This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared: The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation - Hardcover

Lew, Alan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316739081 ISBN 13: 9780316739085

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2003

Synopsis

There are times in life when we are caught utterly unprepared: a death in the family, the end of a relationship, a health crisis. These are the times when the solid ground we thought we stood on disappears beneath our feet, leaving us reeling and heartbroken, as we stumble back to our faith.

The Days of Awe encompass the weeks preceding Rosh Hashanah up to Yom Kippur, a period in which Jews take part in a series of rituals and prayers that reenact the journey of the soul through the world from birth to death. This is a period of contemplation and repentance, comparable to Lent and Ramadan. Yet, for Rabbi Alan Lew, the real purpose of this annual passage is for us to experience brokenheartedness and open our heart to God. In This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared, Lew has marked out a journey of seven distinct stages, one that draws on these rituals to awaken our soul and wholly transform us. Weaving together Torah readings, Buddhist parables, Jewish fables and stories from his own life, Lew lays bare the meanings of this ancient Jewish passage. He reveals the path from terror to acceptance, confusion to clarity, doubt to belief, and from complacency to awe.

In the tradition of When Bad Things Happen to Good People, This Is Real And You Are Completely Unprepared enables believers of all faiths to reconnect to their faith with a passion and intimacy that will resonate throughout the year.

About this title

About the Author:

Rabbi Alan Lew was the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Sholom in San Francisco for over a decade. He is the author of One God Clapping: The Spiritual Path of a Zen Rabbi, winner of PEN Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence, and numerous works of poetry.

Review:

"...a brilliant, honest, edifying, funny, engaging-as-a-suspense-novel...transformation is possible!" -- Sylvia Boorstein, author of Pay Attention, For Goodness' Sake

"...conveys Jewish spiritual concepts in emotional terms that speak powerfully to the modern reader..." -- Avivah Zornberg, author of The Beginnings of Desire: Reflections on Genesis

"...takes us from...hope to spiritual depth and peace in this briliant, sensitive, inspiring book..." -- Laura Schlessinger

"...wise, scholarly and compassionate...a revelation to those who have celebrated without awareness..." -- Rachel Naomi Remen, MD

"This is Judaism at its most profound, fountainhead of th ebest of Western religious thought..." -- Norman Fischerm author of Taking Our Places

"[These] stories...contain the wisdom of the sages..." -- Bernie Siegel, author of Love, Medicine and Miracles

About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0316739081
• ISBN 13: 9780316739085
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288