Travels with the Evil Inclination: A Rabble-Rousing Renegade Rabbi's Story

According to Jewish theology, the "Evil Inclination," or yetzer ha-ra, is the small inner voice that tempts us into doing wrong. In a tone at once witty and heartfelt, Rabbi Gershon Winkler, a.k.a. the “stand-up theologian,” tells stories of his own struggles with that voice as he passes from yeshiva boy with a strong libido, to earnest infantryman, to Orthodox rabbi, to redneck ranch hand, to the respected "rabbinic trickster" and scholar he is today. Travels with the Evil Inclination offers a tongue-in-cheek account of a most unusual life journey, a humorous and sometimes exaggerated tale of personal spiritual dissolution and re-emergence. This moving story of his transition from orthodoxy to what the author calls “flexidoxy” will inspire, entertain, and provoke as Winkler explores roads not only less traveled but virtually unmapped.

Rabbi Gershon Winkler, initiated in Jerusalem by the late Kabbalist Rabbi Eliezer Benseon, has devoted his energy over the past decade to revive and make accessible the aboriginal elements of Judaism. A frequent lecturer and workshop facilitator across the United States and Israel, Winkler is both a student and practitioner of this lesser-studied dimension of ancient Jewish mystery tradition. He is the author of eleven books Jewish mysticism, philosophy, and folklore. He lives with his family in the remote wilderness of San Miguel, New Mexico, where he runs the Walking Stick Foundation and Retreat Center.