Om Shalom: Judaism and Krishna Consciousness (review)

Topical Book Reviews III together with an index that runs to over a hundred. pages, makes it easy to locate particular topics and to use the book for one's own purposes. And that is perhaps the role that it will significantly play in future scholarship: no one who writes on the scriptural forms of Hinduism or Judaism, or on "scripture" as a genus of religious expression, or on the theory of comparison in religious studies and more broadly can afford to ignore the evidence adduced here. It establishes Holdrege as an important voice in the next generation of comparative historians of religion. Thomas B. Coburn Religious Studies St. Lawrence University Om Shalom: Judaism and Krishna Consciousness, by Rabbi Jacob N. Shimmel and Satyaraja Dasa Adhikari. Brooklyn, NY: Folk Books, 1990. 213 pp. $6.95. Om Shalom is a collection of conversations between Rabbi Jacob N. Shimmel, a worldrenowned Halakhic scholar, and Satyaraja Dasa Adhikari, a prominent Jewish-American convert to the "Hare Krishnas," officially called the International Society for the Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). ISKCON was brought to the United States in the 1960s by founder and spiritual master, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. This book is fascinating for many reasons. Since the book is excerpted transcriptions of actual conversations, I felt as if I were sitting in a room next to a cozy study, listening to two men who-aware I might be inclined to eavesdrop-speak loudly enough about juicy topics and provide sufficient background that I might listen and understand. The subject matter is lively, entertaining, and well explained. The topics range enormously. In six chapters-divided more by occasion than subject-each speaker sets out the basic teachings of his respective faith and considers the role of idolatry, literalism, and metaphor. Throughout, they debate whether there is an essence to religion that both might share (Dasa pro, Shimmel con), and whether God can be understood to be a "person," or not (again, Dasa pro, Shimmel con). On comparative mysticisms, both agree a great deal, exchanging enormous amounts of complicated information in a wonderfully understandable manner. Vaishnava insistence on vegetarianism and Jewish teachings on kosher meat-eating occupy their attention, as do some of the common questions most outsiders might ask about each group. For instance, why wear those funny clothes (dhoti for Dasa, tefillin for Shimmel)? Beyond its subject matter and format, this book is fascinating-and significantsimply for the fact that it exists. It is it rapprochement between a respected figure of the Jewish establishment and a born Jew who seeks spiritual sustenance outside of, or in addition to, traditional Jewish avenues by initiation into an ancient Hindu fold. 112 SHOFAR Spring 1999 Vol. 17, No.3 The Introduction by Sylvia Rosen is particularly interesting. Ms. Rosen writes to affIrm her approbation ofher son, Satyaraja Dasa (born Steven Rosen). She recalls their secular household and what a nice and curious boy he was, one whose thirst for spiritual knowledge led him eventually to devotion to Krishna. In her concluding paragraph, she reveals that although herself not a devotee, she believes that not only did the Hare Krishna faith pose no obstacle to her son's Jewishness, but that it actually augmented it, "since the essence of Judaism is to love and honor God with all one's heart, mind, and soul" (p. 6), as a theory of essence she shares with son Dasa. This mother's testimony-told with great wit, self-reflection, and love-responds in advance to a point Rabbi Shimmel poses: can you be as a good Jewish man and yet not practice Judaism? Dasa and Sylvia Rosen say yes, Shimmel says no. The question of Jewish-American participation in the Hare Krishna movement has been a particularly sensitive one. In part due to Bhaktivedanta's insistence on preserving Hindu cultural dress, names, and eating customs, the Hare Krishnas-perhaps more than any other Hindu group-was singled out in the 1970s by so-called "anti-cultists," who sought to "educate" the public about the evils of these "new cults" and intervene directly into the lives ofthose who had joined them. Given the radical conservatism of most features of the Hare Krishna...