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    Why Be Jewish?
    Why Be Jewish?
    Why Be Jewish?
    Ebook111 pages1 hour

    Why Be Jewish?

    By David J. Wolpe

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    "All beginnings require that you unlock new doors."--Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav

    In this short and inspiring text, Rabbi David J. Wolpe addresses all who seek to enlarge the spiritual side of their lives. For those considering a return to the faith of their forebears, for those drawn to conversion, Why Be Jewish? is a learned, graceful, and welcoming introduction beckoning readers into the heart of this venerable and enduring religion.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateSep 15, 1995
    ISBN9781466828575
    Why Be Jewish?
    Author

    David J. Wolpe

    David J. Wolpe is widely known for his acclaimed books: Teaching Your Children About God, In Speech and In Silence, and The Healer of Shattered Hearts. Ordained in 1987, he is Assistant to the Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

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    4.5/5

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    • 1/5
      The book is just a collection of platitudes. Joy? Sure, that's Judaism. Courage? Of course, Judaism. The problem is, if one substitutes Judaism for new age, spiritism or theosophy, you get exactly the same book. The theology of Judaism is miles apart from the faith of Abraham and Moses. I mean, just read the Old Testament. God was present, he judged people because of disobedience. Nothing like this new age nonsense of today. Or should we say racist new age religion? I suggest anyone considering conversion to first read the Torah and examine if this confusion they have today has any similarity to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

    Book preview

    Why Be Jewish? - David J. Wolpe

    e9781466828575_cover.jpge9781466828575_i0001.jpg

    The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author´s copyright, please notify the publisher at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy.

    For Eileen

    Table of Contents

    Title Page

    Copyright Notice

    PREFACE

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    1 - TO GROW IN SOUL

    The Secret and the Mystery

    The Start of the Journey

    Judaism’s Central Teaching

    What Is Spirituality?

    Science and Spirit

    The Truth About Human Nature

    The Challenge of Goodness

    Pleasure and Desire

    Repentance

    Joy

    A Live Mind

    Shaping a Self

    Courage

    2 - TO JOIN A PEOPLE

    You Are the Fewest

    The Jewish People

    Chosenness and the Jewish Mission

    The Land of Israel

    Torah and Tradition

    Hatred and the Holocaust

    The Hero

    Conversion: Choosing Judaism

    The Ever-Dying People

    3 - TO SEEK GOD

    What Is God?

    Talking About God

    The God of the Rabbis

    A God of Passion

    Speaking to God

    Listening to God

    Moments of Transcendence

    What Does God Want of Us?

    What Do I Want of God?

    The Eternal One

    CONCLUSION - Our Ultimate Fate

    Also by David J. Wolpe

    GO AND LEARN - For Further Reading

    INDEX

    About the Author

    Notes

    Copyright Page

    PREFACE

    For many Jews, religion seems an antique and unyielding system that no longer fits our lives. Having learned little about Judaism since childhood, we remember our religious education as a jumble of curious legends and ideas. We feel ourselves to be sensitive, perhaps even spiritual people, but organized religion is associated with boredom at best, narrowness at worst.

    Yet as I travel around the country, speaking and meeting with various groups, I encounter thousands of people who are exploring religion, spirituality, and Judaism. Some are asking deeper questions of life after having made a place in their careers or community. Some are now planning a family and wondering what to teach to their children. Some are just beginning to forge their own paths in the world and want to start out with a clear, persuasive explanation of where they come from and what their legacy means. Still others, born into another faith, are contemplating marriage to a Jew and seek to understand what this tradition and people are all about.

    Such a list hardly exhausts the kinds of people who are wondering, Why be Jewish? If this question has stirred your soul, or perhaps simply roused your curiosity, this book is for you. Why Be Jewish? is not a full-fledged introduction to Judaism but a personal portrait of faith for those who are searching: an attempt to show in quick, large strokes what this remarkable faith is really about and how it can transform your life.

    In each of its three chapters, the book explores an answer to the question, Why be Jewish?: to grow in soul, to join a people, and to seek God. The text is intentionally short and to the point. It is not intended to explain all of Judaism but rather to guide you to its heart.

    For thousands of years people have found Judaism a rich, artistic, and holy path of living. There is an enormous effort in our time to seek out ways to lengthen life. Here is a way to deepen it.

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    This book began with a conference in Oakland, California, at which I was asked to address the question Why Be Jewish? The response to that talk, which brought letters and visits from attendees, convinced me that this most fundamental question was often neglected. While many explained what Judaism was about, there was less discussion of why it was so vital to people’s lives today.

    I was fortunate to be able to write this book while teaching at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. In the decade I have spent there as a student and a teacher I have been constantly enriched by its atmosphere and its mission. Why Be Jewish? also profited from the help of a number of friends and colleagues: Robert Wexler, Daniel Gordis, and Mimi Sells, all of the University of Judaism; as well as Joseph Telushkin, Lynn Nesbit, and my editor Marian Wood, whose knowledge of books is second only to her insight into her authors. Finally, my greatest debt is to Eileen, who supplies love, wisdom, and patience in equal, unending measures.

    1

    TO GROW IN SOUL

    The human soul is the candle of God.

    Proverbs 20:27

    The Secret and the Mystery

    Inside each of us is a secret searching for a mystery. The secret we carry is uniquely our own. We can share it with others, but we never lose it, like the candle whose light kindles a new flame without being itself diminished. We can hide our secret, hoard it, damp it down until it is almost extinguished, but we cannot fully destroy it.

    The mystery is what to do with our secret. When we are young, the secret seems something both wonderful and trivial; we play at it, expand it, and dream that it will one day matter. But it is only as we grow older that we are captured by the force of the mystery: for the secret is our soul, and the mystery is how to tend it and help it grow.

    The world blares at us. Each morning as we arise we hear the screech of the headlines, demanding our attention. This is what you must hear, think, give yourself to right now. Tomorrow the issue will be different, but it is never less than urgent, never less than loud. The melody of the self, a strain so thin and delicate, has little chance to be heard. Listening takes time and silence, and in the frantic noise we lose attunement.

    One solution is to close out the world. Retreat, ignore the clatter of the street. But isolation is at best a temporary solution. The world is the stage of all drama. To be healthy, a soul has to care about other things and other souls beside itself and its source. If all we attend to is our own cultivation, we are listening not to the call of the soul but the tyranny of the ego.

    To believe in our secret and tend it is a beginning. The spark of soul inside each of us is unique. Out of the billions who live, who have lived, no one has shared exactly our secret; no one

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