Product Description

In At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden, Yossi Klein HalevÍ describes his unprecedented and extraordinary spiritual journey to discover, as a religious Israeli Jew, a common spiritual language with his Christian and Muslim neighbors in the Holy Land.

Could religion be a source of unity? wondered Halevi. To find the answer, he began a two-year exploration of the devotional life of Christianity and Islam. He followed their holiday cycles, befriended Christian monastics and Islamic mystics, and joined them in prayer in monasteries and mosques -- searching for wisdom and holiness in places that are usually off-limits to outsiders of other faiths.

With a new introduction relating to Sept. 11th, Halevi chronicles the difficulty of overcoming obstacles -- theological, political, historical, and psychological -- that separate believers of the three monotheistic faiths. And he introduces a dynamic range of fascinating individuals attempting to reconcile the dichotomous heart of this sacred place -- a struggle central to Israel, but which resonates for us all.

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #128976 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06
• Released on: 2002-06-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Amazon.com Review
Yossi Klein Halevi, born in America and now an Israeli citizen, embarked on a spiritual quest in order to appreciate the religious dimensions of conflicts in the Middle East. Beginning in 1998, he undertook "an attempt at religious empathy" in order "to test whether faith could be a means of healing rather than intensifying the conflicts in this land." Halevi, author of the critically acclaimed Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist, chose "to pray and meditate with my Christian and Muslim fellow believers," as "a conscious refutation of the way we religious people of different faiths have always judged each other--by what we believe about God, rather than how we experience God's presence." The holy days of each religion form the structure of At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden, and Halevi's encounters with Sufi dervishes, Muslim sheiks, monks, nuns, and laypeople are entertaining, poignant, and sometimes fearsome. The stories do not separate "spirituality" from "politics"--or history, psychology, or theology. His commitment to describing an integrated experience of the many aspects of religious life helps to make the book a successful exercise in empathy, and a book of lasting literary value. --Michael Joseph Gross

From Publishers Weekly
The political landscape of the Middle East has inspired many books, but few have focused on the intersection of its religious paths as healing territory. This is where Jerusalemite Halevi, a transplanted American Jewish journalist, breaks ground. To become more at home in Israel, a land that 800,000 Muslims and 200,000 Christians call home, and to seek out an alternative to the Oslo peace process, Halevi visited monasteries and mosques, Sufi sheiks, humble monks and silent nuns. In the two years of his interfaith spiritual journey, he confronted history, theology, politics, psychological taboos and concerns over personal safety, learning much concerning the two faiths he previously knew little about. His search for holiness brings him to "conflicting versions of truth," but he attempts nonetheless to experience unity through prayer and meditation: he surrenders to a whirling Sufi zikr, debates with Armenian priests, spends Holy Week with the Ethiopian Orthodox and explores the depths of silence with cloistered nuns. To visit a sheik in Gaza, he ventures to the same spot he had patrolled and where he was wounded as a soldier. Despite his successes, relating to Christianity and Islam "as spiritual paths rather than as devouring forces that had tried to displace the Jews proved even more difficult than I'd imagined." Halevi's forthright prose, which evokes the immediacy of his encounters, does not try to gloss over his religious and political resentments, yet exudes a yearning for commonality and love. Since he sought out the "best representatives" of each religion, isolated examples who do not speak for the majority of their co-religionists, Halevi's effort remains an experiment in "testing the border crossing between faiths." Despite the current outbreak of violence, he concludes, religion must be an integral part of the process if peace is to come to the Middle East. Readers of all religions will appreciate the honesty of this spiritual walkabout.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Israel has special meaning not only for Jews but also for Christians and Muslims. Unfortunately, often people of each of the three faiths know little about the others and do not make much effort to learn. Halevi has given a great deal of time, effort, and spiritual energy to understanding his Christian and Muslim neighbors. A writer for the Jerusalem Post as well as several major American newspapers and the author of Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist, Halevi takes a very personal approach to his journey of religious discovery. Since he comes from an Orthodox Jewish tradition, upon which he has superimposed mystic Kabalistic concepts, we are introduced to the mystic Christian and Muslim clerics from whom he wishes to learn. On a journey that takes him to the West Bank, Gaza, a cloister in Jerusalem, and a Christian settlement near the Sea of Galilee, he learns that most people seek God and peace in similar ways. Through his dialogs with the religious leaders he interviews, we come to understand the wish of most people of faith to bring unity to a land and people torn by discord. This thought-provoking book is recommended for larger religion collections. Olga B. Wise, Compaq Computer Corp., Austin, TX
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

