Customer Reviews

Being Jewish

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Now that Lieberman is running for Vice President, everyone, including American Jews, are curious about Jewish religious practice. Goldman, a former reporter at The New York Times, a graduate of Harvard Divinity, an Orthodox pluralist, and a journalism Professor at Columbia, writes on the current state of American Jewry - a state that is definitely not homogenous. It is a must read. It will be to the year 2000 what The Jewish Catalog was to the 1970's. Goldman began writing the book during a sabbatical in Jerusalem in 1997, where he met not only great teachers and had access to great libraries, but he met pulpit rabbis on their individual sabbaticals. They gave him great insight into current Jewish practice and the lives of average American Jews. It is segmented into three sections: life, year, and day; or Jewish life cycle events; the Jewish calendar/holidays; and the Jewish day from morning prayers (or lack thereof) to bedtime. In each section he congently explains jewish rituals and practices. Each sub section ends with "The Basics", which provides a nice summary on each topic. What makes this book stand above all the clutter is the addition of Goldman's personal stories, like that of his placement of his ill mother in a hospice run by the Catholic diocese, and his sections titled "Variation on a Theme." These "Variations" include the anecdotal yet insightful stories of the person who buys a pork filled hot dog on Passover, but doesn't eat the leavened hot dog bun; the NJ orthodontist who wears tzitzis even though he is not observant of other Jewish laws; the family that avoids shellfish on Shabbat; the community leader who drives on Shabbat, but avoids freeways, restricting himself to the local roads; and the journalist who observes Shabbat on Monday evenings and Tuesdays since he must work on weekends. Are they hypocrites? No, they are merely reaching for the divine, and that is what Being Jewish is all about.

I bought this book after a few years of not being interested in being a Jew or following any Jewish traditions. However I did maintain a group of orthodox friends throughout that time but I was simply turned off by Judaism all together. After a trip to Israel this past summer, I became very interested in my religion and felt a need to get myself involved again ...but I had forgotten so much about various traditions and laws that I didn't know where to start. A good friend of mine recommended this book to me and after reading it I feel I understand more about various Jewish practices and feel comfortable in allowing Judaism into my life again. Goldman himself claims to be a "Orthodox pluralist" where he believes that the "right answer for me is not the right answer for everyone" and describes how each person can choose/accept different aspects of Judaism that fit them. Its important to remember that when reading the book...this book is a good introduction to being Jewish but understand that actions and participating in Judaism is important but being Jewish really begins with what is in your heart. And that is something Goldman left unsaid in this book.

I'm newly interested in Judaism, and I found this book to be very helpful in straightening out all the different pratices in Judaism today. Goldman writes in a way where he doesn't come across as thinking one way of doing something is better than another way, and I really appriciate that.

Being Jewish gives a comprehensive account of the spiritual and cultural practices of Judaism. Similar in content to Anita Diamant's Living A Jewish Life, Being Jewish discusses the many life cycle events of Judaism as well as the holidays and common practices of prayer, giving tzedakah, keeping kosher, etc..

An advantage of Being Jewish is the more specific examples of how the different denominations practice some of the customs of Judaism. The book has a very modern appeal and that is a plus.

However, the author does tend to cite a few times too many that there are people who vary the practice of Judaism to their own needs. To paraphrase the author, there are six million jews and six million interpretations. Whereas some Jews alter their beleifs somewhat, I would say its a bit extreme to say that Judaism can be catered to the individual. Goldman eventually does focus in on the core foundations of each custom, holiday, etc.

And its the history behind each ceremony that makes this book stand tall. Goldman really gives a very good account on the history of the Brith noting the rise and the fall of its prominence in today's society. He also gives a nice history of the first Bat Mitzvah and how this trend has caught the attention of the Jewish Community. Some good summaries from the Bible are included to illustrate such points of marriage and keeping kosher. Even issues of vegatarianism are discussed as a part of the stories of Noah and Adam.

Some good summaries exists at the end of each chapter which make for easy learning. One can utilize the Bibliography as a guide for suggested readings even if it is not too extensive.

A good guide for those intersted in pursuing Judaism further. It provides a good hsitorical point of view while adding a modern touch.

If you are looking for a solid overview of traditional Jewish ritual practice, this book is a good place to start. Goldman begins with the rituals that mark "life events" (birth, coming of age, wedding, death), then runs through the annual festival calendar, and finally turns to daily ritual acts, such as prayer, keeping kosher, hospitality toward guests, sex, charity, and Torah study. For each of these, Goldman essentially takes you through the traditional ritual from beginning to end (with some rituals described in more detail than others).

