Who is Rebbe Zev?

Rabbi Zev-Hayyim Feyer received סמיכה (Smichah, Ordination) in 1977. In keeping with the ancient Talmudic and early Hassidic traditions, he did not attend Yeshivah (Seminary); rather, in 1970, he attached himself as a student to Rabbi Joseph Gelberman of New York and studied under the direction of Rabbi Gelberman and Rabbis Shlomo Carlebach ז”ל and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi for some seven years. Finally, in 1977, when his teachers determined that he was ready, they ordained him a rabbi.

In the early 1980s, Rabbi Feyer served for two years as the spiritual leader of Temple Bnai Israel, a Reform congregation in Anderson, South Carolina. He has also led less formal fellowship groups (havurot) in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Georgia, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He served for eight years as a hospital and hospice chaplain, with a specialty in Mental Health Chaplaincy.

Rabbi Feyer has taught classes and led workshops and seminars at churches, synagogues, and other spiritual centers throughout the United States and Canada. His subjects have included Kabbalah (the Jewish metaphysical tradition and the foundation of all Western mysticism), Self-Esteem, Prosperity, Forgiveness, the Metaphysical Interpretation of Scripture, Spiritual Tales of Many Traditions, the Divine Commandment of Non-Violence, the Unity of Religious Traditions, and many related areas. His audiences have included synagogue groups, Silva Mind Control Centers, Vedanta Centers, and Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Lutheran, Unity, Religious Science, Science of Mind, and Divine Science churches in twenty-seven states, the District of Columbia, and three Canadian provinces.

When asked about his approach to Kabbalah, Rabbi Feyer asserts that, while Kabbalah is clearly and unmistakably the Jewish mystical tradition, it is also much more than that. Unlike many other religious traditions, whose mystical elements are hidden or consigned to the status of an additional or peripheral aspect, Judaism's mystical aspect is its heart and soul, its essence, its very life-force. Furthermore, Kabbalah, in addition to being the heart of Judaism, is also, as Rabbi Feyer puts it, "a body of ancient and universal mystical wisdom which, while preserved in a Jewish form, is applicable to every religious tradition."

In describing his own theological orientation, Rabbi Feyer declares, "I am a Jewish practitioner of generic religion. As a G*d-worshipper, I believe, I ought to be at home any place G*d is worshipped. At home, not just a visitor." Religion — all religion — is intended to be a force to bring people together — together with each other and together with G*d — and not to drive them apart. All our many Names for G*d do not divide G*d and should not be permitted to divide us. Separations and divisions are inherently irreligious acts.