Question

Hello and blessings,
I watched a lecture by Tomer Persico in which he explains why many Jews turn to Buddhism. He argues that Judaism sees a person as a body that fulfills commandments, and that the whole spiritual aspect is marginal. At first this sounded very extreme to me, but after thinking about it, and after reading your last two columns, it sounds more plausible — spiritual insights are not necessarily Judaism.
There are plenty of examples of the weight given to the body over the spirit, but I’ll take just one example from prayer, which according to initial intuition ought to be a spiritual practice: the obligation to have intention applies only to a very small percentage of the words, while most of prayer time is taken up by the obligation to articulate the words with one’s lips.
I’d be glad to hear your opinion. Do you agree with Persico’s basic claim?

Thank you very much, and happy holiday.