Flashes of insight—surprising, entertaining, inspiring—from one of the most creative spiritual thinkers in America.
‘The goal of all spiritual life is to get your ego out of the way—outwit the sucker; dissolve it; shoot it; kill it. Silence the incessant planning, organizing, running, manipulating, possessing, and processing that are the ineluctable redoubts of the ego. Not because these activities are bad or wrong or even narcissistic … but because they preclude awareness of the Divine. To paraphrase the Talmud, God says, ‘There ain’t room enough in this here world for your ego and Me. You pick.’’
—from the Introduction
Tapping the experiences and wisdom of his career as a spiritual leader, Lawrence Kushner delights, surprises, challenges and inspires us. With his signature candor, wit and compassion, he helps us reconnect with the why and how of our spiritual lives. He encourages us to find new perspectives on the “life-stuff” that shapes them, and gently reminds us of the Source of it All.
These inspiring—often startling—insights will warm you during the dark times of your own doubts even as they brighten your quest for meaning, faith, identity, community—and holiness.
Table of Content
Introduction ⁄ ix
1. Rabbi
Who Am I? ⁄ 3
We’ll Wait Back Here ⁄ 8
The Calling ⁄ 15
My Other Father Died ⁄ 18
The Tent Peg Business ⁄ 22
The Human Pyramid ⁄ 30
The Rabbi Business ⁄ 38
Being Somebody Else ⁄ 47
The Last Gift ⁄ 49
2. Judaism
Why I’m a Jew ⁄ 55
Filene’s Basement ⁄ 59
Intermarriage ⁄ 61
Getting More Jews ⁄ 67
Customs as Sacred Text ⁄ 69
Two Jewish Mothers ⁄ 73
(Re)Thinking Shabbat ⁄ 75
Kosher ⁄ 78
The Life of Torah ⁄ 84
3. Family
Visiting Your Children ⁄ 89
Understanding Your Parents ⁄ 91
Telling Kids the Truth ⁄ 99
Boompa ⁄ 101
And Unto Us a Child Is Given ⁄ 103
Babushka ⁄ 107
Turkey Shoot ⁄ 109
Generations ⁄ 111
4. World
What Israel Means to Me ⁄ 115
My Lunch with Jesus ⁄ 117
Cardboard Sukkah ⁄ 120
Bill Novak’s Questions ⁄ 122
NYPD Blue ⁄ 143
Resurrection of Flowers ⁄ 145
5. Mysticism
What Is Kabbalah? ⁄ 149
Reading Music ⁄ 156
Bosque del Apache ⁄ 159
Physician of Tsefat ⁄ 162
Spell-Checker ⁄ 170
Midrash as Hypertext ⁄ 174
A Kabbalah Lexicon ⁄ 175
6. Holiness
Open My Lips ⁄ 189
Spiritual Greed ⁄ 191
Silent Prayer ⁄ 193
A Blessing for the Czar ⁄ 195
Biking with Pelicans ⁄ 197
The Zen of Airline Tickets ⁄ 199
Memory and Redemption ⁄ 201
Death without Dying ⁄ 210
The Band on the Titanic ⁄ 214
Afterword: ‘Our Town’ ⁄ 217
Sources ⁄ 224
About the author
Rabbi Lawrence Kushner is one of the most widely read authors by people of all faiths on Jewish spiritual life. He is the best-selling author of such books as Invisible Lines of Connection: Sacred Stories of the Ordinary; God Was in This Place & I, i Did Not Know: Finding Self, Spirituality and Ultimate Meaning; Honey from the Rock: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism; The Book of Letters: A Mystical Hebrew Alphabet; The Book of Miracles: A Young Person’s Guide to Jewish Spiritual Awareness; The Book of Words: Talking Spiritual Life, Living Spiritual Talk; Eyes Remade for Wonder: A Lawrence Kushner Reader; I’m God, You’re Not: Observations on Organized Religion and other Disguises of the Ego; Jewish Spirituality: A Brief Introduction for Christians; The River of Light: Jewish Mystical Awareness; The Way Into Jewish Mystical Tradition; and co-author of Because Nothing Looks Like God; How Does God Make Things Happen?; Where Is God?; What Does God Look Like?; and In God’s Hands. He is the Emanu-El Scholar at San Francisco’s Congregation Emanu-El and an adjunct professor of Jewish mysticism and spirituality at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion.Rabbi Lawrence Kushner is available to speak on the following topics: • Jewish Mystical Imagination• Rymanover’s Silent Aleph: What Really Happened on Sinai• Zohar on Romance and Revelation• What Makes Kabbalah Kabbalah• Sacred Stories of the Ordinary: When God Makes a Surprise Appearance in Everyday Life Click here to contact the author.More ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
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