One God Clapping: The Spiritual Path of a Zen Rabbi

by Alan Lew, Sherril Jaffe (With)

Overview

From Zen Buddhist practitioner to rabbi, East meets West in this firsthand account of a spiritual journey.

Rabbi Alan Lew is known as the Zen Rabbi, a leader in the Jewish meditation movement who works to bring two ancient religious traditions into our everyday lives. One God Clapping is the story of his roundabout yet continuously provoking spiritual odyssey. It is also the story of the meeting between East and West in America, and the ways in which the encounter has transformed how all of us understand God and ourselves.

Winner of the PEN / Joseph E. Miles Award

Like a Zen parable or a Jewish folk tale, One God Clapping unfolds as a series of stories, each containing a moment of revelation or instruction that, while often unexpected, is never simple or contrived. One God Clapping, like the life of the remarkable Alan Lew himself, is a bold experiment in the integration of Eastern and Western ways of looking at and living in the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781580231152
Publisher:	TURNER PUB CO
Publication date:	02/01/2001
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	768,176
Product dimensions:	2.36(w) x 3.54(h) x 0.74(d)

About the Author

Alan Lew is the rabbi of Congregation Beth Sholom in San Francisco and is at the forefront of the movement to develop new forms of Jewish spiritual expression. His work in the area of using Zen meditation to enhance Jewish spirituality has been highlighted on programs such as ABC News, The MacNeil-Lehrer Report, the PBS news magazine Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, and National Public Radio's All Things Considered. He also serves as moderator of Mosaic, CBS's weekly religious talk show. Lew explores meditation in Jewish contexts, and has conducted workshops and retreats on Jewish meditation throughout the United States and Canada.

Sherril Jaffe is the author of many books, including Ground Rules and House Tours. Jaffe is a professor of English at Sonoma State Universitywhere she teaches fiction writing. She is married to Alan Lew, and they live with their family in San Francisco.

Table of Contents

PART I: To Leave Everything That Is Familiar
Prologue: The Way Things Are
1. A Vivid Dream
2. Jewish Karma
3. Please Throw Me a Rope
4. How I Learned to Look Beneath the Surface
5. Freedom Is a Spiritual State
6. Sublimating Spirituality
7. Lech Lecha
8. The War Between the Two Sides of the Brain
9. Death Recycles into Life
10. The Question Is Not Whether a Teacher Has Real Spiritual Power, but How That Power Is Used
11. Centering
12. Meditation
13. The Gateway
14. Form Is Emptiness
15. Spiritual Pyrotechnics
16. Dokusan
17. When Peace Breaks Out, the First Thing You Feel Is the Devastation of the War
18. The Need to Belong
19. Emptiness Is Form
20. Compassion
21. They Do Not Appear or Disappear
22. My Naked Heart
23. Healing Presence
24. Closure
25. Family
26. Wedding
27. Narrative
28. Hold On to Your Hat

PART II: God Was in This Place and I Didn't Know It
29. The Funnel
30. The Kaddish
31. Studying Talmud
32. The Holocaust
33. Prayer
34. Service
35. Why the Messiah Doesn't Come
36. Death
37. Teshuvah
38. The Lineaments of the Divine Encounter
39. Kabbalah
40. Taking Leave

PART III: To Struggle with God Until Your Name Changes
41. The Shem'a
42. Open the Gates
43. Our Divine Name
44. What I Learned from Buddhism About How to Save Judaism
45. How to Look at Your Heart

Editorial Reviews

Candid and personal, with deep insight into Jadaism and excellent writing, One god Clappingis a jewel.
— Napra Review

Anita Manuel

"Speaks with honesty, compassion and humor, sharing the revelations and insights that spiritual seekers need and appreciate. A beautiful and rewarding read."
—Light of Consciousness

"A fascinating personal story and a parable for Jewish practice in our time. Lew is not afraid to share some of the stumblings and confusions of his life, and so when the moments of clarity arrive, they do so with sincerity and force, and often in images that linger with the reader like a bell sounding in a quiet space."
—Rodger Kamenetz, author of The Jew in the Lotus and Stalking Elijah

“Lew opens his heart and treats the reader to a banquet for the soul. A treasure.”
—Lawrence Kushner, author of Invisible Lines of Connection: Sacred Stories of the Ordinary; Honey from the Rock: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism; and other books

“The compelling personal encounter with the divine that shines through this straightforward, honest, wonderfully well-written autobiography inspires faith that an awakened spiritual life is a possibility for all of us.”
—Sylvia Boorstein, author of That's Funny, You Don't Look Buddhist

From the Publisher