Faith & Dogma

Sylvia Browne Any psychic who’s been indicted for grand larceny and is a reoccurring guest on the Montel Williams Show is no winner in our book. She doesn’t listen to the people who come to her readings, she’s arrogant, and she’s about as sympathetic as a landlord holding an eviction notice. Two thumbs down. Watch as Brown explains to a couple that a “spirit or angel” spoke to them through their novelty wall bass. Then check out StopSilviaBrown.com, which has what we’re fairly confident is the most hilarious icon of any psychic-busting website, ever.

My uncle and his boyfriend have a Yom Kippur ritual: First they go to a nice lunch in Manhattan, and then they see a Broadway show. I’ve always loved that story because it’s so Jewish: They could go see The Producers or The Boy From Oz any time, but it wouldn’t be as special on any other day. Even for Jews with no interest in religion, the Day of Atonement has a kind of power. You can find Broadway tickets here, but if you’re going to try to engage with the holiday on its own terms, you’re better off with our custom events listings. Pick your type—hippie, hipster, Super-Jew, intellectual, alternaparent, swinging single—and follow the links to find a Yom Kippur event tailored to your own needs. Yom Kippur doesn’t let you get away with sitting ...

As pop song themes go, atonement is right up there with the biggies: sex, puppy love, devil worship. Songs of penance are especially ubiquitous in American popular music, and small wonder. So much American pop flows out straight out of the church – blues plaints, honky tonk rave-ups, and soul ballads are often little more than secularized sinners' confessions, ne'er-do-wells begging their women to let them please come home while an angry Old Testament God glares down from on high. Here then are 20 quasi-secular, mostly crypto-Christian pleas for forgiveness and pledges of reform – a perfect soundtrack for a nice Jewish boy or girl's Yom Kippur reckoning. There are two bona fidegospel songs, and one famous Jewish one. But even the secular love songs point toward a larger cosmic soul-cleansing: shut your eyes, maybe don't eat for a day, and Dean Martin's "Pardon (Perdoname)," Chicago's ...

As an atheist raised in culturally Christian milieu who lives with a non-practicing Jew, I’m in no position to discourse on Jewish notion of atonement as practiced on Yom Kippur. But in my understanding, the holiday has to do with self-reflection, introspection and an attempt at restitution of past wrongs. I find this model of atonement appealing in its focus on the human as well as the divine: We wrong God when we wrong other people, and we can only make things right by addressing that earthly harm. There are so many great movies built around the timeless theme of sin and repentance. Here are a few that stand out for me: Pickpocket, Robert Bresson, France, 1959. ...

I was recently called on the carpet by a Bel Air cantor when I told him that, despite my atheism, I still fasted on Yom Kippur. He asked why and, after some hemming and hawing that had to do with the memory of my deceased relatives, he said, "So you do it to feel good about yourself." The lesson being, for me, at least, that when it comes to atoning, motives count. I suspect I won't fast this year, but I might spend the day in the company of some more deeply felt literary atoners.

Whether you’re Orthodox or atheist, you’ve no doubt encountered non-Jewish works of art that resonate with fundamentally Jewish teachings about repentance and forgiveness. Yom Kippur asks us to atone for 24 hours straight, which seems like a power cleanse for the soul that's bound to wear off quickly. Like New Year's resolution-themed gym fliers that get mailed in March, constant subjection to atonement art can help you stay sin-free well into 5768. Jewcy asked three of our favorite writers to give us lists of films, songs and books that deal with expiation at the universal level. Stick the movies in your Netflix queue, download the songs from iTunes, one-click those books from Amazon. You'll have a twelve-month supply of gentle reminders that teshuva means saying you're sorry over and over and over again.

For Rosh Hashanah, we rounded up events for seven Jewish archetypes in six major U.S cities. Now, we’re doing the same for the second, more solemn of the High Holy Days. Find your type below and click on the city closest to you for services, break-fasts, lectures and shows tied to Yom Kippur. The Hippie: Dreadlocks and Bagels Davening is fine and good, but you want to dance barefoot, preferably around a drum circle on the beach. A hamsa hangs from your hemp necklace, and you'll be needing a vegan alternative to that brisket. Click the city nearest you for Hippie events: Boston | New York |

The Hippie: Dreadlocks and Bagels What: Mystical reflections of Yom Kippur When: Saturday, September 22, 3:45 PM Where: Quadrangle Club, 1155 E. 57th St Why: Explore the oneness of time, space and consciousness with a totally far-out discussion by Rabbi Yossi Brackman on the mystical dimensions of Yom Kippur.        

