When Oceans Merge ― The Contemporary Sufi and Hasidic Teachings of Pir Vilayat Khan and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-shalomi

This is a book about the intersection of Sufi and Hasidic wisdom as gleaned from the lives and teachings of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the founder of the Jewish Renewal Movement and Pir Vilayat Khan, the head and spiritual director of the Sufi Order of the West. The foreword is by Netanel Miles-Yépez who is one of the founders of the Adam Kadmon Book imprint as well as a Pir and founder of a Jewish—Sufi lineage which was blessed and inspired by Reb Zalman and Pir Vilayat. Reb Zalman and Pir Vilayat knew and held each other in the highest regard while still living. Indeed they were initiated into each other’s spiritual community. More than anything, this book shows how a deep spirituality can be developed that is rooted in religious tradition but transcends it.

Gregory Blann, also known as Muhammad Jamal al-Jerrahi, is a sheikh in the Halveti-Jerrahi order of Dervishes and the author of Lifting the Boundaries: Muzaffer Efendi and the Transmission of Sufism to the West and The Garden of Mystic Love: The Origin and Formation of the Great Sufi Orders.