Seth Castleman leans forward in his chair and speaks passionately about religion and spirituality. His eyes light up.
Almost nothing excites Castleman, 25, more than spirituality — except, maybe, storytelling. Which is why he’s anxious to talk about his upcoming show.
The performance will feature Castleman and fellow Jewish Buddhist Naomi Newman, the co-founder of A Traveling Jewish Theatre. Their Wednesday, Sept. 9 show at Berkeley’s Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse is called “Endings and Beginnings.”
After that, Castleman will take leave from storytelling to embark on a yearlong spiritual search that will take him first to a Buddhist monastery in the Far East for six months, and then to a yeshiva in Israel for text study.
The trip is a big step for Castleman — the culmination of his efforts to combine his Jewish background and Buddhist beliefs.
He grew up in a strict Jewish household in Boston. He kept kosher. He became a bar mitzvah. He observed all the holidays.
But he was turned off by the Orthodox movement’s treatment of women and what he calls the “hierarchical nature of Judaism, the idea that there’s some big CEO in the sky watching your every move.”
And so, as an adult, the West Marin resident left Judaism for a while and turned to Buddhism.
But the popular storyteller says he never could get too far from Judaism. “All the good stories I knew were Jewish stories. I heard them from my parents, or my grandparents, or my rabbi.”
With his canon of Jewish stories, Castleman was asked to perform at Jewish community centers, religious schools and synagogues. And as he sat through the prayer services and festivals, he was struck by the depth of his connection to Judaism.
“I realized,” he says, “that I was connected to Judaism on a very cellular level. Every time I heard `Hinei Ma Tov,’ every time I heard the Sh’ma, I knew I was Jewish.”
Castleman expressed his confusion to Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, his rabbi back in Massachusetts and an old family friend as well as a noted writer. At Kushner’s suggestion, Castleman began attending Chabad services in Berkeley.
There, he found Judaism’s “mystic, celebratory nature,” which he combined with his Buddhist practice to create what he calls a “powerful spiritual experience.”
“Judaism offers a very magical tradition of celebration and daily practice that’s missing from just sitting around and searching the mind [as in Buddhism].”
The two work well together, says Castleman: Buddhism providing the sense of self, Judaism providing the sense of family and tradition.
Castleman is eager to seek an even deeper spirituality on his upcoming trip.
He’ll miss the many friends he’s made since coming to the Bay Area six years ago. But undoubtedly he’ll return with some interesting stories to tell.