Letters to a Buddhist Jew [Paperback]

Akiva Tatz (Author), David Gottlieb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2005

It began as a correspondence between an Orthodox rabbi and a Jewish man seeking a return to Judaism. It culminated in LETTERS to a BUDDHIST JEW, a far-reaching correspondence that plumbs the depths of Jewish knowledge and answers the questions disaffected Jews have sought for decades. This book is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand why Jews are drawn to other faiths -- and what can draw them back.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a fascinating book: the most serious contribution in this field to date." --Zoketsu Norman Fischer, Everyday Zen Foundation

"A far-reaching discussion that touches on many of Judaism's deepest insights... a must read for any searching Jew." --Jonathan Rosenblum, Author and Jerusalem Post columnist

About the Author

DAVID GOTTLIEB is a free-lance writer and affordable housing developer. Born and raised in the Chicago area, David underwent lay ordination as a Zen Buddhist in May 2002. He received his B.A. from Amherst College, where he was awarded the Peter Burnett Howe Prize for Prose Fiction Writing, and his Master of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina. RABBI DR. AKIVA TATZ, South African born physician and author, lectures at the Jewish Learning Exchange in London and internationally on Jewish philosophy and medical ethics. His book "Anatomy of a ASearch" documents the transition of secular lifestyles into the world of observant Judaism. In "Living Inspired" he explores fundamental themes in Torah thought; his "Worldmask" reveals depths beneath the surface of everyday experience. In "The Thinking Jewish Teenager's Guide to Life" he presents an approach to life's most important issues for thinking young adults. He is founder and director of the Jerusalem Medical Ethics Forum. His work has been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Russian.

Product Details

• Paperback: 302 pages
• Publisher: Targum Press (April 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568713568
• ISBN-13: 978-1568713564
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #220,094 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Does Western Zen Buddhism Have Anything To Offer Orthodox Jews (and Vice Versa)?, October 24, 2006

By 

Leonard Moskowitz "Len Moskowitz" (Teaneck, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letters to a Buddhist Jew (Paperback)

First, I must say that this is a lovely book about Judaism that would appeal to anyone unfamiliar with Judaism's spiritual (as opposed to religious, intellectual or cultural) side. To enjoy this book you don't have to be interested in its relationship to Buddhism specifically.

David Gottlieb is a Jew who grew up in a Reform Jewish community in the USA and was essentially uneducated about Judaism. In the course of his quest for a spiritual life, he was introduced to western Soto Zen Buddhism. This form of Zen is a uniquely western form, a form in flux that has not yet fully adjusted itself to life in the West. It focuses primarily on sitting meditation (zazen) and social action, while maintaining many of the Asian practices and forms inherited from Japanese Soto Zen Buddhism. Gottlieb's dedication to his Zen practice led to his taking formal lay-person's vows as a Zen Buddhist.

His Jewish wife objected to his deepening Buddhist practice. Gottlieb turned to Rabbi Doctor Akiva Tatz for guidance in reconciling his Jewish background and Zen practice. Rabbi Tatz (an Orthodox rabbi and physician in the UK) and Gottlieb carried out an extended dialog via email. This book is the record of that dialog.

This book is primarily about Judaism, not Buddhism. It is not a comparison of the two spiritual paths. Rabbi Tatz knows Judaism well. He has a good grounding in the traditional Jewish texts, commentaries and practices, both mystical and normative. He has an orthodox as well as Orthodox (with a capital "O") perspective. He's obviously used to dealing with more or less uneducated Jews who have strayed from Judaism, either to other religions or to an atheist, agnostic or secular life. And so he approaches Gottlieb in that way. The lion's share of this book is his presentation of Judaism with an eye to impress more or less uneducated Jews that Judaism already has everything they want from a spiritual path and more, so why forsake it in order to try and find it elsewhere?

He doesn't seem to know much about Buddhism in general, Zen Buddhism in particular, nor western Soto Zen Buddhism specifically. Jews are taught to judge others leniently, so it would've been nice if Rabbi Tatz had not (as it seems he has) prejudged western Soto Zen Buddhism to firstly, be a religion, and secondly, a religion inherently antithetical to Judaism. Approached in that way, he might have discovered that the core of western Zen Buddhism is perhaps consonant with Judaism and perhaps even has something to offer traditionally observant Jews, specifically teachings about hitbo'd'dut (meditation), kavvanah (attention & intention), hishtavut (equanimity) and khessed (compassion) for all people.

