“Brilliant,” “Hilarious,” “A Bridge of Eastern & Western Wisdom.” Rabbi Rami Shapiro has been called all these things, as well as “teacher,” “author” and “Holy Rascal.”
Everyone will have several opportunities to hear Rabbi Rami, as he is commonly known, during “Engaging the Heart of Spirituality in the Hub City of the South” on Sunday, Feb. 10, and Monday, Feb. 11, in Hattiesburg.
Rabbi Rami is a renowned teacher of spirituality across faith traditions and an award-winning author of multiple books, essays and columns. His visit to the Hub City gives those of diverse backgrounds a chance to engage in multiple languages and appreciate the commonalities in all our lives.
“To me, religions are like languages: no language is true or false,” Rami said. “All languages are of human origin; each language reflects and shapes the civilization that speaks it; there are things you can say in one language that you cannot say as well in another; and the more languages you speak, the more nuanced your understanding of life becomes. Judaism is my mother tongue, yet in matters of the spirit I strive to be multilingual.”
Rabbi Rami was invited to Hattiesburg by Brian Ford, a member of Parkway Heights United Methodist Church, who learned about Rami by reading his book, “Perennial Wisdom for the Spiritually Independent.” Ford found the book fascinating and deeply resonating.
“The forward to his book is written by another favorite author of mine, Richard Rohr, who is a Franciscan priest. I thought that if a Franciscan priest wants to write the forward to a book by a Jewish rabbi, that is something I need to read,” Ford said.
Ford, along with the Rev. David Sellers of The Open Door Community; Bruce Case, lead pastor at Parkway Heights; and Dr. Sam Bruton, with the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Southern Mississippi, believed others would find Rami’s teaching spoke to them as well.
“We saw the opportunity to have Rami come and spend a few days with us as an invitation for any and all – wherever they may be in their walk – to come together in conversation and, hopefully, more fully recognize the intersection of their lives with each other and the Divine,” Ford said.
The first opportunity to hear Rabbi Rami is Sunday, Feb. 10. He will hold a Conversation about Addiction and Recovery at The Open Door Community, located at 2180 Oak Grove Road in Hattiesburg, from 4:30 p.m. until 6 p.m.
