At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden
A Jew's Search for Hope with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land
By Yossi K. Halevi
(Harper Perennial, Paperback, 9780060505820, 336pp.)
Publication Date: June 2002
Categories: Comparative Religion, Religious, Sociology of Religion
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A brilliantly observed memoir of an unprecedented and remarkable spiritual journey.
While religion has fuelled the often violent conflict plaguing the Holy Land, Yossi Klein Halevi wondered whether it could be a source of unity as well. To find the answer, this religious Israeli Jew began a two–year exploration to discover a common language with his Christian and Muslim neighbours. He followed their holiday cycles, befriended Christian monastics and Islamic mystics, and joined them in prayer in monasteries and mosques in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.
At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden traces that remarkable spiritual journey. Halevi candidly reveals how he fought to reconcile his own fears and anger as a Jew to relate to Christians and Muslims as fellow spiritual seekers. He chronicles the difficulty of overcoming multiple obstacles注eological, political, historical, and psychological注at separate believers of the three monotheistic faiths. And he introduces a diverse range of people attempting to reconcile the dichotomous heart of this sacred place柠struggle central to Israel, but which resonates for us all.
Yossi Klein Halevi is the Israel correspondent for the New Republic and a senior writer for the Jerusalem Report. He is a regular commentator on Middle Eastern and religious affairs for the Los Angeles Times and has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other publications. The documentary film Kaddish, which focuses on his relationship with his father, a Holocaust survivor, was named by the Village Voice as one of the ten best films of 1985.
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