What I found disappointing was the narrowness of the focus. The subtitle of the book is "The Spiritual and Cultural Practice of Judaism Today," but it really should have been "The Practice of Orthodox Judaism Today." Although Goldman notes in passing where Conservative and Reform (and, very occasionally, Reconstructionist) Judaism differ from Orthodox practice, he plainly considers Orthodoxy to be the "real" Judaism. He claims that "you don't have to do it all" (26) and that he intends to show that all idiosyncratic practices (such as the man who eats his non-kosher ham and cheese sandwich on matzah during Passover) are "efforts to reach for the holy" (32). Yet what he is really asking is "why don't these people do more?" And his "hope" is to make (Orthodox) ritual more accessible, so that more people will make more of it part of their lives. (32-33) I don't mean to suggest that there is anything wrong with this goal; it's just that both the subtitle and the book jacket are misleading to the extent they suggest that this book celebrates the variety of spiritual experiences and practice within Judaism.

"Being Jewish" is also somewhat lacking in the "spiritual" aspect advertised in the subtitle. Given the amount of territory Goldman covers in only 280 pages, it's probably not surprising that the mechanical details of the rituals predominate. But only a few chapters (particularly those on the Sabbath and prayer) gave me any sense of the spiritual experience that one might find in these rituals.

Last but not least, I remain troubled by a statement in the last chapter of the book, concerning the study of Torah. Goldman describes the Orthodox approach as treating both the Written and the Oral Torah as the revealed word of God, and the act of studying as an act of devotion. He then describes the "historical and critical" approach to the texts taken by the non-Orthodox rabbinical seminaries, and concludes that "You cannot both critique and fully revere texts at the same time." (259-60) (To be fair, Goldman also notes that the "faith-based approach" often flies in the face of historical fact.) This conclusion, that critique and reverence are fundamentally at odds, seems to me to be symptomatic of Goldman's attitude throughout the book. If you define "fully revere" as "accept uncritically," then of course reverence and critique are mutually incompatible. What Goldman fails to acknowledge (here and elsewhere) is that there may be other ways to "fully revere" the text (or to respect traditions and rituals) that have the same spiritual impact for particular individuals as traditional observance plainly has for Goldman.

Shows with specific examples how Jews from a wide variety of life and intellectual perspectives search for G-d in their everyday activities.

I love this book, had originally gotten a copy from the library and wanted one of my own. Book arrived very well packaged and just as listed.

This is a really good book for anyone to get a general understanding of Jewish religion, its different movements, and its culture. I read it for a class I'm taking, Contemporary Jewish Literature, and it was a great introduction to the Jewish culture so that we can better understand the novels we're reading later. Goldman does a good job giving all the details of rituals and holidays without bogging down the reader. He also describes how many variations there are in the way Jews live out their culture without holding one movement above the other.

The fact that this was written by an Orthodox pluralist (a contradiction in terms if there ever was one) makes it worth picking up alone. Given the traditional antagonism that Orthodox have for any Jew that is not Orthodox, this author's ability to strike a balanced tone was an achievement in and of itself.

This book was very carefully written. While the author's knowledge of Judaism was obviously very great, one could clearly sense that he chose what he thought was essential and left the more esoteric details for the reader to consult with a rabbi about. One example is when the author described the differences between the branches of Judaism (Orthodox, Conservative, etc...). Rather than get into a technical discussion of the position of each on Jewish law, he simply made (what may have been an inappropriate) analogy between the Divine and the Jewish people to different types of relationships that are common amongst between real people (Father, Mother, etc....). As one who aspires to pass a rabbinical court someday, I do actually know some of the technical terms/ arguments that he left out. But when I pretend to be someone who has never opened any book on Judaism, his explanations were adequate (yet not overwrought with detail).

I never knew that there was SO MUCH Jewish ritual. No wonder nearly everyone in the United States is secular! If you followed the entire Jewish law to the letter, there would be time for nothing else in life. That also explains why the Haredim live such restricted, closely circumscribed lives. And why they live in communities. If there weren't a lot of people around you doing the same elaborate rituals, it would be all but impossible to explain their value to a child!

The section on the varieties of Judaism flowed very smoothly from the sections on rituals. After all, taking all the total number of permutations of the 613 mitzvot there are actually more possible types of Judaism than there are extant Jews at any given moment.

One thing that might have improved what was already a very good book: A bit more detailed discussion about the differences between Ashkenazim and Sephardim as pertains to customs. For example, he mentioned antagonism between Ashkenazim and Sephardim, but didn't give us any reasons for the bad feelings-- or describe to us at which level it might have existed.

It's well worth the second hand purchase price.

This was a great read! I learned about all parts of Judaism, and the book is arranged in a great way. It starts about talking about the Jewish life, (i.e. bar mitzvahs, marriage), then the Jewish year (i.e., Yom Kippur, Passover), then the Jewish day (i.e., daily prayer, kosher foods). It's certainly the best book to get a complete overview of Judaism.