Finding God in the Garden: Backyard Reflections on Life, Love, and Compost [Hardcover]

Balfour Brickner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2002

Grieving after the death of a beloved daughter, Rabbi Balfour Brickner struggled with his faith while preparing a flowerbed. One day the rabbi found himself writing down the thoughts that came to him as he turned the soil, and observing nature's abundant examples of order and renewal, miracles and beauty, Rabbi Brickner found his faith returning like a garden in spring.

Using the garden as a sanctuary and springboard, Rabbi Brickner considers the lessons to be learned from the tasks of caring for the land, the wonder of a garden in full bloom, and the connections between Biblical teachings and botanical life. FINDING GOD IN THE GARDEN is a passionate, witty, and provocative celebration of mature religious faith derived through nature, reason, and the joys of everyday work.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Drawing spiritual parallels to the garden is nothing new, but Brickner takes it a step further, using his garden as a platform to expound fairly heavy-handedly on theology and contemporary issues. Brickner, who has been a Reform rabbi for more than 45 years and gardens in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts, self-admittedly came late to the passion of this particular hobby. The more I gardened, the more I began to learn about life, about what religion tries to teach and what faith tries to deepen, he writes. Here, he attempts to mesh his pleasure in gardening with his conviction that the laws of nature reflect the role of reason as a way to find and strengthen faith. Many of the gardening parallels deal with grief, loss and healing not surprising, as he shares that he is twice-divorced and lost his teenage daughter in a tragic accident. Brickner is at his best when extracting gentle parallels between gardening and the spiritual life; however, general-interest readers may find themselves bogged down when he expounds on weighty topics, free will, premarital sex, homosexuality, Christianity, prayer, physician-assisted death and miracles, rather than talking compost and peonies. The use of references imbedded in parentheses occasionally keeps the text from flowing smoothly. Those who love the natural world and enjoy digging deeper into Jewish theology in a logical, reasoned way will find much to ponder here; readers looking for a more intuitive book that blends gardening and faith may be a bit overwhelmed.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The rabbi of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue relates his gardening experiences, which helped him overcome the death of his daughter.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown; 1st edition (August 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316248711
• ISBN-13: 978-0316248716
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,379,769 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Delightful Blossom!, May 3, 2003

By 

Barbara Cohen (CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Finding God in the Garden: Backyard Reflections on Life, Love, and Compost (Hardcover)

This book was an unexpected pleasure to read. When I first saw it, there was some hesitancy on my part to read it. I thought it would be filled with cliche metaphors, but in reality, there was a deep spiritual wisdom that blossomed with the unfolding of each page. Rabbi Brickner makes beautiful comparisions betweeen that which we have in our guardians, on the one hand, and that which we have in our hearts and spirits as Jews on the other. I became enlightened on both matters of botany and the Bible. This book was a true joy and will be satisfying to anyone who reads it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a perfect companion, April 21, 2003

By 

Rebecca Brown "rebeccasreads" (Clallam Bay, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Finding God in the Garden: Backyard Reflections on Life, Love, and Compost (Paperback)

Highly recommended ...

FINDING GOD IN THE GARDEN is for everyone who digs in this earth of Eden, who has ever wondered what that First Garden & its First Gardeners might have been like.

A man in the autumn of his life, speaks about his decades as a spiritual coach, as an interpreter of things Biblical & religious & as a newcomer to gardening both in the micro- & macrocosmic sense.

From how sex became sinful & how it never was meant to be; of how weeds are the manifestations unwanted evils & how we humans do differ from our animal cousins. Of how to think about God within the context of our lives as well as how to think of the land as a primal learning place.

Woven between Rabbi Brickner's memories of gardens he has tended, are his musings of philosophies both Judaic & Christian as he playfully & seriously explores the meaning of soul & prayer, of compost & death, free will & miracles, fertilizers & sacred human activities, of sitting & thinking, healing.

Easily accessible, charmingly written, Rabbi Brickner has poured into this gentle & fascinating book, a host of kind wisdom & offers us bouquet after bouquet of joyous soulful & healing thoughts.

Very well done, one of those books you will keep for each season of your garden & your life.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So Meaningful For Out Times!, September 12, 2005

By 

Leslie Gottlieb (New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Finding God in the Garden: Backyard Reflections on Life, Love, and Compost (Hardcover)

This is an incredible book that speaks to many issues we confront today -- from the meaning of life and death to sex and love -- to social activisim -- with a little gardening as well!

Offering humor and wisdom Brickner welcomes us into his world - and shows us how to better manage and live our own lives with more meaning and purpose.