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.


New York Times BookReview
"Valuable not only for Jews interested in the mystical tradition as practicedtoday but for Jews yearning to find a clearer expression of the divine in theirlives. In fact, Judaism is not a prerequisite for learning from this book.Kamenetz's message is: If I can do it, so can you."


The New York Times Book Review, Bob Rosenthal
Stalking Elijah is valuable not only for Jews interested in the mystical tradition as practiced today but for Jews yearning to find a clearer expression of the divine in their lives. In fact, Judaism is not a prerequisite for learning from this book. Kamenetz's message is: If I can do it, so can you.


Ellen Frankel, author of The Five Books of Miriam
"Kamenetz unveils the fascinating secret world of Jewish mysticism in itsuniquely American idiom. Combining the crystalline wit of the poet and theguideless honesty of the seeker, Kamenetz renews our faith in God and the humanheart."


Book Description
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.


About the Author
Rodger Kamenetz is a poet, writer, and professor of English and director of Jewish Studies at Louisiana State University. His books include The Jew in the Lotus, now being made into a film, Terra Infirma, and The Missing Jew: New and Selected Poems. He lives in New Orleans, LA.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Profound and often raucously funny, Kamenetz's quirky tale carries him from a conversation with the Dalai Lama (in which he valiantly "contravened forty-six years of my own noisy cultural conditioning" to keep from stepping on the silence) to breaking matzah with him a year later at a Passover seder for Tibetan freedom. Along the way he learns kabbalah poolside at the Beverly Hilton, meditates in a T-shirt shop with Baton Rouge's three resident Tibetan Buddhists, observes the Sabbath in a plastic tent with Jewish addicts and cons in an inter-city slum, and "calls out" to God with new-Hasidic abandon while racing down the San Bernadino freeway. Stalking Elijah teaches at every step of the path how to celebrate the Jewish tradition in the context of feminism, contemporary science, and interfaith dialogue.

SYNOPSIS

The highly acclaimed author of The Jew in the Lotus turns his attention to his own rich and diverse tradition to understand what it means to live spiritually as a Jew.

FROM THE CRITICS

New York Times Book Review

Valuable not only for Jews interested in the mystical tradition as practicedtoday but for Jews yearning to find a clearer expression of the divine in their lives. In fact, Judaism is not a prerequisite for learning from this book.Kamenetz's message is: If I can do it, so can you.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING