« February 2007 | Main | June 2007 »
March 30, 2007
New Mexico Jewish Link on Torah Journeys: "A Trip" of Spiritual Discovery
Paula Amar Schwartz reviews Torah Journeys for The New Mexico Jewish Link (pdf download) :Rabbi Shefa Gold’s new book, Torah Journeys, is a trip. It’s not a trip through the scenic byways of northern New Mexico, or along Route 66. It is a journey along an ancient and venerable Jewish pathway of spiritual and personal discovery.What makes it so special is that it takes the difficult and often obscure, and makes it accessible, and in so doing opens our hearts, and speaks to our yearning soul.
Our tradition teaches us that it is our responsibility to study Torah daily, and prescribes a portion of Torah for every week of the calendar year. For many contemporary Jews, observing that Mitzvah can be challenging, partly because some portions are dense and difficult to understand, and partly because many of us have limited Hebrew skills, or lack the scholarly skills needed to reach into these ancient texts and decode their meaning.
Another aspect of the challenge is that, for many of us, the chapters of rules, or the counting and naming of Tribes, or the descriptions of Temple rituals is arcane at best, and appears irrelevant to our current lives.
Torah Journeys offers a threefold way of approaching each Torah portion: What is the blessing of this chapter? What is its spiritual challenge? And then, a suggested technique to practice coming to understand ourselves in relationship to the wisdom of this section of Torah.
That seems like a tall order, but it is done simply, with compassion and a great deal of psychological awareness of issues that hold the attention of contemporary seekers of spiritual awareness.
Posted by yudel at 12:18 PM | Comments (0)