February 08

A Triumphalist Table of In/Compatibility of other Religions with Judaism

Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi

Editors Note:

In the 1960s, Rabbi Zalman Schachter (as he was then called) was one of the few Jewish leaders supportive of young Jews' explorations of other spiritual traditions, especially "Eastern" ones such as Buddhism and Hinduism. Unlike those who saw all "other" religions as equally treif, Schachter's seminal essay, "Some Gurus Not Inimical to Judaism," reprinted in the classic volume Zen and Hasidism, was at pains to distinguish between teachings which presented relatively little problem for Jews, such as Zen, and those which were more problematic, such as devotional Hinduism.

Around the same time, Schachter created a somewhat tongue-in-cheek "table of in/compatibility of other religions with Judaism," playfully placing different religious paths on a spectrum of kosher to treif, analogizing them to different gradations of not-entirely-kosher behavior. It remains a provocative way of thinking about the spiritual search: more accepting than most other rabbis would still be today, yet at the same time not a blanket approval of every other faith tradition. Zeek presents this table now for the first time, somewhat edited, together with Reb Zalman's original introduction:

This chart, a sliding scale, is intended to give the Jewish seeker a sense of distribution of ways in which a Jew involved in other religious paths may see himself in relation to the norm of Jewish life. As long as no disaffiliation with Judaism is demanded, the seeker is able to see himself in tension with that norm. Only the minus factors are shown. The plus factors depend on the level of realization achieved by the Dharmic path. Given that a person achieves full realization on any of them (though how one can expect this to happen on –10 is hard to conceive) he compares if he is a Jew with a Jew who has achieved the same on that minus level. Let us say that a person fully enlightened rates plus 10, then deducting the minus from this he can rate himself vis-à-vis the one who being Jewish in this incarnation reaches enlightenment by the Jewish path. This is not a dogmatic rating system, but it is a sort of comparison chart to understand one’s relationship to normative mainstream Judaism. Only G-d knows the inner secrets of one’s heart.

Kashut equivalent	Religious Movement	Scale
Kosher food on Kosher plates on Sabbath or Mitzvah meal	Havuroth Jewish seekers exploring new ways to do tradition	+
Kosher food on kosher plates for overeating and indulgence	Sufism Bahai Subud Hatha Yoga Advaitin Vedanta EST Arica	0
Cold kosher food vegetarian food on non kosher dishes	Tibetan (Trungpa) and Zen Buddhism IYO-Satchidananda 3h Kundalini Yoga (Bhajan) Unitarian Universalism Unity Mararishi TM Yogananda	-1
Hot kosher food on non kosher dishes and silverware	Nature religions Native American Church Mukhtananda Maharaji Jews for Jesus not affiliated with Christian church	-2
Kosher food cooked in non-kosher dishes meat and fish mixed	Tibetan Buddhism Higher forms of Christianity Islam all affiliations demanding that Judaism be relinquished	-4
Kosher food with some chemical non-kosher liquid ingredients	Regular affiliation with Christian high church Iskcon Bon Tibetan Nichrien Soshu Valshnavi and Shalvi Hinduism	-6
Beef and chicken not kosher slaughtered	Fertility cults witchcraft white magic Druidic iconic worships	-8
Shellfish, pork, blood, meat and milk boiled together	Devil worship Satanism black magic invocation of malevolent agents	-10