There are moments that feel so surreal that, even years later, you find yourself recalling them almost in disbelief, grateful that you have photos to prove – even to yourself – that they really happened.

One of those moments for me involved Pete Seeger, Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, a ladder leading to Pete’s loft, and a Bible opened to the Book of Ecclesiastes.

I was so blessed to have developed a friendship with Pete, the godfather of American folk music and ambassador of songs from throughout the globe, a person whose humility somehow always exceeded his legendary status. To most of the world, he was one of the great figures of American folk music and activism, the voice behind songs that helped drive movements for peace, labor rights, civil rights, and social justice. But in person, Pete was simply a deeply curious and deeply decent human being.  There were times that I would go to visit him at his home, and he would be out chopping wood…in his late eighties.

Around that same time, I was preparing to spend Shavuot at a retreat with Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the founder of the Jewish Renewal movement and one of the great spiritual teachers of modern Judaism. Zalman possessed that rare ability to make Judaism feel simultaneously ancient and radically alive. He approached Torah not as something frozen in time, but as an ongoing conversation between generations, cultures, and souls.

At some point before the retreat, I called Reb Zalman and asked whether he had ever met Pete Seeger.

“No,” he immediately replied, “but I would love to.”

And so, in May of 2012, at ages 93 and 87 respectively, I was able to introduce Pete and Zalman for the very first time, at Pete’s home overlooking the Hudson River in Beacon, New York.

I should note that I had a powerful spiritual experience........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)