Where would you put it? Anyone involved in new age spiritual Judaic practice has probably heard of Jay Michaelson; his influence extends to books, articles, publications, spiritual retreats, speaking tours and the like. He was even recently named as one of the Forward 50 , an annual list of important and influential Jewish figures in America.
In Everything is God , his magnum opus on the nondualistic Judaism Michaelson promotes, he attempts to bring "Jewish Enlightenment" to more traditional consumers. I assume. His sources are not strictly Jewish; by "mapping" Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, Christian, and other religious traditions onto traditional Judaism, Michaelson and his ilk are syncretizing a new Judaism, one more compatible with mystical Eastern traditions. Traditional Judaism posits a anthropomorphic god, with human characteristics, who intervenes in the universe and gave positive commandments.
Nondualism on the other hand sacralizes, well, everything, insisting that the whole universe is in the process of "godding. The Kabbalistic name for this phenomenon, Michaelson tells us, is "Ein Sof," meaning "without end. The true nature of God is constantly being described as both knowable and unknowable; ineffable but universally understandable. Nondualism, the focus of this book, is the idea that God is the universe. Nondualism, the author tells us, is not exactly pantheism all gods are the same god, who is within all of us or panentheism pantheism plus a bonus extra god outside of all of us , but encompasses both in a characteristically equivocal fashion.
Some other nagging questions: are all self-contradictory statements deep? Nondualists seem to think so. Are pantheism, panentheism or nonduality really "religion and atheism shaking hands? Nondual mystics seek a real connection not only with "Nature," but with all living and non-living beings. By focusing on the ineffable essence of the divine, they maintain, they can reach out and touch all of existence, commune with everything that is, because of the innate and existential connection between everything in the universe.
Nondualism and Solipsism In kabbalistic terms, nondualism is the union of "yesh" in Hebrew, to have something and "ayin" which Michaelson variously describes as Nothingness or emptiness.
