Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

The next book we won was written by a friend of several people in our congregation: Rabbi Alan Lew. We had already a book by him (“This is real and you are completely unprepared“) that our rabbi quoted from before the last High Holy Days. “Be still and get going” is Lew’s latest, book published in 2005. Its subtitle is direct about the book in a different way than the title: “A Jewish meditation practice for real life.” The official description reads:

A guide to deepening our understanding of ourselves and our place in the world through meditation and a new reading of traditional Jewish texts. Rabbi Alan Lew is the founder of the country’s first meditation center connected to a synagogue. For the past 10 years, he has been teaching his congregation how two ancient traditions-classical Jewish writings and Zen meditation-can shed light on each other in electrifying ways.

I only read so far the introduction, but I already like the book. It explains not just how the thinking/meditating/teaching behind the book was born, but also why the combination of normative Judaism and Zen meditation can be more fruitful and rewarding than recreating lost Kabbalistic rituals. I also enjoyed the style of Lew as he retold a known midrash and explained how its meaning has been changed in recent retellings, where the ending was changed. The lesson learned is, or should be, that the treasure is often in plain sight ant buried deep, i.e. in Kabbalah. I hope you will enjoy too the books, which has these inspiring chapter titles:

1. Transformation
2. Suffering
3. The inner roots of conflict
4. Don’t be afraid!
5. Sacred emptiness
6. In the transformed world
7. Revelation
8. The overflowing cup