Walking the High Wire

I find it difficult to criticize The Happiness Prayer: Ancient Jewish Wisdom for the Best Way to Live Today by Rabbi Evan Moffic.  It is sweet book.  But I will do so anyway. 

Rabbi Moffic takes a portion of the morning Jewish liturgy and makes these statements into a stand-alone prayer and declaration of existence that will guide us toward happier lives.  

The problem is that this section of the Jewish liturgy, Eilu D'varim, has a deeply Jewish content.  Rabbi Moffic more or less dismantles this.  Take the last statement in Eilu D’varim.  In the English translation of the siddur it reads “and Torah study is equivalent to them all” or in Hebrew talmud torah keneged kullam. Rabbi Moffic renders this: look inside and commit.  

When we combine these kinds of midrashic moves and many statements about faith, generally not a major Jewish preoccupation, this book lacks a strong Jewish sense.  The book favors a Christian audience.  I am in favor of taking our Jewish texts and promoting the universal elements found within in them, and connections with other religious traditions.  But this book goes too far off the cliff.  

Rabbi Arthur Green does a far better job balancing Jewish vs Universalism.  Just read his recent book Judaism for the World.  He balances the particularly Jewish with the widely Universal as if he was walking on a high wire.