The Hippie: Dreadlocks and Bagels What: Yom Kippur meditation and break-fast When: Saturday, September 22, 9 AM Where: 1404 Greenfield Ave #1 Why: Mix up your Yom Kippur experience with a day of dharma talks, meditation, and inspirational readings. 30-45 minute sitting sessions will be interspersed with walking meditations and discussions. Participants are welcomed to bring a piece of poetry or other appropriate, inspirational readings to share. Break the fast afterwards with a potluck meal starting at 6:30 PM. It's free, but remember to register on the site.  

The Hippie: Dreadlocks and Bagels What: Yom Kippur services with special speaker Cindy Sheehan, followed by vegetarian potluck break-fast When: Saturday, September 22, 9 AM Where: St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 1111 O'Farell St. Why: This might just be the ultimate hippie Yom Kippur set-up: Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun, leads a service featuring anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan. Part of an emerging movement of Jewish Renewal, Congregation Beyt Tikkun believes in equality regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or religious faith. The service will focus on being spiritually alive and experiencing the transformative power of the ...

The Hippie: Dreadlocks and Bagels What: Interactive Yom Kippur services When: Friday, September 21, Kol Nidre 7:30 PM; Saturday, September 22, Morning Service & Yizkor, 10 AM; Neilah, 4 PM Where: The Lincoln Theater, 541 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach Why: The Mosaic club’s goal is to bring Jews together and promote environmental awareness through worship and outdoor activities. They’ll all be at these services in the front few rows, so take a seat with them and prepare to schmooze afterwards. You might just come away with ten new Frisbee buddies. (Services are free for both members and non-members, but sign up quickly—advance RSVP is required.)

The Hippie: Dreadlocks and Bagels What: Maayan Tikvah's Yom Kippur services and break-fast When: Saturday, September 22, 4 PM Where: Rabbi Allen's home (email for address: rabbikza@verizon.net) Why: Like you, Maayan Tikvah is deeply rooted in the natural world and makes a conscious effort to minimize the impact of their activities on the environment. Join them for Yizkor and a participatory study group, moving on to Neilah afterwards, and then break the fast together with a pot-luck vegetarian meal. If the weather is nice, you'll spend some or all of the afternoon at the Greenways Conservation Area.  

The Hippie: Dreadlocks and BagelsWhat: Zen Yom Kippur day of reflectionWhen: Saturday, September 22, 10 AM Where: New York Insight Meditation Center, 28 West 27th St, 10th FloorWhy: Jew-Bus who have a tendency to space out in synagogue might be better served by a day of Zen Yom Kippur meditation. Pull on your favorite tie dye and engage in silence and reflection, with meditations focused on the idea of right action, the difference between guilt and remorse, the laws of karma, forgiveness and loving kindness. Explore the Jew-Bu perspective on atonement, and reward yourself afterward with a symbolic break-fast.

Jewcy celebrates the New Year with bundled content to meet all your designer Jewish needs. Our Rosh Hashanah package includes an impressive menu for holiday eats, a listing of social events to attend (whether you wear sidelocks or Keds), and advice and reflections on starting over. Starting over what? Life, relationships, jobs—you name it. Decoded Dinner: Jewcy Pickled Editor Amy Odell updates old Hebrew recipes for these Nobu times. We’ve got how-tos on everything from pomegranate cocktails to salmon gefilte fish (we swear, it’s actually good).

Around this time of month, more than sixty years ago, W.H. Auden gave voice to this popular quest for renewal: “From the conservative dark,Into the ethical lifeThe dense commuters come,Repeating their morning vow;'I will be true to the wife,I'll concentrate more on my work'…” Auden’s theme was nothing short of the collapse of civilization at the dawn of World War II, but his point here was quotidian: Each of us, at some point in life, struggles with starting over--if not quite wiping the slate clean, then at least scrubbing away at the thing furiously. To mark the occasion of the Jewish New Year, Jewcy asked its stable of contributors to do one of two things. They could write about their personal attempts at renewal – by describing, say, a painful break-up, a recovery from addiction, ...

