Godwrestling, Round 2: Ancient Wisdom, Future Paths [Paperback]

Arthur I. Waskow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1998

Award winner, Best Religion Book of the Year.

What do we need to do to turn our "religion" into our lives?

Wrestle with it.

Penetrating, original, and exhilarating, Godwrestling--Round 2 plunges us into that wrestle: A spiral of discovery on which we go back to draw from the ancient wisdom of texts, history, and experience, so we can move forward and recognize the future paths open to us.

By searching with ruthless honesty for truths in his own life and his own faith, Waskow grapples with some of the most profound, piercing, potentially rewarding religious issues of our day.

In this soul-baring account of religious adventure, a sequel to his 1978 classic that helped pioneer the Jewish renewal movement, Waskow brings us along on a creative encounter with his--and our--spiritual identity and its connections with God, family, ecology, feminism, education, politics, and more. He throws us anew into the passion of the wrestle, and leads us to places in our awareness that most of us have never even dreamed of.

With this incisive spiritual biography, Waskow once again challenges us to confront the past and envision the future as we would like to make it. . .and to turn the wrestle into a dance.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Twenty years ago, Waskow entered the ring with God and wrote of his experiences in Godwrestling (Schocken, 1978), a book instrumental in establishing the Jewish renewal movement. Twenty years later, Waskow is still wrestling, and his reflections on his bouts with God and traditional Judaism are gathered here. With his typical penetrating insight, Waskow crafts a series of midrashim on Torah that integrate the spiritual lessons of Judaism with social issues like ecology and feminism. Waskow's great humor and social vision make this a significant addition to all libraries.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The New Yorker

A delicious read and a soaring meditation....transforms Godwrestling into dancing.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Jewish Lights Pub (February 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1879045729
• ISBN-13: 978-1879045729
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,882,254 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but loses steam towards the end..., September 13, 2000

By 

Tim Lieder "Founder of Dybbuk Press" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Godwrestling--Round 2: Ancient Wisdom, Future Paths (Hardcover)

While Jewish Renewel by Michael Lerner is the classic of the genre, this is the pre-eminent books for giving Jews a feeling of spirituality and a mission to great spiritual energy. This is something that is oft-times missing in the Reform, Conservative and even Orthodox movements. This is a great book to give to anyone who is Jewish and trying to be a Wiccan, as Arthur Waskow admits that he takes much of his material from Judaism, while Starhawk tries to pass off her philosophy as secret teachings of Celts or something silly like that. Environmentalism, liberal politics, and feminism were never foreign topics to Judaism. Waskow is one of the Renewelists that reminds us of this fact.

Waskow's midrash are interesting. Some of them give new insights into the text, others go a little too much to the personal. The book of Genesis is about brothers fighting but that's not ALL it's about, for example. Other times he tries to impose his politics a little too much into Halacka - such as the Jubilee being a time to give Israeli Land to Arabs as part of the peace talks.

Particularly enlightening is the material concerning his marriage, how the first one broke up and the ceremonies he keeps to keep the second one.

Problems that I have with this book that I didn't have a few years ago when I read it:

Waskow automatically assumes that Orthodox Judaism is outdated and sexist.

Several times he "reinterprets" Halacka to suit his own needs because he doesn't agree with the Talmud. This is great for getting people interested in Judaism and getting people excited by Halacka - but "they did the same thing" doesn't really hold water, as "they" were Rabbi Akiva, Hillel, Rabbi Judah the Prince, Jonathan, and hundreds of others with Maimonides, Rashi, Ran, Nachmanides interpreting their works and adding to it. Waskow may be a decent scholar in his own right, but he doesn't measure up to these guys.

This is a great read and an invigorating book for people unfamiliar with the more spiritual aspects of Judaism and see it as what they train for when they are 13 and what is keeping them from marrying their shiksa girlfriends. However, the last 50 or so pages has the author trying to work out some plan from his writings as to where to take Judaism. It is here where the book stumbles. As Renewelist services are largely "make-it-up-as-you-go-along" it's kind of impossible to state anything definitive about them. However, there is a serious hippie mentality to them that turns off people who don't like to be hugged by strangers. Waskow assumes that everyone if given a choice would want to be in this kind of Rainbow Gathering inspired ceremony.

This is an interesting book and one of the more spiritual books you might read if you aren't particularly interested in traditional Judaism, but it suffers from its own Chutzpah.