Rodger Kamenetz continues the dazzling spiritual adventures he began in The Jew in the Lotus, his bestselling account of the historical dialogue between rabbis and the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. In Stalking Elijah, Kamenetz takes his wild mind on the road, seeking the counsel of spiritual teachers across the country as he searches for his own Jewish truth. Entertaining, illuminating, and deeply moving, Stalking Elijah takes us all on a remarkable journey through the new landscape of Jewish practice.
Stymied by a question from the Dalai Lama and thirsting for a religious foundation of equanimity, Rodger Kamenetz goes back to his roots in search of a Jewish inner spirituality. Through encounters with a range of teachers inspired by kabbalah, Kamenetz discovers a wealth of practices that cultivate equivalencies to the Buddhist ideas of balance, emptiness, compassion, etc. Kamenetz personalizes his experiences and delights in finding them in an idiom that connects him with his own tradition. When the story culminates in a Seder with the Dalai Lama, Kamenetz is brought full circle, even offering methods of maintaining Jewish cohesion to the Tibetan diaspora. Penetrating, poignant, and full of discoveries, Stalking Elijah is like an archaeological dig in your own back yard that yields one precious treasure after another.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Stalking A Non-Traditional Elijah?:
Rodger wrote "The Jew In The Lotus", an account of both his renewed interest in Judaism, and the tale of a Jewish delegation's visit to the Dalai Lama. In my review of that book, I concentrated on Rodger's renewed interest in the Jewish Renewal movement's version of Judaism. "Stalking Elijah" is more a sequel to TJITL's Jewish story than its narrative about the meetings with the Dalai Lama. In this book, Rodger describes his visits to and discussions with the folks he considers to be Jewish Renewal's... more info
The story of a spiritual search:
The spiritual quest of Rodger Kamenetz through meeting with a series of non- conventional Jewish religious teachers is at the heart of this book. Kamenetz seeks the wisdom of teachers like Zalman Shlomi -Schacter, Jonathan Omer- Man, Art Green. He relates the stories of his encounters with these people.
Kamenetz also tells in the work the story of Paul Wolff whose religious quest was intensified when he and his wife suffered the terrible loss of their young daughter. Kamenetz and his wife had also... more info
"Start from where you are":
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... more info
Personal spiritual quest:
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... more info
