Surprisingly happy
Subtitle: an atypical religious memoir
By: Sheila Peltz Weinberg
Publisher: White River Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Amherst, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 145
ISBN-13: 9781935052180
Description: "Are you happy because you are getting older or because you've found spiritual peace?" Co-founder of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality Rabbi Sheila Weinberg offers intriguing answers to that question in Surprisingly Happy: An Atypical Religious Memoir. Snapshots of Rabbi Weinberg's life, as told through poetry, prayers, and accounts of this Jewish Baby Boomer's experiences, offer clues about her search to find God, and carves a path for others to learn from her journey. It addresses her spiritual quests through yoga and meditation, and provides a candid look at her struggles with addiction, her philosophy of feminism, and her life as a wife, mother and grandmother. The book incorporates the author's eye witness accounts of many iconic events of her generation: the 1968 student protests at Columbia University; the challenges of the Peace Corps in Chile in the late 60s; the outbreak of the 1973 Yom Kippur War; the influence of Eastern practice on Western religion; the breakthrough of women into religious leadership; and the Feb. 15th, 2003 massive movement to stop the war in Iraq. Rabbi Weinberg also relates equally engaging anecdotes of less dramatic, yet impactful, rituals of everyday life: Senior prom, family, holidays, and a complex relationship with her mother. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: A life-long advocate for peace and justice, Rabbi Weinberg has been active in Rabbis for Human Rights, an international organization that gives voice to the Jewish search for justice. She is a co-founder of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality in New York City, and leads workshops and retreats for Jewish professionals and social justice activists.
Table of contents: title: Make me a sanctuary and I will dwell in your midst (Exodus 25:8); title: Rowe, Massachusetts, spring 2003; title: Saying Kaddish for Chester, winter 1945; title: Kaddish poem; title: Avinu av harachaman hamrachem racheym aleynu; title: Finding the picture of Chester; title: My father's mother's diamond ring, Purim 2006; title: Ramah and ramaz / Spring 1955; title: My father and the Torah, summer 1989; title: Etz chayyim he; title: My bat mitzvah, March 6, 1959; title: Senior prom, June 1962; title: Petach Tikvah, September, 1962; title: At Rachel's tomb, Bethlehem; title: Columbia University, April 1968; title: Puerto Aisen, Chile, September 1968; title: Jerusalem / Yom Kippur 1973; title: Scranton, Passover, 1975; title: Mt Airy, Elul 1977; title: Drinking and getting sober, Memorial Day weekend 1987; title: Compassion; title: My mother hates fatness; title: Walton Avenue, summer 1989; title: Lone purple tulip, Mexico, December 2006; title: Discovering meditation, Barre, July 1990; title: Ashrei yoshvei veytecha; title: Barton Poole, Summer 1992; title: Jack rabbit; title: The rabbi has shoulders, June 19, 1994; title: Dancing at camp, Summer 1996; title: Family reunion, the Catskills, summer 2001; title: Leaving lsrael, July 30, 1997; title: Buffet in Elat, March, 2002; title: A missionary to the Eskimos, Briarcliff Manor, 2003; title: Windfall Tebenkof Bay Southeast Alaska; title: Rocks; title: Stellar blue jays; title: Passover, 1977, Amherst 2002; title: Benevolent witness; title: The announcement, January 2006; title: Naming Hadassah, August 2006; title: As if; title: Conversation with my mother, September 2006; title: Flying home, October 2006; title: Hadassah's first birthday party, August 2007; title: That's the way it is; title: Our hands, October 2007; title: Shiviti Adonai l'negdi tamid.