Saying No and Letting Go: Jewish Wisdom on Making Room for What Matters Most

An inspiring introduction to the most important lesson for today's busy world: the take-away is to take away.

"All we can hope to accomplish―by paying attention―is to learn to live with the mystery, become more comfortable with not knowing and try to enjoy life's uncertainty. Every day is a gift, but we often squander it by missing what matters most."
―from the Introduction

Every day we are faced with choices that entail saying no―and frankly we’re not very good at it. Whether it’s the desire to please, get ahead, accumulate or impress, our lives have become so full and so busy that it is hard to determine what we really need and what’s really important to us.

The purpose of this book is to help you regain control of the things that matter most in your life. It taps timeless Jewish wisdom that teaches how to "hold on tightly" to the things that matter most while learning to “let go lightly” of the demands, worries, activities and conflicts that do not ultimately matter. Drawing insights from ancient and modern sources, it helps you identify your core values as well as the opportunities that do not reflect those values, and that you can learn to pass up. It also shows you how to establish a disciplined practice to help you adhere to your choices.

Whether it’s letting go of resentment, learning to say “no” at work or to your loved ones, downsizing your diet or asking less of the earth, this book will help you distinguish between the trivial and the profound.

Rabbi Edwin Goldberg, DHL, noted lecturer, is coordinator of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) editorial committee on the forthcoming High Holy Days prayer book. He is the incoming senior rabbi at Temple Sholom in Chicago and the former spiritual leader at Temple Judea in Coral Gables, Florida. He has a doctorate in Hebrew literature from Hebrew Union College. He is author of Saying No and Letting Go: Jewish Wisdom on Making Room for What Matters Most (Jewish Lights). He contributed to May God Remember: Memory and Memorializing in Judaism―Yizkor; We Have Sinned: Sin and Confession in Judaism―Ashamnu and Al Chet; All the World: Universalism, Particularism and the High Holy Days and Naming God: Avinu Malkeinu―Our Father, Our King (all Jewish Lights).

Rabbi Edwin Goldberg, DHL, is available to speak on the following topics:

• Can Swords Become Plowshares? Jewish Views on War and Peace
• Short, Short Stories from the Talmud and How They Can Change Our Lives
• Mindfulness and the Rebbes: Why Liberal Jews Should Learn about Chasidism
• A Brief but Vital History of Modern Israel
• Saying No and Letting Go: Jewish Wisdom and Texts on Doing Much More with Less

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Rabbi Naomi Levy, the best-selling author of To Begin Again and Talking to God, is spiritual leader of Nashuva, a groundbreaking Jewish outreach organization based in Los Angeles.