Srully Abe Stein

Srully Abe Stein is a blogger. He is currently a student at Columbia University in New York City.
Early life and education
Yisroel Stein was raised in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, by a Hasidic rabbinical family. His father is the tenth generation of the founder of the Hasidic movement the Baal Shem Tov and his grand father is the Rebbe of the Hasidic sect.
Srully went to the Yeshiva of the Viznitz Monsey community in Kiamesha Lake, New York, where he was a student in the rabbinical Semikhah program. Yet, at the same time he started to quietly challenge his upbringing.
Early adult life
After his divorce he slowly "came out" as an Atheist, and as being Off the derech. Then he became famous through several news articles that written about him, as well as making waves in the community, where some praised him, while some attacked him. His family kept close ties with him, even now when he moved to Morningside Heights.
He started school at Columbia University's School of General Studies in fall of 2014, studying Political Science and Philosophy.
Writings
His philosophy in all his articles are strongly focused around Hasidic thought. Even when he totally rejected any kind of Jewish practice, he writes that "The real way of Chassidus, is seemingly the best way in Yiddishkeit."
Yet at the same time he rejects it as being false. He wrote two of his articles "My Ailing Soul" and "Infinite and Finite", doubting the basics of the Jewish Hasidic thought. "The subject of "feelings", emotions, excitement, etc. and God. In other words, to understand if feelings and becoming emotional or "feeling" that we're speaking to a Creator means that there really is a Creator, or it's just a natural feeling. In other words, understanding the difference between spirituality and God." he writes, and goes on to explain how all the Hasidic concepts of God and "The Tzadik are "no more than a feeling." and "Because (one) he believes, he perceives it as God."
In year 2013 he start moving closer to the Jewish Renewal movement, after being exposed to "Romemu" - a Jewish Renewal congregation in Manhattan. He started to study the teachings of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, especially his book Jewish with Feeling: a guide to Meaningful Jewish Practice, that he is quoting a lot. When Reb Zalman passed away he wrote "In our generation, I don't know on how many people we can point and say: they implanted a movement that will bloom and grew, and keep up for many generations to come. Reb Zalman did.
Jewish renewal is (that's how I feel it) doing to the Jewish world what Hassidus did 250 years ago. A long lasting spirit, to help every human being get to the greatest satisfaction and achievements in life." Through that he developed a Neo-Hasidic approach to Judaism, to a point that he claims that the Hasidic movement is like a Modern enlightenment movement. Although it is commonly accepted that the Hasidic movement was just the opposite, strongly pious and religious, he writes as a note on Gershom Scholem's book Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941): "We own to credit the Baal Shem Tov and the Hasidic movement for the Jewish enlightenment and Haskalah that we have today. Like Sabbatai Zvi and Sabbatianism, it triggered the need of redefining and reinventing Judaism and religion. Hasidism took it even further by actually teaching us many of the basic ideas; how to stand up against the ‘accepted’ Jewish norms and traditions for what we feel Judaism is really all about. Once again, I am starting to feel kind of proud to be a descendant of the Baal Shem Tov - the founder of Hasidism." At Romemu he became a student of Rabbi David Ingber.
Right now he mostly writes on his Facebook page, where he has hundreds of followers. His views are attracting a very interesting and odd crowed, of religious and secular people that follow his posts, and the comments on his writings often go into deep philosophical and theological arguments.

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