocence are important values to me,so I will not join those who are condemning him. I am,at once,presuming Marc's innocence and firmly standing against what he's accused of."[56][57] In April 2016 it was learned that John Mackey stepped down,as he had completed his role as chairman of the Center for Integral Wisdom board.[58]
In February 2017,the National Coalition for Men published an article by Gafni in which he defended himself,calling the allegations "a long-standing smear campaign".[15] In 2020,Kabakov and Mitzner filed suit against both Gafni and Yeshiva University under the recently passed New York Child Victims Act.[26][59][60]
A Return to Eros
In 2017,Gafni published A Return to Eros:The Radical Experience of Being Fully Alive, co-authored with Kristina Kincaid.[61]
Gafni expresses that "the sexual is the ultimate Spiritual Master" and has written "I was convinced from an early age that religion had lost what I believed must have been its original erotic vitality. I knew that the sexual,if liberated and ethically expressed,must somehow hold the mystery of return to the much larger-than-sexual Eros."[62]
Zak Stein wrote an academic review of A Return to Eros,published under the title "Love in a Time Between Worlds:On the Metamodern 'Return' to a Metaphysics of Eros" in the journal Integral Review.[63] Stein writes:"At the heart of A Return to Eros is a new metaphysical narrative about love and sex."[63]
Personal life
Gafni has married multiple times.[2] He has three children from his first marriages.[3] He married his third wife,Chaya,[1] in 1998.[2] They divorced in August 2004.[2]
Gafni, Mordechai (2003). "A Hundred Blasts Shatter the Somber Silence". In Kurzweil, Arthur (ed.). Best Jewish Writing 2003. Josey-Bass. pp.200–205. ISBN0-7879-6771-8.
↑ "Winiarz", Polish for "vintner", is related to the Hebrew word gefen (גפן), which means "grape"—thus the name "Gafni".
↑ Gafni included polygraph results to support his claim that his relationship with Kabakov was consensual. It was completed by Gordon Barland, the former director of polygraph research for the Department of Defense. Barland concluded that Gafni had answered each question truthfully although confidence in his conclusion was lower than would otherwise be the case due to the time elapsed.[14][51][52]
Related Research Articles
Kabbalah or Qabalah is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal. The definition of Kabbalah varies according to the tradition and aims of those following it, from its origin in medieval Judaism to its later adaptations in Western esotericism. Jewish Kabbalah is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between the unchanging, eternal God—the mysterious Ein Sof —and the mortal, finite universe. It forms the foundation of mystical religious interpretations within Judaism.
Meshullam Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, commonly called "Reb Zalman", was one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal movement and an innovator in ecumenical dialogue.
Kenneth Earl Wilber II is an American theorist and writer on transpersonal psychology and his own integral theory, a four-quadrant grid which purports to encompass all human knowledge and experience.
Andrew Cohen is an American spiritual teacher. He is an author, former editor of What Is Enlightenment? magazine, and founder of the global spiritual community EnlightenNext, which dissolved in 2013.
Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (1885–1954) or Yehuda Leib Ha-Levi Ashlag, also known as the Baal Ha-Sulam in reference to his magnum opus, was an orthodox rabbi and kabbalist born in Łuków, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, to a family of scholars connected to the Hasidic courts of Porisov and Belz. Rabbi Ashlag lived in the Holy Land from 1922 until his death in 1954. In addition to his Sulam commentary on the Zohar, his other primary work, Talmud Eser Sefirot is regarded as the central textbook for students of Kabbalah. Ashlag systematically interpreted the wisdom and promoted its wide dissemination. In line with his directives, many contemporary adherents of Ashlag's teachings strive to spread Kabbalah to the masses.
Mordechai Tzemach Eliyahu, was an Israeli rabbi, posek, and spiritual leader.
Yeshivah College, officially Yeshivas Oholei Yosef Yitzchok Lubavitch, is an independent Orthodox Jewish comprehensive single-sex primary and secondary Jewish day school for boys, located in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda East, in Victoria, Australia.
Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag was a kabbalist, the firstborn and successor of Yehuda Ashlag also known as Baal Hasulam, the author of "The Sulam" commentary on the Zohar. Among his writings: Shlavey ha Sulam, Dargot ha Sulam, Igrot Rabash.
Rabbi Pinchus FeldmanOAM is the first Chabad shaliach ("emissary") of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement in New South Wales, Australia.
The Awareness Center, Inc., also known as the international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault, was a nonprofit institution whose stated mission was to end sexual violence in the Jewish community. It was praised and criticized for maintaining a website whose policy was to identify Jewish clergy and officials as alleged sexual predators, by name, whether or not they had been charged or sued. Critics say the center made unfounded and unsubstantiated accusations.
HaRav Mordechai Yitzchak HaLevi Willig is an Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University in Washington Heights, Manhattan. He is often known to his students as the Ramu, which is the transliteration of the acronym of the Hebrew letters Reish, Mem, and Vav, which spell out the first letters of Willig's title and name.
