This book will be a ground-breaking source for years to come, and it demands our attention. A Jewish View of God , by David J. Wolpe. Henry Holt and Co., 1990. Reviewed by Rabbi Gila Colman Ruskin, Congregation Chevrei Tzedek, Baltimore. God can touch a life.
Faith can alter vision.
Little else in this polychrome world will suddenly pull things together, make the jagged pieces fall into place as will faith in God. No other force can so fill the night with presence, hear the unspoken fears, calm the uncertain stirrings when the dark is so strong that even shadows disappear. Here is the passionate outpouring of Wolpe's discovery of the God of his tradition. Wolpe presents the relationship between humanity and God as a creative partnership, illustrating his chapters on fear, death, and evil with vivid Misrashim . Although the tradition he uncovers is ancient, Wolpe's quest must be understood in the context of the nineties' search for a politics of meaning, for a new spirituality that transcends the rationalism and scientific inquiry that have so dominated Western thought.