I am trying to end the year on a Jewish inspirational note, and this has brought me to Jewish Lights, of course, and a seemingly oddly titled book called The God of Me, by Rabbi David Lyon.
I'm all for books that try and tie Torah to daily life. If we can't do this with Torah, then it is just sacred history, or we should study it as a piece of cultural history, but certainly not as a portal through which we find God and the template we use in our interactions with other people and our earth.
Rabbi Lyon does this by tying different parts of the life cycle to parts of the Torah. From birth to death, he draws lessons for life from Torah and its stories. Behind them all is our constantly changing view of God. Our idea of God should be dynamic and transform with our journey through life.
Rabbi Lyon's book is clear, but in some parts a bit simplistic. This in itself is not bad. The Rabbi is trying to reach a broad audience by broadening our view of God. He wants Jews to see themselves as adequate successors to the patriarchs and matriarchs. The God of Abrahman, Isaac, Jacob... The God of Me.
No comments:
Post a Comment