The Book of Miracles: A Young Person's Guide to Jewish Spiritual Awareness : For Parents to Read to Their Children, for Children to Read to Their Pa - Softcover

Lawrence Kushner

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807403237 ISBN 13: 9780807403235

Publisher: Urj Press, 1987

Synopsis

Essays presenting the elements of Jewish spiritual thinking.

About this title

Review

The Book of Miracles: A Young Person's Guide to Jewish Spiritual Awareness brings Lawrence Kushner's funny, warm, smart perspective on Judaism to young readers. (This book will be most popular among kids ages 9 to 13.) Kushner's chapters on "Seeing," "Hearing," and "Doing" tell stories based on the Hebrew Scriptures in a style that is perfect for bedtime reading. "To be a Jew means to wake up and to keep your eyes open to the many beautiful, mysterious, and holy things that happen all around us every day," Kushner writes. "Many of them are like little miracles: when we wake up and see the morning light, when we taste food and grow strong, when we learn from others and grow wise, when we hug the people we love and feel warm." Kushner's goal in The Book of Miracles is to help children learn to ask good questions about spirituality by speaking directly to their concrete way of thinking and their voracious curiosity. The spiritual goal that Kushner guides children to assume is one that many adults will take for themselves as well. "The goal of spirituality is the bringing together of seeing, hearing, and doing into one whole person," he writes. "It is to see yourself mirrored in the heavens above and to realize that the Holy One created you personally to help complete the work of repairing the world." --Michael Joseph Gross

About the Author

Lawrence Kushner, author, lecturer and spiritual leader, is regarded as one of the most creative religious thinkers and writers in America. A commentator on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, he has focused us on spiritual renewal with wisdom and humor. Through his books and lectures, people of every faith and background have found inspiration and new strength for spiritual search and growth. It has been said that some spiritual leaders blend religion and psychology to help us walk better on the ground, but Lawrence Kushner draws on the wisdom of the mystics to help us dance better on the ceiling.

Kushner's acclaimed books include I’m God; You’re Not: Observations on Organized Religion & Other Disguises of the Ego; Honey from the Rock: An Easy Introduction to Jewish Mysticism; Invisible Lines of Connection: Sacred Stories of the Ordinary; The Book of Letters: A Mystical Hebrew Alphabet; Jewish Spirituality: A Brief Introduction for Christians; and In God’s Hands, an inspiring fable for children, with Gary Schmidt (all Jewish Lights).

Kushner served as rabbi at Congregation Beth El in Sudbury, Massachusetts, for almost thirty years; he is currently the Emanu-El scholar at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, and an adjunct faculty member at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion. He is fascinated by graphic design and computers (designing most of his Jewish Lights books). He enjoys Mozart, hanging around sailboats, and making his granddaughters giggle.

Edition details

• Publisher: Urj Press
• Publication date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807403237
• ISBN 13: 9780807403235
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Devis Grebu
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 80