While out shopping I stopped in at a new age religion shop to get incense, and I found that ugh they had a Judaism section. I was expecting what you always find in the Judaism section of new age book stores, pretty much nothing but people trying to pry open a closed practice to find juicy tidbits and pearls they can hawk to non Jewish readers, "kabbalah for tantric sex" and stuff like that
What I found instead was like, just genuinely mainstream Jewish texts? A book on the weekly Torah readings from a leader of Masorti community, an overview of Jewish thought on divinity over time, and yes some kabbalah books but like again written by Jews and for Jews. It was really surprising haha.
I felt prompted to actually thank them for not just stocking the typical stuff, turns out the guy running the shop has a masters degree in comparative religion and it was cool hearing him talk more about his passion for increasing access for people of all traditions to the beauty and power of their respective traditions. He's someone who is deeply passionate for the belief that all faiths are true and worthwhile which feels so rare and interesting to run across that value in practice. He was like really grateful for the comment too, it was a nice exchange
