High Holiday Sutra

High Holiday Sutra

by Alan Appel

Coffee House Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota    ©1997     240 pp.

Let me first quote author Andrei Codrescu from the novel’s jacket: “American Jews have been mixing Buddhist saffron with Jewish matzoballs for over three decades now, but not until Alan Appel’s rabbi in High Holiday Sutra have we seen the perfect result. High Holiday Sutra is emotionally Jewish, philosophically Buddhist, and aesthetically American. Om Shalom.

Maybe not. Other books, such as The Jew in the Lotus, come to mind as having a more “perfect result” in terms of demonstrating a greater understanding of both Judaism and Buddhism and the connection thereof. I’m not sure what Appel’s credentials are other than being a Jewish writer who is, presumably, somewhat into Buddhism. This book — and granted, it’s “just” a novel — lacks depth and complexity. On the other hand, it’s quite an enjoyable read, especially if you’re Jewish with Buddhist leanings, as am I. If you’re not Jewish or a “yidophile,” a lot of the novel’s humor and meaning might elude you.

High Holiday Sutra’s structure is the following: Rabbi Jonah Grief is delivering a Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) sermon to his new congregation of Jewish Buddhists, the Hebrew Meditation Circle. In this sermon, which is the book’s story, he tells his new congregation how it is he came to be a rabbi in general and rabbi of their Buddhist congregation in particular. He bases his sermon on the Book of Jonah, his namesake, and says, “For, as you know, Jonah’s is a story of forgiveness, flight, cowardice, excruciating self-examination, hypocrisy, the begrudging of God’s compassion, depression, and vomiting." Rabbi Grief’s life, as he relates it, encompasses all of the above and more, including sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll. It is the not-uncommon late-20th-century American saga of how the religion of one’s birth fails, at least initially, to spiritually nourish, and how another tradition, typically an Eastern one, enables one to see the depth and meaning, finally, in that same birth religion.

Mainstream Judaism is indicted for its superficiality and lack of spiritual practices that can lead one directly to communion or union with the Living God. Buddhist meditation practices enable Rabbi Grief to regain the faith he lost early on while in rabbinical training. They also give him the capacity to truly love his second wife after a disastrous first marriage, making his story a tale of one man’s growing up and gaining in wisdom and compassion.

So, as I said, if you’re interested in Judaism and Buddhism, and want a light, amusing read, this is a fun book to while away a rainy winter afternoon. And it does have its moments of real insight in both a worldly and spiritual sense.

— reviewed by Karen Fierman


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