Rabbi Tatz takes the Judeo-centric perspective that anything that another religion has in the way of truth originated in Judaism and that (in the second Gerrer Rebbe's terms) it is Judaism's ultimate role to re-integrate those "sparks of holiness". For example, he notes that Abraham predated Shakyamuni Buddha by thirteen hundred years, posits that he was the original "enlightened" man, and that when Abraham gave his secondary heirs "presents" and sent them off to the East, those presents were the spiritual foundations of the eastern religions. I can understand Rabbi Tatz's desire to undercut other religions in the interest of kiruv (bringing Jews back to Judaism), but interpreting ambiguous midrashic statements in this way doesn't encourage the feeling that he is dedicated to an open and truthful dialog.

For another example, consider the chapter on idolatry. When Gottlieb's wife learns that there are statues in the Zendo and that part of the practice involves bowing, she jumps to the conclusion that western Soto Zen Buddhism practices idol worship. The mistake that she makes and that Rabbi Tatz perpetuates is that they don't realize that they are on the outside of an unfamiliar culture looking in; they don't take the time or make an adequate effort to ask those who are on the inside exactly what is going on.

Imagine if a non-Jew entered a synagogue and saw the Jews bowing to the east or to the cabinet where the Torahs were kept, kissing the richly adorned Torah scroll as it was carried past them, or bowing in the direction of the Temple's Holy of Holies in Jerusalem where incongruously for a religion that disdains physical representation, golden statues of two cherubs adorn the cover of Ark of the Covenant. Might not they initially think that Jews worship the sun (for the sun rises in the east) or that they worship the scroll of the Torah, or that they worship the two statues of the cherubs hidden behind the curtain in the Holy of Holies?

It would take a lengthy explanation from the Jews and patient listening from the non-Jew to resolve the fact that Jews abhor idolatry and that what was observed was worship of the ultimately unknowable Infinite One. Perhaps the same opportunity should be offered to our western Soto Zen Buddhist friends. My experience is that we Jews would learn that bowing in the western Soto Zen Buddhist context is in general not idolatry but rather what Jews, if they gave the benefit of doubt, might call worship of the ultimately unknowable Infinite One within the limits of a Buddhist experience that lacks the revelation at Sinai.

There's an exceedingly important omission in Rabbi Tatz's presentation. Oddly for a dialog that addresses why a Jew should study Judaism rather than Buddhism, it does not address Jewish meditation directly in any significant way. Zazen -- sitting meditation in the form of either shikantaza ("just sitting") or with koans - is the core of western Zen Buddhist practice and the key to the awakening experience that Buddhism promises is available to all. Zazen is the main attraction in Zen. To not address what Judaism has to offer in its place is a glaring omission.

What has Rabbi Tatz done? Instead of directly addressing meditation, he discusses prayer. Imagine if back in the old days, an aspirant came to Elkana the prophet for instruction about how to become a prophet and instead of teaching him, Elkana sent the prospective student to his wife Hannah (whose prayers as recorded in the book of Samuel are the model on which we base much of Jewish prayer). Certainly the student would learn much from Hannah, but it wouldn't be about the meditative methods that prepare one for prophecy. The Jews who find Zen's awakening experience to be attractive desire to be taught meditative methods, not prayer. So instead of focusing on prayer, perhaps Rabbi Tatz might have discussed Jewish meditation methods for directly experiencing the first stirrings of Ruakh Ha-Kodesh (the Holy Spirit), available to all people. (For more information about Jewish meditation, see Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's a"h books "Jewish Meditation", "Meditation and the Bible", "Meditation and Kabbalah", "Innerspace" and then follow his bibliographies back to their original sources.)

If I had to summarize the book in one paragraph, for Rabbi Tatz the bottom line on compatibility between western Zen Buddhism and traditionally observant Judaism can be found on page 78 where he states that "if Buddhism consists only of `cultivating mindfulness, watching my breath, realizing the interconnectedness of all things and beings, and striving to recognize and uproot the causes of suffering', we should not find it necessary to argue." Since these are precisely the core practices of western Soto Zen Buddhism, we can conclude that his arguments are only with the Indian/Japanese/Chinese cultural baggage (e.g., the statues, bowing, offerings, robes, assignment of deity to Buddha, adoption of Hindu/Shinto/Taoist/Confucist religious practices) that have accreted to Zen Buddhism since Shakyamuni's day. If Gottlieb had instead presented him with a version of western Zen Buddhism shed of its cultural baggage and returned to its core practices (i.e., essentially shikantaza meditation only), Rabbi Tatz should have had no objections if (and only if) Gottlieb had at the same time taken the time to learn about and deepen his knowledge and practice of Judaism.

