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Since the 20th century, Buddhism and Judaism have become associated due to the common religious overlap in Jewish Buddhists. According to the Ten Commandments and classical Jewish law (halacha), it is forbidden for Jews to worship any deity other than the God of Israel—specifically by bowing or offering incense, sacrifices, or poured libations.^[1] It is likewise forbidden to join or serve in another religion as doing so would render the participating Jew an apostate or idol worshipper.

Since most Buddhists do not consider the Buddha to have been a god in the same sense traditional Jewish theology and the Hebrew Bible posit God to be, Jewish Buddhists do not consider Buddhist practice to be worship despite some practices, such as incense and food offerings made to a statue of the Buddha, as well as prostration and bowing to statues of the Buddha, having an outwardly worship-like appearance. In addition, many Buddhists—particularly Theravada Buddhists—do not worship the Buddha^{[citation needed]}; instead, they "revere" and "express gratitude" for the Buddha's (and all buddhas') accomplishment of reaching Nirvana and compassionate teaching, respectively. Buddhists honor the Buddha for discovering and teaching the Dharma, enabling others to be freed from suffering and thus attain Nirvana.

Historically, Judaism has incorporated the wisdom of alien religions that do not contradict the Torah while rejecting polytheism and the worship of graven images.^[2] One Buddhist writer has speculated that Jesus—though not a figure of importance in normative Judaism—and his early followers were converts to Buddhism who combined elements of their Jewish upbringing, such as monotheism, with Buddhist concepts like ahimsa, chastity, parables, or associating oneself with outcasts.^[3]

Many modern schools of Judaism have had a longstanding acknowledgement of a concept similar to reincarnation known as gilgul. This belief is referred to in Jewish post-biblical literature and many folk and traditional stories.^[4] Hasidic Jews and many others who follow Kabbalah believe that a Jew's soul can be reborn on earth if, in its previous lives, it failed to fulfil all of the mitzvot required to enter paradise.^[5][6][7]

Conversion to Judaism is sometimes understood within Orthodox Judaism in terms of reincarnation. According to this school of thought in Judaism, when non-Jews are drawn to Judaism, it is because they had been Jews in their former life. Such souls may "wander among nations" through multiple lives until they find their way back to Judaism, including through finding themselves born in a gentile family with a "lost" Jewish ancestor.^[8]

Many young Israelis are drawn to the appeal of Buddhist meditation as a means to alleviate the violence and conflict witnessed in their everyday lives and explain the Jews' longstanding history of persecution.^[9] Some strains of Orthodox Judaism (e.g., Breslovers) have embraced meditation since the 18th century as a means to commune with God, but Reform Jews have historically opposed it in favor of a more rationalist, intellectual form of worship.^[10] Some children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors have purportedly found comfort in Buddhist explanations of the nature of suffering and the path to end suffering.^[11] As Buddhism neither denies nor acknowledges the existence of God, observant Jews are able to embrace its wisdom while maintaining their normative Judaism.^[12]

Some Jews believe in a concept similar to the Buddhist interpretation of the karmic balance known as middah k’neged middah (measure for measure).^[13] Evil deeds are believed to be repaid with misfortune, while good deeds bring rewards.^[14]

When adverse events occur to individuals regarded as good, some Jews and Buddhists may interpret these situations as tests of faith, indicators of suffering or imbalance within the larger community, or as consequences of the individual unintentionally causing harm through careless communication.^[15] Buddhists hold the perspective that certain events are part of the natural order, while traditionally, Jews have viewed God as the creator and sustainer of the universe, responsible for initiating these events.^[16]

Both Judaism and Buddhism forbid murder, adultery, theft, and bearing false witness. In Buddhism, these comprise four of the five precepts. In Judaism, they comprise the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth of the Ten Commandments, as well as components of the Noahide laws.^[17]

The fifth Buddhist precept discourages intoxication, which shares elements of disapproval with the Tanakh. The drunkenness of Noah is perhaps the most famous example, but the Book of Proverbs also warns that alcohol abuse leads to misfortune, poverty, and general sinfulness due to the removal of all inhibitions.^[18] Alcohol still plays a critical role in Jewish community and religious life, such as in Kiddush and Brit milah, and some communities encourage drinking (and even drunkenness) on the holiday of Purim.

In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is an enlightened person who has put off entry into paradise to help others gain enlightenment.^[19] Jews and Buddhists frequently regard the prophets of the Tanakh as similar beings to the bodhisattvas because they too delay entry to the afterlife until they have completed their mission of saving the children of Israel during times of persecution.^[20][21]

The similarities between bodhisattvas and prophets are particularly appealing for Messianic Jews—who are considered Christians by mainstream Judaism—who respect Jesus as a prophet and teacher but reject the Christian doctrine of his divinity. Inspired by the widespread belief that John the Baptist was the reincarnation of Elijah,^[22] some scholars of the Christian Bible have speculated that Jesus of Nazareth lived through several past lives, including as the pre-Israelite king Melchizedek.^[23]

• Jews and Buddhism
• List of converts to Buddhism
• Jewish Buddhist
• Buddhism in Israel

• Kamenetz, Rodger (1995), The Jew in the Lotus, [San Francisco, Calif.]: HarperSanFrancisco, ISBN 978-0060645748
• Bader, David M. (2002), Zen Judaism: For You a Little Enlightenment, Harmony, ISBN 978-0609610213
• Tatz, Akiva (2005), Letters to a Buddhist Jew, Targum Press, ISBN 978-1568713564
• Boorstein, Sylvia (1998), That's Funny, You Don't Look Buddhist, HarperOne, ISBN 978-0060609580
• Drescher, Frank (2017), Jewish Converts to Buddhism and the Phenomenon of "Jewish Buddhists" ("JuBus") in the United States, Germany and Israel, Grin Publishing, ISBN 9783668514034
• Lew, Alan (2005), Be Still and Get Going: A Jewish Meditation Practice for Real Life, Little, Brown and Company, ISBN 978-0316739108
• Musch, Sebastian. Jewish Encounters with Buddhism in German Culture. Between Moses and Buddha(1890-1940). Palgrave 2019. ISBN 978-3-030-27468-9.
• Musch, Sebastian. “Judaism and Buddhism.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Jewish Studies. Ed. Naomi Seidman. New York: Oxford University Press.[1]

• The “Oy Vey” School of Buddhism
• AFC News Source – Jews by birth who practice Buddhism
• Story of a Jewish Buddhist
• You don't look Buddhist
• A frank encounter between religious Jews and Tibetan Buddhists
• Excerpt from Letters to a Buddhist Jew by Akiva Tatz