When Mosaic asked Rabbi Meir Soloveichik to recommend some books he had read in 2023 to our readers, he named From Tokyo to Jerusalem, the memoir of Abraham (né Setsuzo) Kotsuji. Raised in a devoutly Shinto household in Kyoto, Kotsuji discovered the Bible as a child, adopted Christianity, became his country’s leading Hebrew scholar, and, at the age of sixty, converted to Judaism. He also played a crucial role in rescuing thousands of Jews who had fled from Europe to Japan during World War II and were in danger of being handed over to the Nazis. Soloveichik writes:
One of the most striking aspects of Kotsuji’s memoir is the fact that he was particularly inspired by the section of the Hebrew book that many modern Jews, let alone non-Jews, find irrelevant. That is Leviticus, which describes the ritual to be performed in the Tabernacle, and ultimately the Temple in Jerusalem. The rituals involve an altar, incense, and the kindling of the oil lamps in the temple candelabra. It is therefore not surprising, given his own past, that the book struck him. “Leviticus,” he writes, “reminded me of Shinto,” adding that in Shinto, “there is a distinction made between holy and unclean, equivalent to the Hebraic kodesh and tamei. It is not an exaggeration to say that the religion is a kind of Hebrew Shinto.”
Read more on Commentary: https://www.commentary.org/articles/meir-soloveichik/setsuzo-kotsuji-japanese-abraham/