Dear TBZ Community,
This Shabbat, the 5th day of the month of Tammuz, we mark the twelfth yahrzeit (anniversary of the death) of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, known lovingly as Reb Zalman.
Reb Zalman was the founder of the Jewish Renewal movement and his teachings have shaped the spiritual life of TBZ: He was a primary spiritual mentor to our Rabbi Emeritus, Reb Moshe Waldoks; he was a teacher of Rav Tiferet’s; and though I only met him a handful of times, his teachings and his presence have had a profound influence on my rabbinate.
The first time I met Reb Zalman was in Boulder, Colorado, at a gathering of OHALAH, the clergy association for Renewal Judaism. Having been raised and trained in Conservative Judaism, and ordained only for a few months at the time, this was my first step into the world of Jewish Renewal
I remember sitting in Reb Zalman’s presence and listening to him speak about the difference between being a seeker and a believer. He invited us to pray in the vernacular – to speak to God in our own language and with our own words. For me, English was certainly no easier than Hebrew, but his teaching opened something important for me. I began to ask: How can prayer become more personal? How can the siddur (prayerbook) become a vessel for my own voice, my own vocabulary, and my own relationship with the Divine?
I also encountered a different language for God. Reb Zalman encouraged us to speak to the Holy One as we might speak to a dear friend, a beloved, a trusted companion. Prayer was not merely recitation, it was a relationship.
As I reflect on Reb Zalman’s yahrzeit this week, I find myself thinking about a powerful image that was dear to him: the rainbow.
Reb Zalman was inspired by Midrash Tehiliam 27, that imagines creation beginning when God:
עֹטֶה־אוֹר כַּשַּׂלְמָה נוֹטֶה שָׁמַיִם כַּיְרִיעָה
wrapped God’s Self in a garment of light, and it began to shine (Psalm 104:2).
Out of that teaching came his vision of a rainbow tallit (prayer shawl), woven from colors corresponding to the seven lower sefirot (enumerations) of the kabbalistic tradition. For Reb Zalman, the rainbow was not merely beautiful. It expressed a spiritual truth: Divine light is refracted into many colors, many expressions, many possibilities. (You can read more in this interview with Reb Zalman by Rabbi Yonassan Gershom, and watch a video of Reb Zalman putting on a rainbow tallit here.)
That image feels especially resonant this week as we read Parashat Korach and prepare to celebrate Pride Shabbat at TBZ.
Korach is not a hero in our tradition. His challenge to Moses is fueled by resentment, ambition, and a desire for power. The rabbis hold him up as the model of an argument “not for the sake of heaven” (Pirkei Avot 5:17). Yet, as they say, a broken clock is still correct twice a day. Sometimes even people whose motives are flawed can speak words that contain an important truth.
Korach confronts Moses and Aaron and declares:
רַב־לָכֶם כִּי כָל־הָעֵדָה כֻּלָּם קְדֹשִׁים וּבְתוֹכָם ה׳
You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and Adonai is in their midst (Numbers 16:3).
Korach intends these words as an accusation, but they contain a profound theological insight. “All the community are holy.” Every human being is created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God. Every person reflects a unique facet of the Divine. Holiness is not reserved for a select few.
Our tradition reinforces this idea in many ways. The Mishnah teaches that God created humanity from a single person so that no one could say, “My ancestor is greater than yours” (Sanhedrin 4:5). And the Talmud reminds us that just as no two faces are alike, no two minds are alike (Berakhot 58a). Humanity was never meant to be uniform. We are a spectrum of meaningful human differences.
Perhaps this is one way to understand the rainbow.
Long before it became associated with LGBTQ+ pride, the rainbow was a sign of covenant. In our own time, it has become a symbol of the beautiful diversity of human experience. There is more than one way to be human. Humanity includes a rich variety of cultures, ethnicities, personalities, abilities, sexual orientations, and gender identities. The diversity of humanity is not an obstacle to overcome; it is one of the ways God’s image is revealed in the world. Like the colors of the rainbow, each of us reflects a different facet of the Divine, and together we offer a fuller glimpse of God’s presence among us.
Reb Zalman understood this deeply. One of his recurring teachings was that spiritual life asks us to move beyond uniformity toward unity. Uniformity demands that everyone be the same. Unity honors difference while recognizing our interconnectedness. Like the colors of the rainbow, each of us is distinct, yet together we create something more beautiful and more complete than any one color alone.
Standing between Korach’s declaration that “all the community are holy” and Reb Zalman’s vision of a rainbow garment woven from Divine light, we are invited to see one another differently. We are invited to recognize that God’s presence shines through human diversity itself.
This Friday night at Shabbat Nariya, as we celebrate Pride Shabbat together, we will gather through prayer, music, and community to joyfully affirm a simple but sacred truth: every person is created in the image of God, every person belongs, and every color in the rainbow helps reveal the fullness of Divine light.
May we learn to see in one another not a threat to our own identity, but another reflection of God’s image.
May we honor the many colors of the human family while deepening our sense of connection and responsibility to one another.
And may we, like Reb Zalman, continue to seek the Divine light that shines through all of creation, discovering holiness not despite our differences, but through them.
May the teachings and the Torah of Reb Zalman Schechter-Shalomi continue to inspire us and may his memory be a blessing!
Shabbat Shalom and Happy Pride!
Rav Claudia