Simple Words: Thinking About What Really Matters In Life - Hardcover

Steinsaltz, Adin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 068484642X ISBN 13: 9780684846422

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1999

Synopsis

Focusing on simplicity and practical application, a rabbi and Talmudic scholar selects out the "simple" words that the heart of spiritual life, building a practical philosophy of daily living around them. Tour.

About this title

About the Author

Adin Steinsaltz is internationally regarded as one of the leading scholars and rabbis of the modern era. His well-known multivolume translation and commentary to the Talmud is currently being published in Hebrew, English, and other languages. He has been a resident scholar at academic institutions in Europe and the United States, among them Yale University and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and is a recipient of the Israel Prize.

Reviews

In the tradition of Harold S. Kushner (When Bad Things Happen to Good People, 1981), Jerusalem-based talmudic scholar Steinsaltz expounds upon simple words to embrace both Jewish and non-Jewish readers. Steinsaltz, well-known for his popular translation of the Talmud, here offers a homespun presentation of disparate subjects: words, nature, spirit and matter, faith, good deeds, sex, death, envy, Hollywood, masks, friends, family, love and God. Steinsaltz uses elementary language and anecdotal homilies to explain these topics for readers who may or may not be religious. Several of his observations are insightful, especially his argument that envy is not necessarily bad; it can lead to rivalry, which in turn can foster creativity and intellectual growth. Many times, however, "simple" descends into the simplistic, as when he overstates that Hollywood's dream world as depicted in foreign-run movies may have "played a more powerful role in destroying the Soviet regime than all the military vehicles of the United States." Overall, the chapters are a series of missed opportunities: while Steinsaltz notes that "the hidden wisdom of commonplace words is sometimes startling," for example, his opening discussion of words disregards the idea that language not only expresses our ideas but also helps to shape them. In his determination to demystify complex phenomena, Steinsaltz oversimplifies ideas that require a more nuanced, sophisticated approach. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Rabbi Steinsaltz, the impetus behind the monumental Steinsaltz Talmud (a translation of that work into English) and author of Biblical Images (1984) and many other works, offers meditations on the ``simple words and notions . . . we use [that] contain very complex ideas'': nature, friends, family, God, etc. The essays are a mixed bag, some stale, some spiked with indisputable insight. In ``Sex,'' Steinsaltz forcefully argues that to imbue lovemaking with questions of ownership is a distortion; leave ownership for food and money, says Steinsaltz, but focus on giving when you're in bed with your lover. And yet Steinsaltz's reflections on love are particularly unsatisfying. He defines love as a feeling, ``the emotion of attraction toward an objectthe beloved,'' rather than a choice, a commitment, a mode of living toward one's beloved. The reader is left wondering what Steinsaltz would suggest for those moments when the feeling has evaporated, replaced only by annoyance that our beloved bought the wrong brand of o.j. It is tempting to describe Simple Words as a Jewish version of Kathleen Norris's Amazing Grace, but there is little in these pages that is explicitly Jewish. Parsed another way: unlike Steinsaltz's earlier forays into Jewish mysticism or the Talmud, Simple Words should enjoy a wide, diverse readership. Nonetheless, it is food for thought that one of Israel's most revered rabbis has written a collection of essays in many ways indistinguishable from the musings of a Benedictine oblate. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 068484642X
• ISBN 13: 9780684846422
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 224