o--
as an extension of worship and rites per-
formed in the synagogue. "The Jewish
family," said Greenberg, became the
"transmitter of the religious message. It is
no accident that the social values intersect
with the religious values of the tradition."
Greenberg described prayers and rituals
that are held in the home and that reinforce
— daily, weekly, or seasonally — Jewish
values and identity: Washing hands before
• meals, the blessing over bread, lighting
candles on ShabbOs and Chanukah ("A
holiday of redemption and return to
homeland"), sitting shiva, holding
Passover seders, contributing to tzedakah
boxes customarily kept in the Jewish home
—and the involvement of children in all of
these.
Of Shabbos, she said, "We needed fre-
quent reminders of the creation of the
world. Shabbat is often a day of experien-
cing perfection. Shabbat served the Jewish
family and Jewish survival through
• periods of being comfortable in our own
land and periods of exile. It provides an
island of security and a sense of well be-
ing. When Jews were in exile and suffered
greatly, a Jewish man and woman could
still be like a king and queen."
"There is a great advantage in this tradi-
tion," said the Dalai Lama. "Making...
[religion] part of the family has the power
of sustenance?'
Laughter greeted the Dalai Lama's next
comment, "We know now one of the
secrets. In our case, celebrations take place
in a big gathering in a crowded place.
Sometimes, they go on for hours. In many
cases, the participants only want to finish?'
"We understand that, also," remarked
Arthur Green, dean of the Reconstruc-
tionist Rabbinical College, in a reference to
some lengthy Jewish services.
After the meeting, Greenberg said that
because she was talking to the celibate
leader of a monastic religion, she restrain-
ed from commenting that "your best and
most • spiritual genes have not been
reproducing themselves."
But while talking to the Dalai Lama, she
said, she felt "excitement and joy. It was
wonderful being able to talk about this
with someone who was very interested and
curious." Greenberg felt "lucky" to have
been asked by the organizers of the
meeting to speak about Jewish exile
because she discerned "a: missing link.
Tibetan Buddhists have holy leaders and
holy books and holy times, but they don't
have a sense of the holiness of the family."
The Dalai Lama's eagerness to learn
about Judaism was apparent through the
meeting. When Greenberg held up a
mezuzah during her presentation, the
Dalai Lama dashed over from his seat and
said with curiosity, "Let me see," as he
peered at the parchment inside each
mezuzah that marks the doorpost of a
Jewish home. As Rabbi Kushner opened a
Torah scroll from a Czechoslovakian
Moshe Waldoks, author and teacher, demonstrates tefillin.
synagogue that had been destroyed by the
Nazis ("The Nazis came to my people as
the Chinese to yours:' said Kushner), the
Dalai Lama picked up a yad, a silver
pointer used while reading a Thrall. Stan-
ding in front of the scroll, he pointed in-
tensely at each letter and word of a
language he did not know. Laughingly ac-
cepting a shofar after Moshe Waldoks,
author and, lecturer, had blown the tradi-
tional notes on it heard at Rosh Hashanah,
the Dalai Lama tucked it into his belt as
several observers commented on the
similarity between the sound of a shofar
and that of the thungchen, or long horns
traditionally blown by monks in Tibet.
Indeed, possible similarities between the
two religions were often the theme of the
meeting. Demonstrating how to wear
tefillin, Waldoks emphasized for the
Tibetans, for whom compassion is a crux
of their religion, that the black straps are
worn on one's "weaker arm, the arm of
compassion, not on the arm of power" and
that a tefillin's head piece, which "binds
mind and body together," is "worn in the
middle of the head — the third eye, if you
wish." As Green told of the practice of
some Jews to silently meditate upon the
Hebrew letters of the name of God with the
goal of eventually seeing God everywhere,
the Dalai Lama commented that this was
"very similar" to Buddhist meditation.
"Everything," said the Tibetan, "spon-
taneously appears to you as the aspect of
the meditation upon which you concen-
trating:'
And Rabbi Glaser said that Judaism's
emphasis on the recipient of an act of
goodness, and not on the person perform-
ing that act, "resonates with Buddhist doc-
trine"
"This may have something to do with
our survival," said Glaser. "When someone
concentrates overly much on his own soul,
on his own ego, there tends to be almost
a devouring of oneself. Negating one's self
by focusing not on the person receiving an
act of goodness, but on the act itself, tends
to create an aura of selflessness."
But major differences between the two
religions also appeared, as well as dif-
ferences between some of the Jewish par-
ticipants. Chief among these were issues of
theology and cosmology. The Dalai Lama
explained that Tibetan Buddhism, unlike
monotheism, had "limitless" gods, but one
of his American translators commented
that these correspond more to the western
notion of archangels than to the Jewish
idea of deity. And unlike Judaism, Bud-
dhism does not conceive of a creator dei-
ty. Instead, it envisions the Shakyamuni
Buddha, the historical, compassionate
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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