Being Jewish: The Spiritual and Cultural Practice of Judaism Today
Being Jewish: The Spiritual and Cultural Practice of Judaism  Todaybegins with a legend. "In the months before a Jewish child is born, it  is visited in the womb by the Angel Gabriel. There, in the warmth and silence of  the mother's body, the angel teaches the baby all of Jewish learning--the Torah,  the rituals, the holidays, the deepest truths of Jewish wisdom. The baby absorbs  it all, just as it takes nourishment from its mother. But suddenly, as the baby  is about to be thrust into the world to eat and breathe on its own, the angel  presents it with a similar intellectual challenge. Right before birth, Gabriel  strikes the child on the upper lip, and all the teachings are instantly  forgotten."Being Jewish, by the formerNew York Timesreligion  reporter Ari L. Goldman, takes up where the legend of "Gabriel and the Infants"  leaves off. The book presumes, as the legend suggests, that "Jewish knowledge is  not external, removed from life, but something inside: the very stuff of life  that must be reckoned and recovered." Incorporating elements of memoir, history,  theology, and cultural criticism, Goldman's book is a guide for the rediscovery  of Judaism's essential traditions, organized in three sections that correspond  to cycles of Jewish life ("The Jewish Life," "The Jewish Year," and "The Jewish  Day"). This is a beautifully written distillation of the learning and wisdom of  one of the best religion journalists of our time.--Michael Joseph Gross--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.