---

Customer Reviews

A Message for Today's World
An extraordinary book. Yossi Klein Halevy is a deeply religious American-born Jewish journalist and Israeli citizen who has lived in Israel for almost twenty years. This book is written as a personal spiritual journey, in which Halevy attempts to experience and understand Islam and Christianity by joining in their rituals of worship. Despite the personal nature of the subject, his historical, political and social commentary are invaluable for those who wish to understand the Middle East conflict today. In a world where hatred is running rampant, he sends a message that solutions can only come through understanding, not violence.

a remarkable book
This is one of the most remarkable books I have ever read. It really has two subjects : the political situation in the Holy Land of course, but also the difficulties and the promises of religious dialogue.

I particularly appreciated the fact that Mr. Klein Halevi reached out to Christians and Muslims without reneging or compromising his own faith. That kind of dialogue would, I think, ultimately be meaningless.

I agree with Mr Klein Halevi that real religious dialogue is the royal path to peace, not only in the Holy Land, but also in many other places. I fear, however, that very few people are capable of mustering the necessary strenght, courage, honesty and humility.

One of the things I particularly liked about Mr Klein Halevi is his intellectual honesty, both with his interlocutors and with himself. Moreover, he is not interested in easy victories. Much to his credit, he writes how uneasy he feels when certain Muslims or Christians reach out to him by pointing out their common ground and ... how different they both are from the third party !

As a Roman Catholic, one of Mr Halevi Klein's remarks that most struck me is how the passages of the Gospel which can appear quite antisemitic seem to echo Israel's (verbally) violent public debate. One of course knows these things, but it is useful to be reminded that the unkind remarks the Evangelists occasionally make about the Jews or the Pharisees are actually made in the context of an internal Jewish debate.

The only weakness of Mr Klein Halevi's book is that his Christian contacts were not Palestinians, but Ethiopians, Armenians and Europeans.

I have to admit, moreover, that I sometimes felt a bit uneasy reading about the syncretic, judaizing liturgy of the Beatitudes, a Catholic order about which Mr Klein Halevi writes. Do we really have to resemble each other to respect each other ? Will we feel disappointed if Jews and Muslims do not answer these efforts by adopting at least part of our ways ? Or is this an act of atonement for the former antijudaism of the Church ? I don't understand it. In my eyes, it is one thing to adapt your behavior to pray with people of another faith, but quite another thing to adopt their ways of worship when not in their company. Does it even make sense from a Jewish perspective ? If I'm not mistaken, gentiles do not have to respect Jewish law and are even prohibited from doing so in some cases, which include the observance of the Shabbath. They should respect the seven laws of Noach, which do not include rituals.

I am also unconvinced for political reasons. Palestinian Christians often feel we betrayed them. Whether one agrees or not does not really matter, we should not brush their feelings aside. Jews might think this is yet another attempt to evangelize them, this time by stealth, as the Church has often done in the past (not with the Jews though). Does this encourage dialogue between Israeli Jews and the Church's own flock, Palestinian Christians ? I don't know. I think we should rather follow Mr Klein Halevi's example.

A Scrap of Hope for Hard Times
I just finished reading At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden by Yossi Klein Halevi. I couldn't put it down. In his search for Muslims and Christians who would let him share in their spiritual lives, Halevi tries to find a way to connect with his erstwhile enemies outside of politics. He takes us along on his journey and what an astounding array of people we meet: Sufi sheikhs and French nuns and Armenian monks.

And most of all, we get to know Halevi, an American-born Israeli, sensitive and conflicted , who wants to participate in the rebirth of the Jewish people in its own land without harming other peoples, and understanding the tragedy that these two desires are in conflict.

It's a sad book because it ends with the resumption of armed conflict that began in 2000. But it's also a hopeful book because of all of the people Halevi meets who are willing to clasp hands across the divide. In one beautiful scene, Halevi attends a Moslem Sufi zikr, a session of mystical dancing which allows the participants to connect with each other and with God. Despite initial hostility, the experience brings home Halevy and his hosts together in mutual understanding and respect. It's a scrap of hope we can all use in these difficult times.