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Because My Soul Longs for You
Integrating Theology into Our Lives
Edited by Rabbi Edwin C. Goldberg and Rabbi Elaine S. Zecher
Introduction by Rabbi Joseph A. Skloot
240 Pages6.00 × 9.00 × 1.20 in
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Because My Soul Longs for You seeks to answer one of the most enduring human questions: Where can we find God in our lives? While Jewish theologians have long pondered the "God question" from ethical and philosophical perspectives, the last century has made space for a more experiential theology: God is present in our lived experiences. Radical amazement, to use Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's phrase, can be found in everyday life. Contributors to this volume share how they welcome God's presence into their lives, as well as the theological language they use to think and speak about this presence. Chapters explore how we experience God through prayer, text study, poetry, food, music, service, movement, meditation, interpersonal connection, and much more.
Introduction
Experiencing the Divine in Our Lives
Rabbi Edwin C. Goldberg and Rabbi Elaine S. Zecher
Reanimating Jewish Theology: A Historical Introduction
Rabbi Joseph A. Skloot, PhD
Part 1: Creation
Experiencing God While Watching the Universe
Rabbi John L. Rosove
Part 2: Traditions
Experiencing God While Praying: X-rays to God
Ilana Kurshan
Experiencing God While Studying Jewish Texts
Rabbi Marc Katz
Experiencing God While Making Jewish Food
Melanie Cole Goldberg, RJE
Experiencing God in Dialogue with (Non-)Jewish Poetry
Rabbi Suzie Jacobson
Experiencing God While Making (Jewish) Art: Glimpses of Splendor
Rabbi Hara E. Person
Experiencing God While Leading Jewish Song
Rabbi Ken Chasen
Experiencing God While Composing Music: Listening for the Still, Small Voice
Cantor Jonathan Comisar
Part 3: Relationships
Experiencing God in Community
Rabbi Nicole Auerbach
Experiencing God While Looking at Others
Rabbi Rebecca L. Dubowe
Experiencing God in the Midst of Conflict
Miriam Heller Stern, PhD
Experiencing God in Service to Others
Rabbi Gayle Pomerantz
Experiencing God in Grief
Rabbi Anne Brener, LCSW
Experiencing God in Fear: Confronting the Night
Rabbi Edwin C. Goldberg
Part 4: Bodies
Experiencing God in the Fragility of My Body
Cantor Evan Kent
Experiencing God While Moving My Body
Rabbi Susan Freeman
Experiencing God While Using My Body to Create Order
Rabbi Sonja K. Pilz, PhD
Experiencing God While Loving My Body
Rabbi Efrat Rotem
Experiencing God While Listening to the Silence of My Body
Rabbi Myriam Klotz
Part 5: Beyond Body, Soul, and Mind
Experiencing God by Simply Sitting with God
Rhonda Karlton Rosen
Conclusion
Putting It All Together
Rabbi Edwin C. Goldberg and Rabbi Elaine S. Zecher
Glossary
Contributors
Rabbi Edwin Goldberg currently serves as the rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom of The Woodlands, in the Houston area. He received rabbinic ordination and a doctorate in Hebrew Literature from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (in 1989 and 1994, respectively). He has authored several books, including: Midrash for Beginners, Heads and Tales: Stories of the Sages to Enlighten Our Minds, Swords and Plowshares: Jewish Views of War and Peace, Love Tales from the Talmud, Saying No and Letting Go: Jewish Wisdom on Making Room for What Matters Most. He served as the Coordinating Editor of the new Reform Jewish machzor, Mishkan HaNefesh. He also edited a companion commentary, Divrei Mishkan HaNefesh and has published many articles and sermons. Rabbi Goldberg has taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Miami in the department of Religious Studies and Judaic Studies. He is also a graduate of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality.
