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Finding Each Other in Judaism: Remarkable New Book Jewish rituals, originally designed to bring people closer to God, are too often experienced as empty ceremonies, with actions and words entirely divorced from the deep spiritual and ethical beliefs they once stood for. In Finding Each Other in Judaism, a new book from the URJ PRESS, Reform rabbi and author Harold Schulweis seeks to reconnect the ceremonies surrounding the Jewish rites of passage with the complex meanings which underlie them. "The task is to repair the rupture between act and purpose…and in so doing, enable the participants to find themselves and each other in a larger Jewish life," Schulweis writes. Focusing on the rituals surrounding birth and brit, marriage, conversion to Judaism, divorce, sickness, and death and dying, Finding Each Other in Judaism informs and enlightens through verse meditations and extended prose sections that draw from the Torah, the sages of the rabbinic era, and Jewish thinkers from Maimonides to Martin Buber. Schulweis, the senior rabbi of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, CA, and author of For Those Who Can't Believe, another book on Jewish spirituality, sees the rituals of Jewish life-cycle events as unique opportunities to connect with God. These rituals, when performed with thought and feeling, can lead those who participate toward transformation and self-renewal. The first and most important step toward undergoing these changes, Schulweis writes, is recognizing the Image of God, the qualities with in us that were made in God's likeness, that exist within all of us. "The appreciation, cultivation, and refinement of the Image of God is the spiritual subtext of the rites of passage. The liturgy and ritual drama expressed in these rites commit and recommit us to this evolution," Schulweis says. Each chapter is dedicated to one ritual, with prose and poetry on how that ritual can lead its practicioners to heal both themselves and the world. According to Schulweis, the rituals surrounding the birth and brit (initiation ceremony) of new lives provides a chance to "give thanks for the renewal of Creation;" the bar/bat mitzvah allows parents and children to re-examine their relationship and enter into a new "covenant of understanding." The wedding ceremony gives us a chance to reflect on the joining of two separate "Images of God," and the shattering the glass can lead participants and guests to ruminate on "the duty of the couple, gifted by love, to enter the world and make whole that which is fragmented;" and the funeral service, Kaddish, and yahrzeit allow mourners to consider how they might continue the spiritual legacy of the deceased. Finding Each Other in Judaism has already received a wealth of critical praise from across Judaism's four major denominations. Irving Greenberg, Orthodox rabbi and president of the Jewish Life Network, has called the book "a remarkable mix of philosophy, psychology, and poetry," and Schulweis a "true sage steeped in the human wisdom of Judaism and life itself." Dr. David Leiber, president emeritus of the Conservative Movement's University of Judaism, calls Finding Each Other in Judaism a "valuable book by a master preacher and teacher;" and Rabbi Harold Kushner, auther of When Bad Things Happen to Good People, refers to it as "a splendid and luminous book." Finding Each Other in Judaism has a publishing date of May 21, 2001. It can be ordered by contacting the URJ PRESS toll-free at (888) 489-UAHC (8242), or by visiting the Press's Web site at www.URJPress.com. The URJ PRESS is the publishing arm of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the central body of Reform Judaism in North America. which represents1.5 million Reform Jews in 906 congregations in the United States and Canada. Other UAHC services include camps, outreach to unaffiliated and intermarried Jews, adult education programs, and the Religious Action Center in Washington, DC. ### 6/01
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