The Hippie: Dreadlocks and BagelsWhat: Tashlich drum circle and nature hikeWhen: Thursday, September 13, 4 PM and Friday, September 14, 9 AM Where: “where Venice Beach meets the sand”Why: Rabbi Naomi Levy is a legend in her own right. The author of To Begin Again and Talking to God, Rabbi Levy serves as the spiritual leader of Nashuva, a groundbreaking Jewish outreach organization committed to social justice. Join Rabbi Levy and the Nashuva community for a Taschlich drum circle in Venice Beach. Follow it up on day two with a nature hike in Temescal Gateway Park, followed by a service outdoors.  

The Hippie: Dreadlocks and BagelsWhat: Kabbalistic erev Rosh Hashanah servicesWhen: Wednesday, September 12, 8 PM Where: The OneTaste Urban Retreat Center, 1074 Folsom StreetWhy: Rabbi Alyjah Navy of the Ayn Sof Kabbalah Community wants you to renew your spirit and transform your world in the coming year. All adult, spiritual seekers are welcome to participate in meditation, reflection, chant, and mystical wisdom with a special erev Rosh HaShanah service.      

The Hippie: Dreadlocks and BagelsWhat: Jewish Drum CircleWhen: Sunday, September 9, 2 PM Where: North Lakeside Cultural Center, on Sheridan Rd just north of GranvilleWhy: Grab your bongos and tambourines and join Mitziut for an afternoon of chanting, drumming and singing as you prepare to welcome Rosh Hashana. An independent, non-denominational Jewish spiritual community, Mitziut encourages you to slip off your shoes for this Jewish drum circle—that is, if you arrive wearing any.    

The Hippie: Dreadlocks and BagelsWhat: Interactive Rosh Hashanah ServicesWhen: Wednesday, September 12, 7:30 PM through September 14 Where: The Lincoln Theater, 541 Lincoln Road, Miami BeachWhy: If your love of the great outdoors is matched only by your love of Torah, then The Mosaic Outdoor Club of South Florida is your spiritual home in the diaspora. The all-volunteer, non-profit organization is dedicated to bringing Jews together and promoting environmental awareness through worship and outdoor activities. Their innovative, interactive, and spiritually uplifting Rosh Hashanah services are totally free for both members and non-members, but ...

The Hippie: Dreadlocks and BagelsWhat: Tashlich, a nature work, and a pot-luck vegetarian dinnerWhen: Friday, September 13, 5:00 PMWhere: Meet up at Rabbi Katy Z. Allen’s home (e-mail her at rabbikza@verizon.net to RSVP and get information)Why: Where better for a Bostonian-Jewish hippie to welcome the new year than on the banks of the Sudbury River, surrounded by open fields, wet meadows, fringing wetlands, mature upland wood, and fellow patchouli-drenched nature-lovers? Join Maayan Tikvah for tashlich and a walk in the woods of the Greenways Conservation Area, followed by a pot-luck vegetarian ...

Diverse Jewish events abound around the holidays, but they tend to concentrate around certain cities (especially New York), and they’re none too easy to find. Luckily, we’ve done the legwork for you. To match our readers up with the best Rosh Hashanah events in the country, we’ve identified seven common Jewish archetypes and found events for each of them in six major U.S. cities: New York, Boston, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. From traditional services to drum circles to the ubiquitous Chabad hoedown, there's something on this list for every Jew. Which one are you? Options below: The Hippie: Dreadlocks and Bagels Davening is fine and good, but you want to dance barefoot, preferably around a drum circle on the beach. A hamsa hangs ...

The Hippie: Dreadlocks and Bagels What: Vegan Rosh Hashanah dinner at Sacred ChowWhen: Friday, September 14, 7:30 PM Where: Sacred Chow, 227 Sullivan St Why: Join the NYC Jewish Veg*ns Meetup, a gathering place for those concerned with animal rights throughout the NYC Jewish community, for a “classic bohemian vegan” dinner. The family-style feast will include all manner of meat-free delights: apples and non-honey sweetener (agave or brown rice syrup) for a sweet and fruitful year, vegan challah, and at least two raw dishes, plus pitchers of kosher vegan cocktails and beer.    