The book would have been considerably more interesting and enlightening for both Jews and Buddhists if Rabbi Tatz had an erudite partner in dialog instead of a relative novice. David Gottlieb, unfortunately, at the time this book was written, was not educated or skilled enough in his knowledge of western Soto Zen Buddhism to dialog deeply with Rabbi Tatz. For example, when he said that Buddha was "utterly human" I had to wonder how he'd missed reading the Lotus sutra, a core teaching in Buddhism in which Buddha is a supra-human deity. And over and over again during Rabbi Tatz's explanations I scribbled notes in the margin about how what he asserted as unique to Judaism applied essentially equally to western Soto Zen Buddhism. So the book is often an erudite Jew's perspective on non-Jewish religions in general rather than being based on the facts of western Soto Zen Buddhism.

Even so, the faults and omissions are very minor compared to the overwhelmingly positive aspects of this book. It is a book that is indispensable for Jews who are already involved with (or contemplating involvement with) other spiritual paths, and Jews with limited educational backgrounds who simply want to appreciate the depth of their religion's roots.

(And to the reviewer who wrote: "Perhaps Tatz needs to sit over tea sometime with Bernie Tetsugen Glassman-Roshi." I would reply that Bernie Tetsugen Glassman Roshi was brought up in a non-religious Jewish home and doesn't have the deep Jewish background that Rabbi Doctor Tatz has. Bernie Roshi would likely refer questions about Judaism to Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi, whom he calls upon as his Rabbi.)

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MUST READ, February 10, 2005

By 

JuDude (Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Letters to a Buddhist Jew (Hardcover)

This is a new book.
I dont understand why Amazon doesnt have more copies. If you can get your hands on a copy it will be well worth your time and money. I think you can find it in any of the Judaica websites (like eichlers.com).
I read the other books that talk about the differences and similarities between Judaism and Budhism.
Akiva Tatz explains the modern misconceptions of Judaism in which most of what is believed to be a true Jewish concept and belief is actually very far off from the truth. Rabbi Tatz ranks from the top of the world in those understanding of all the Authentic Jewish texts ranging from the Bible and its ancient commentaries to the Oral Tradition.
Mr. Gottlieb asks all the right questions. Questions that should bother any person whether they are Jewish or not.
This was not intended at first to be made into a book. It was a email conversation between David Gottlieb a Buddhist Jew and Akiva Tatz a well known Orthodox Jewish scholar. At the end this material formed into a book.
The 15 crucial questions about Judaism that were asked in the first correspondence to Rabbi Tatz explore issues including:
* God (What is the whole idea about believing in a god that we cannot experience?)
* Accessibility (why is it so hard to be a jew? So much a person has to study and do? While anyone can practice Buddhism)
* Choseness vs. Univerality (While Buddhism talks about the oneness of all beings it seems that Jews set themselves apart by saying that they are the chosen people)
* Joy, Meditation, alleviating Suffering (what is their role if any in Judaism)
* Legalism (why all these seemingly arcane traditions?)
After many pages of exploring each idea in depth the conclusion in Akiva Tatz's words are "From the insight you have presented into Zen Buddhism, at least as practiced in the West, it seems that virtually everything you have demonstrated is there in Jusaism."
He brings ancient sources that state that Abraham was the father of both Judaism and Buddism. And repeats many times that Judaism begins where Buddism leaves off.

I cannot do justice in giving a review of this book. Please do yourself a favor, no matter who you are or what your purpose of reading this book is. Just read it!

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling & Thought Provoking, June 8, 2005

By 

Steve Yastrow (Deerfield, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letters to a Buddhist Jew (Paperback)

This is a fascinating book. David Gottlieb is a Jew who has a strong interest in Buddhism, and he and Akiva Tatz engage in a great discussion about the overlaps and differences between Buddhism and Judaism. The book follows the course of their letters to each other.

This book will definitely get you thinking and, if you're a Jew interested in Eastern thought like David Gottlieb is, it will give you some very concrete things to think about. Even if you're not a "Buddhist Jew," you'll learn a ton from these two great writers.