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Gershon Winkler is a Danish, non-denominational [1] rabbi, scholar, teacher and author whose special interest is indigenous Judaism.
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Gershon Winkler is a Danish, non-denominational [1] rabbi, scholar, teacher and author whose special interest is indigenous Judaism.
Gershon Winkler was born in Denmark in 1949, where his grandfather and grandmother, Rabbi Michael Shalom Winkler and Esther Winkler, served as the spiritual leaders of the Haredi community of Machzikei Hadas. He was ordained as a rabbi in 1978 by the late Musar Master Rabbi Eliezer Benzion Bruk, Founder and Dean of Yeshivat Bais Yosef Novhordok (Russia) in Jerusalem. He has devoted most of his life to teaching and writing about the lesser promulgated ancient Hebraic and Aramaic mystery wisdom and is a pioneer in the restoration of the shamanic traditions of ancient Israel. He has also devoted much of his life to visiting state and federal prison camps, mostly across Colorado and West Virginia, and currently serves as the Jewish chaplain for a forensic state hospital in Southern California. In 1997, he founded the Walking Stick Foundation, an educational entity dedicated to the restoration of what he calls "Aboriginal Judaism," conducting retreats and seminars as well as special "Jewish Shamanic" tours across the Land of Israel. Author of fourteen books on Jewish law, lore, history and mystery, Rabbi Winkler also holds a doctorate in Jewish Theology and is known as much for his humor as he is for his erudite scholarship. He is also a Vietnam-War Veteran, having served in the U.S. Army from 1967 to 1970 as a chaplain's assistant and as an infantryman with fourteen months of overseas duty in South Korea.
Winkler is a scholar in the fields of Jewish law, lore, history, theology, and mysticism.[ citation needed ]
He has received media recognition, including a front-page feature in The Wall Street Journal ,[ citation needed ] a segment on the PBS series Religion and Ethics Newsweekly , and detailed coverage in Israel’s Ha’aretz, Chayyim Acherim Magazine, and The Jerusalem Post .
He has also served as spiritual teacher and life-cycle facilitator for Jewish communities across New Mexico, Colorado, West Virginia and Montana, including 8 years as rabbi of Congregation Har Shalom in Missoula, Montana, prior to its affiliation with the Reform Movement. [2] [3] and currently serves full-time as a chaplain for California's Department of State Hospitals in a Forensic Mental Health facility.
In 1997, he founded the Walkingstick Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the recovery and preservation of indigenous Jewish spirituality — currently headquartered in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California.
Gershon Winkler is author of more than 14 books, most notably:
The Rabbinical Assembly (RA) is the international association of Conservative rabbis. The RA was founded in 1901 to shape the ideology, programs, and practices of the Conservative movement. It publishes prayerbooks and books of Jewish interest, and oversees the work of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards for the Conservative movement. It organizes conferences and coordinates the Joint Placement Commission of the Conservative movement. Members of the RA serve as rabbis, educators, community workers and military and hospital chaplains around the world.
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The primary texts of Kabbalah were allegedly once part of an ongoing oral tradition. The written texts are obscure and difficult for readers who are unfamiliar with Jewish spirituality which assumes extensive knowledge of the Tanakh, Midrash and halakha.
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Rabbi Byron Lee Sherwin was a Jewish scholar and author with expertise in theology, inter-religious dialogue, mysticism and Jewish ethics.
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Shalom Ben Moses Buzaglo was a Moroccan kabbalist born in Marrakesh and filled the position of dayyan. Owing to voyages in the Orient made in his capacity of collector of alms for the relief of the poor in Palestine, he became acquainted with the chief Kabbalists of the period. He also visited Europe, and sojourned for some time in London. He was tortured by the Sultan and left for England in 1745, where he remained until his death.
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Israel ben Eliezer or Yisroel ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov or as the BeShT, was a Jewish mystic and healer who is regarded as the founder of Hasidic Judaism. "Besht" is the acronym for Baal Shem Tov, which means "Master of the Good Name," a term for a holy man who wields the secret name of God.
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Jacob Samuel Minkin (1885-1962) was an American rabbi, hospital chaplain and an author on Jewish history and Hasidism.
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