At the 1998 reunion of Noah Feldman's Maimonides yeshiva class, no one could possibly have imagined that a few group photographs--all wide Jewy smiles and shapeless sorta-Orthodox outfits--would spark a seat-ripping public debate almost a decade later, and a messy media scandal a month after that. But here we are, with everyone all hot and bothered by the innocuous-looking pics that played so central a narrative role in Noah Feldman's "Orthodox Paradox." ...

Whenever I’m standing in the checkout line at my local Whole Foods market, I cant help but snicker and roll my eyes when I see the magazines with oxymoronic titles like Real Simple, Organic Style, and Simple Living. Am I crazy to assume that an attempt to simplify your life might involve cutting down on magazines rather than adding new ones? When I leaf through those magazines, “simple” living looks awfully difficult to me. And what counts as “simple” anyway? Given my gripe with the way the world “simple” is used (or misused), it is no wonder that I found myself disheartened, even dismayed, by most of the media coverage of the tragic shooting of 10 Amish girls at the one-room West Nickel Mines School on October 2, 2006. (Five of the girls died and five survived; two of the survivors may be permanently disabled.) Many news reports stereotypically painted the Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, as if they were characters in a ...

Recent polemics by proud and angry atheists have gotten many of us—faithful and skeptical alike—thinking better of belief in God. Books like Sam Harris’s Letter to a Christian Nation, Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion, and most recently, Christopher Hitchens’s God is Not Great argue that it is simply unreasonable to believe. Science can debunk the historical or biological claims of any sacred text, they say, and religious morality contradicts the modern zeitgeist. Even when the scriptures do present us with a moral innovator, faith alone rarely compels believers to live accordingly. These angry atheists reserve some of their sharpest criticism for religious moderates, arguing that a reasoned and critical respect for religion simply provides comfort to the enemy. The slope between Jimmy Carter and Jerry Falwell—or, for that matter, between Reza Aslan and Osama bin Laden—is simply too slippery. Harris, Dawkins, and Hitchens are not ...

With a decree he released “motu proprio”—that is, without the counsel of others—on Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI authorized a wider use of the old Catholic rite known as the Tridentine Mass. Officially abandoned in 1970, this traditional service is conducted by a priest who faces away from the congregation and mumbles the prayers in Latin. With this decree, Benedict, like the Tridentine priest, has turned his back once again on the modern Church, to sayMumbling The Prayers in Latin: The Tridentine Mass is back nothing of the modern world. The apologetic Catholic in me is constantly trying to defend the Church’s ...

This summer’s superhero movies have been godawful, but the next Batman sequel doesn’t come out until July 2008. Luckily, Eli Valley dreamed up a preview. Get your popcorn ready, then click the thumbnail below. CLICK TO ENLARGE  

When he was 21, a prominent drug policy reformer recalls, he climbed a cliff overlooking Mount McKinley National Park after taking LSD. “God came to me and commanded me to acknowledge Him as the ruler of the universe,” he says, “and He was as powerful and as real as any appearance of God is to anybody. I got down on my knees and thanked God for revealing Himself to me. That was a completely authentic, real spiritual experience.” But it is not the sort of experience that would be protected by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Lacking a formal organization or a recognized religious tradition, individual spiritual seekers cannot gain the status accorded to members of Uniao do Vegetal or the Native American Church. Yet it seems clear that many independent psychedelic users are seeking experiences that are fundamentally similar to those of legally privileged peyote and ayahuasca users.

Does moderate Islam exist? To many Westerners, the answer is absolutely not; they view Islam as a religion of violent jihad, amputation of limbs, compulsory veiling of women, honor killings, and similar atrocities. To Muslims, even posing the question is vexing, because it demonstrates how little Westerners understand the faith of Muhammad. But who and where are the moderates, some Westerners would ask. The Muslim author Tariq Ramadan, born in Switzerland, has declared himself a moderate, but is he sincere? And what about the implicit claim of another author coming from the Muslim world, the Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who left the religion entirely? She would argue that there is no moderate Islam, that the nightmare of extremism is ubiquitous. The question of moderate Islam, which impends on the future of humanity as a whole, lurks somewhere inside the cumbersome June 4 New Republic

Eli Valley presents his unique interpretation of the Song of Songs. Click the thumbnail below to see his work in all its smutty glory. CLICK TO ENLARGE