Innovation in ritual and prayer, profound engagement in social action, leadership, scholarship, and a palpable love of Jewish life are hallmarks of Rabbi Elaine Zecher’s rabbinate. As the senior rabbi of Temple Israel of Boston, she leads the largest congregation in New England, forging close personal relationships within the congregation and the larger community. Rabbi Zecher is outspoken on matters of justice and liberty, a tireless worker in interfaith partnerships, and an advocate of progressive legislation and policy. She is noted as well for personal warmth, deep humanity, quick wit, and humor. She is an engaging teacher who makes scholarship accessible and engaging. Active as well in the national Reform Jewish Movement, she was instrumental in developing new prayer books for Shabbat and weekdays, as well as the machzor, which is used on the High Holy Days. Additionally, she served as Vice President for Leadership of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR). A graduate of Brandeis University, she was ordained from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1988. She is married to Dr. David Eisenberg and has three adult children.
"Instead of asking 'Do you believe in God?' Rabbis Elaine Zecher and Edwin Goldberg ask the more fruitful 'How do you experience God?' Their book compiles the transformative experiences of twenty souls who share their encounter with the Divine. Through their stories, we access new language for understanding how we might discover God in our lives, and perhaps realize that God has been with us all along."
-Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, Senior Rabbi, Central Synagogue, NYC
"Most everyone knows that 600,000 Jews left Egypt and 600,000 Torahs were received at Sinai. But as Rabbis Goldberg and Zecher remind us, each Jew seems to have found their own God too! What an obvious and splendid idea: to ask rabbis and other "soul-teachers" to share their experiences of the numinous and then arrange them into a bouquet. Surely this is where liberal Jewish theology in the twenty-first century must begin."
-Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, author of Kabbalah: A Love Story
"This book is not only phenomenal, it is also phenomenological--it relates to the ways in which God is experienced rather than simply conceptualized. These highly reflective and courageous essays evoke the biblical image of a graceful animal thirsting for water at the brook. So the soul longs for God, experienced in various life situations and described with both beauty and honesty. Because My Soul Longs for You places the soul where it belongs--in the lives and experiences of persons."
-Rabbi Dr. Michael Marmur, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Jerusalem
"This is a book that will inspire and engage anyone who wants to ignite their soul and bring a spark to their spiritual life."
-Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins, coeditor of Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul
"The major contribution of the book is its premise that each of these various approaches is an authentic spiritual expression and that each of us must discover for ourselves our personal approach to deepening the experience of feeling the One's presence in our lives. It is very meaningful to read about the experiences the authors have had and their descriptions of finding the One in their lives through following both traditional and untraditional religious behaviors to express a connection to the divine."
--- Stephen G. Donshik, The Jerusalem Post
"This book invited me to journey into my own n'shamah and my own truth from a new vista. ... Kudos to Rabbis Zecher and Goldberg for this fine compilation. ... I was thrilled to see that the majority of chapters were written by women. And the poetic beauty of each chapter ending with a creative blessing brought the spiritual into each narrative. Each chapter holds stirring applications for teaching, discussion, and personal reflection."
--Rabbi Jessica Kessler Marshall
"Each thought-provoking essay shares a personal reflection on how we may connect to God 'most often in the midst of ordinary life,' perhaps through powerful experiences, but more often through unexpected moments or seemingly mundane encounters. Even so, editors Goldberg and Zecher remind us that nurturing a deeper theology will take work. To support our spiritual journey, they conclude by offering readers questions to consider as they start their search for God."
--Jonathan Fass, The Jewish Education Project of New York
"Erudite and thought-provoking, exceptionally well organized and presented, Because My Soul Longs for You: Integrating Theology into Our Lives is a welcome and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, synagogue, college, and university library Judaic Studies collections and supplemental curriculum lists."
--- James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review
FINALIST: Foreword Reviews INDIES Book of the Year Award (Religion category)
Silver medal: Independent Publisher Book Awards (Inspirational/Spiritual category)
FINALIST: Next Generation Indie Book Awards (Spirituality category)
