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Title: Stalking Elijah : Adventures with Today's Jewish Mystical Masters by Rodger Kamenetz ISBN: 0-06-064232-7 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 01 October, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.88 (8 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: "Start from where you are"
Comment: This book is a sequel to Kammenetz's "The Jew in the Lotus" which recounts a visit of Jewish thinkers of various backgrounds and persuasions to Dharmsala, India, the home of the Tibetan Government in exile, to discuss the secret of Jewish survival in the diaspora with the Dali Lama and other Tibetan leaders. The book, and the discussions, went far beyond that topic, however, and centered upon an inter-faith dialogue between the Jewish leaders and the Tibetans on the nature of their religious beliefs and practices.
In "Stalking Elijah", Kammenetz tries to find his way back to a Jewish observance using the insights he had gleaned from his meeting with the Tibetans. In other words, he undertakes a journey from Dhramasala to Judaism. The book recounts Kammenetz's meetings with Jewish spiritual leaders, most of whom practice a form of "mystical" or contemplative Judaism in Kammenetz's attempt to recover something of Judaism for himself.
I was frustrated by the book and found it hard to write about it.
It strikes me as self-indulgent and as unduly polemical. Also, Kammenetz's discussions of his meetings with his teachers are superficial. We don't really see enough of the teachers to get a good feeling for what they have to say.
The most valuable theme of the book, for me, is given in the title of this review. This is advice given by one of the Rabbi's to whom Kammenetz turns for spiritual advice, an ex-Lubavicher Rabbi who, like Kammenetz, visited the Dali Lama. In the context of the book, the Rabbi advises the author to begin where he is in life in his search for spiritual enlightenment. Thus, Kammenetz finds he his to work within the scope of his Jewish background and learning, and follow a Jewish path to define and to realize his religious goals. The advice to "start from where you are" is wise, I think, beyond the use to which it is placed here. In every walk of life at every stage, the beginning of wisdom is to "start from where you are" rather than to try to be someone else or to be discontented with one's life. Good rabinnical advice, and good Buddhist advice too.
In addition to this component of the book, I found the final chapter describing a Passover seder in Dharamasala attended by Jews and Tibetan Buddhists well written. It can stand alone as an essay.
The book is of mixed merit but its goal and message are valuable.
Rating: 3
Summary: Personal spiritual quest
Comment: This book comes as a natural sequel to its predecessor "The Jew in the Lotus." The later describes the author's encounter with Buddhist mysticism and how this event eventually led to rediscovering of his Jewish roots. "Stalking Elijah" describes his encounters and dialogues with mystical teachers inspired on Kabbalah, representatives of the Jewish Renewal Movement in America (Rabbi Zalmon Schachter-Shalomi, Rabbi Jonathan Omer-man, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb).
It is a very personal view, self-centered, a mystical journey that leaves many open questions and speculates on several issues. Although Kamenetz writings may act as a source of inspiration for Jews (and why not for other denominations as well), his exhausting elaboration on certain issues might be viewed as tedious by some readers. His striving quest for religious identification and willingness to share his adventure with his readers underlies a sad paradox: the mystical journey, as much as the experience of God, is such a personal, instrospective, and subjective experience that it becomes impossible to share it with other people by means of all known conventional methods of communication.
Probably the most important conclusion he reaches is that when a Jew is faced with the dilemma between mystical experience and practical religious life, complex procedures are not required. A single blessing from the heart may very well do the trick!
Rating: 2
Summary: Spiritual wanderlust or poor quality compass?
Comment: The author writes well and I certainly appreciated that. However, his spiritual journey seems primarily to emphasize his lack of focus and his ability to see Judaism and Buddhism as "one-size-fits-all" spiritual companions. I felt that his analogies between the two religious philosophies were stretched rather thin and I was never entirely certain why he felt so strongly that the two must be related or joined together. I also felt that in several instances, he misrepresented Jewish theological ideas in order to make them fit more neatly into a Buddhist mold. For example, he tries to relate the Buddhist notions of reincarnation with those of Jewish Kabbalistic mystics. While there are similarities, he never makes note of the fact that reincarnation is not a particularly strong thread within any of the major denominations of Judaism. All in all, after reading this book, the phrase, "self-indulgent" keeps coming to mind. I'm sure it was important for him to write it -- I'm just not convinced that it's important for others to read.
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Title: The Jew in the Lotus : Poet's Re-Discovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India, A by Rodger Kamenetz ISBN: 0060645741 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 28 April, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: That's Funny, You Don't Look Buddhist: On Being a Faithful Jew and a Passionate Buddhist by Sylvia Boorstein ISBN: 0060609583 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 11 February, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: God Is a Verb: Kabbalah and the Practice of Mystical Judaism by David A. Cooper ISBN: 1573226947 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Jewish Meditation : A Practical Guide by Aryeh Kaplan ISBN: 0805210377 Publisher: Schocken Books Pub. Date: 14 March, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: One God Clapping: The Spiritual Path of a Zen Rabbi by Alan Lew, Sherril Jaffe ISBN: 1580231152 Publisher: Jewish Lights Pub Pub. Date: March, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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