Notebook for
The Jew in the Lotus: A Poet's Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India (Plus)
Kamenetz, Rodger
2 Flames
Highlight (yellow) - Page 22 · Location 441
I had imagined that someone obeying God’s law would feel more joy.
Note - Page 22 · Location 441
good comment
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 Roadblocks
Highlight (yellow) - Page 37 · Location 710
I felt how much I ignore, how often I redefine the world as my world, and suffering as the suffering of the Jews.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note - Page 37 · Location 711
Jews travel to confer with Dalai Lama in India
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Highlight (yellow) - Page 39 · Location 755
Maybe they wanted the Judaism they’d left behind to stay put.
Note - Page 39 · Location 755
not an unusual stance
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 Blessings
Highlight (yellow) - Page 56 · Location 1040
As a boy I’d served time in Orthodox shuls, where the Hebrew was babbled at supersonic rates, and I spent most of my time trying to figure out what page we were on or when it was okay to sit down.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Highlight (yellow) - Page 62 · Location 1156
Although I respected the difficulty of Rabbi Greenberg’s position and admired the deftness of his maneuvers, I feel that to have to worry so late in the twentieth century about whether a woman’s prayers count in the eyes of God is silly.
Note - Page 63 · Location 1157
our ideas and practices change
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Highlight (yellow) - Page 63 · Location 1163
Words “not fitting with reality if taken literally, should be interpreted.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Highlight (yellow) - Page 64 · Location 1176
For instance, the Orthodox believe it is better to pray in Hebrew without understanding than to pray in one’s own language.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Highlight (yellow) - Page 64 · Location 1181
Words are labels, and even the Buddhist teaching, or dharma, has no ultimate reality. In fact, I have heard Buddhist scholars argue that a person who says, “I am a Buddhist,” cannot be a Buddhist, because to be a Buddhist means to have no attachment to labels.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7 The Angel of Tibet and the Angel of the Jews
Highlight (yellow) - Page 80 · Location 1485
Reb Zalman answered, “If I would use an electrical image, I would say, the infinite needs transformers for lower levels.” He built a transformer tower with his hands