Arthur Green is an American scholar of Jewish mysticism and Neo-Hasidic theologian. He was a founding dean of the non-denominational rabbinical program at Hebrew College in Boston. He describes himself as an American Jew who was educated entirely by the generation of immigrant Jewish intellectuals cast up on American shores by World War II.
Lawrence Kushner is a Reform rabbi and the scholar-in-residence at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, California.
Elazar Mordechai Koenig was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and the spiritual leader of the Breslov Hasidic community in Safed, Israel.
The response of the Haredi Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York City, to allegations of sexual abuse against its spiritual leaders has drawn scrutiny. When teachers, rabbis, and other leaders have been accused of sexual abuse, authorities in the Haredi community have often failed to report offenses to Brooklyn police, intimidated witnesses, and encouraged shunning against victims and those members of the community who speak out against cases of abuse.
Rami M. Shapiro, commonly called "Rabbi Rami", is an American Reform rabbi, author, teacher, and speaker on the subjects liberal Judaism and contemporary spirituality.
Sam Benjamin "Shir Yaakov" Feinstein-Feit is an American rabbi, composer, liturgist, singer-songwriter, and graphic designer. As a musician, he has recorded several albums both solo and with the groups Darshan and The Epichorus. In his spiritual career, Feit is a figure in the Jewish Renewal movement, having served the congregations Kol Hai, Kol Zimrah, and Romemu and served as ritual consultant at Eden Village Camp and visiting faculty at the Academy for Jewish Religion and the Jewish Theological Seminary. He is also a member of the Zen Peacemaker order.
Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi was an Israeli Haredi (ultra-orthodox) rabbi, and a leader of the non-Hasidic Lithuanian Jews. He was the Rosh Yeshiva (dean) of Ateres Yisrael in Bayit Vegan in Jerusalem, and a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah from the Degel HaTorah faction.
Tzvi Freeman is a Canadian rabbi and author associated with the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. Freeman is known for his work as a writer and editor for Chabad.org, and is notable for his work on the topics of Jewish mysticism and Jewish meditation. Freeman's book Bringing Heaven Down to Earth, as well as his other writings and teachings, are primarily based on the teachings of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Rebbe of the Chabad movement. His writing style includes a blend of Kabbalah and science fiction.
Abraham Mordechai Gottlieb is an Israeli rabbi, self-help guide, and Rebbe and leader of the Ashlag communities in Telse Stone and Tel Aviv.
1 2 Ner-David, Jacob (December 1, 2006). "Genug: Time for a Change". Sh'ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility. Boston: Sh'ma Institute. Archived from the original on October 8, 2008. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
↑ Gafni, Mordechai (2003). "A Hundred Blasts Shatter the Somber Silence". In Kurzweil, Arthur (ed.). Best Jewish Writing 2003. Josey-Bass. pp.200–205. ISBN0-7879-6771-8.
↑ Barland, Gordon H. (October 30, 2007). "Report of Polygraph Examination: Marc Gafni"(PDF). MarcGafni.com. Retrieved November 29, 2021. In my opinion Mr. Gafni answered the relevant questions truthfully. This opinion is tempered by the fact that I had no access to the original complaints.
↑ Barland, Gordon H. (December 14, 2007). "Report of Polygraph Examination: Marc Gafni"(PDF). MarcGafni.com. Retrieved December 28, 2016. ...this was a poor issue for the polygraph. The polygraph is believed to be most accurate when a person denies committing a specific physical act...It would be more appropriate to examine Sarah as to whether she had written a letter, than him as to whether he had read it. More importantly, testing on the contents of a letter received nearly 30 years ago is inappropriate because memory is easily modified over time – often significantly – based on additional knowledge and experience....Mr. Gafni was adamant that he had a very clear memory of that letter. We agreed that if he wished to be tested on this issue, I would have to include a caveat to the effect that because of the complexity of the issue, one could not have as much confidence in the results as one would have if the issue was unambiguous. That notwithstanding, Mr. Gafni asked to be examined on this additional issue....We discussed his recollection of the letter from Sarah Kabakow. He said his memory of that letter is very vivid to this day. He received it after he had broken off his relationship with her. It was a sweet, tender letter in which she said she loved him, she knew he loved her, they were meant to go through life together, and only thus could they be happy....Conclusion It is my professional opinion that Mr. Gafni answered the relevant questions truthfully. Because of the nearly three decades that have elapsed since Ms. Kabakow's letter would have been received, confidence in this conclusion is necessarily somewhat less than would otherwise be the case.
Edelstein, S. (2011). Sex and the Spiritual Teacher: Why It Happens, When It's a Problem, and What We All Can Do. Wisdom Publications. ISBN978-0-86171-596-1.
Sztokman, E. (2022). When Rabbis Abuse: Power, Gender, and Status in the Dynamics of Sexual Abuse in Jewish Culture. Lioness Books. ISBN978-1-957712-01-7.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
