“According to the Hebrew Bible, God
made the world with words. God just spoke and the world became
reality. (The Aramaic for ‘I create as I speak’ is
avara k’davara, or in magician’s language,
abracadabra.) . . . This does not protect words from the
numbing effects of overuse in any religious tradition. . . . We
need to dust off the words, shake away the accretions, wonder
again about what they originally might have meant and enable
ourselves to live in the word.”
—from the Introduction
With creativity and poetry (and occasional
heresy) Kushner dusts off thirty classical Hebrew words, shakes
them free of the effects of generations of overuse,
“re-translates” them, and liberates their ancient
holy power. The result is a contemporary spiritual guide for
your personal religious life.
According to the Hebrew Bible, God made
the world with words. God just spoke and the world came into
being. Words therefore are not merely sounds signifying
something else; they are instruments of creation, primary
reality itself. They need only to be read, spoken, and
interpreted. And to know them is to know reality itself.
Kushner has designed the book himself,
seamlessly blending graphics and content. In doing so he evokes
the aesthetics of an ancient manuscript and a vision of our
power to shape the future.
Each finely crafted chapter begins with a
Hebrew word and Kushner’s provocative English
translation. At the bottom of the page is a transliteration of
the Hebrew along with its more customary English rendering. In
addition to his own intriguing definition, he includes a
biblical citation anchoring the word, along with a more recent
text showing the word’s evolution. Finally, we are
offered a personal, meditative exercise designed to enable you
to “live in the word.”
“What a delightful wholeness of
intellectual vigor and meditative playfulness, and all in a
tone of gentleness that speaks to this gentile.”
—Rt.
Rev. Krister Stendahl, Formerly
Dean of Harvard Divinity School,
Bishop Emeritus of Stockholm
Bishop Emeritus of Stockholm
“It is wonderful! A surprise at
every page. His translations and elaborations provoke and
stimulate the religious imagination.”
—Rabbi
Neil Gillman, chair, department of
Jewish philosophy,
Jewish Theological Seminary
Jewish Theological Seminary
“Lifts the spirit from the mundane,
through the vast expanse of tradition, to the face of God and
then, quite miraculously, returns the spirit to daily life. . .
much more than a book of words; it is a way of faithful
living.”
—The
Rev. Dr. Richard Valantasis, Assistant
Professor of theological studies,
St. Louis University
St. Louis University
“We have another Buber here, a
Heschel . . . Kushner expresses the truly profound with joy,
lightness and humor.”
—Father
M. Basil Pennington, St.
Joseph’s Abbey
“Breathes new life into a vocabulary
that many may have thought to be irrelevant or outdated.
Kushner is one of the great spiritual teachers of our time. He
once again succeeds in offering us wisdom and
inspiration.”
—Dr.
Ellen M. Umansky, Co-editor, Four Centuries of Jewish Women’s
Spirituality
“To bring new light to old words is
the gift that a wise person gives to us. For that reason we are
all deeply in debt to Rabbi Lawrence Kushner.”
—Dr.
Lawrence S. Cunningham, chairman,
department of theology, Notre Dame
“Provides wonderfully easy access to
the riches of Jewish spiritual tradition. . . . He is a seeker
who blazes a trail for others to joyously journey.”
—Dr.
David A. Teutsch, president,
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
