I love the comments this has sparked - especially the conversation in the early responses. Sounds like a beit midrash...

In any case, on this one, I'm going to have side with Yaakov. I think the texts are in favor of a healthy balance of Torah and good deeds...or tension. But I also think that in some ways the conversation above is a category mistake:  I'd make a distinction between study and contemplative pursuits - I didn't mean study when I was talking about contemplative practices and wasn't equating the two and though I know for some people they're the same, for the Jewbus like anonymous (and me) that are leaving (or left) the tradition for Buddhism, study doesn't = a contemplative practice, because if it did they'd probably be sticking around. (Instead, they're finding that something about Jewish contemplative/mystical practices open to them is insufficient...or inaccessible.) That's the tension I was talking about - between contemplation and action and though I tried to avoid reifying the obvious binaries here (i.e.-Judaism = non-contemplative, Buddhism = navel-gazing) -- I may not have been clear enough. 

I'm definitely aware of Engaged Buddhism, zbird (a la Thich Nhat Hanh and Bernie Glassman, who's one of my heroes - http://www.peacemakercommunity.org/about/bios/bernie_bio.htm). In any case, my Buddhism professor at HDS used to say that Engaged Buddhism in America and Europe was in part a result of the encounter of Buddhism with the West - with JewBus or Christian Buddhists who wanted to bring the activist elements of their Judaism or Christianity to their Buddhist practice. That's up for debate too, though - especially if you've been watching what's been going in Tibet over the past few weeks.

 Zbird, as far as the autobiographical piece, my memoir will probably be coming out in 2009/2010 (seriously). I'll keep you posted.

And the first thing I'll tell her is how and why we're still in Iraq three years after she entered retreat. I have a hunch she's going to be a lot more interested in what's going in Tibet, though.