Customer Reviews

Israel-A Spiritual Travel Guide: A Companion for the Modern Jewish Pilgrim

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It is the must companion for any traveler to Israel. The blurb says it best, "the other travel books tell you how to get there, Hoffman tells you why to go and what to do when you're there." Hoffman, a Professor of Liturgy at HUC-JIR, is best known for his book, "What Is A Jew?" His travel guide is in four sections. The first contains eighteen (chai) meditations to be read before embarking on one's trip to Israel. The second section is on preparations for "the eve before the trip." Section three focuses on "How to prepare while on the way." And Section four is filled with 25 specific pilgrimage destinations for the traveler. For each site, such as The Kotel or a Kibbutz, Professor Hoffman provides THE FOUR A's -- four sections on "Anticipation," "Approach," "Acknowledgment," and "Afterthought." In Anticipation, one reads an overview of the sight; Approach contains biblical, rabbinic and other writings about the site; Acknowledgment is filled with prayers or readings for you to recite at your destination; and Afterthought provides a blank space in which you may record your feelings, emotions, or just plain journal entries that you can keep forever. This is an excellent companion for a trip to Israel.

Hoffman has given all travelers to Israel a great gift with this innovative new volume. Forget dry recitations of dates and so forth (though the essentials are here.) This guide explain WHY you are there and opens the door of understanding to what you might feel inside.

Rather than describe the way things are, Hoffman gives you the tools to discover what these places really are and what they can mean to you as an individual.

Highly, highly recommended. And if you ever have a chance to hear Hoffman lecture, do that also.

Dan Lavin

As a first time traveler to Israel, I found this book to be an extremely helpful guide for both mind and soul. It is well organized and it provides a great framework to prepare you spirtually for the trip as well as each remarkable location when you are there. I felt connected to the places I visited, to the people who have come before me, and to God. I was able to reflect on how the experiences affected me each day. This book helped me to organize my thoughts and memories that I will cherish forever. I am grateful to the author for his hard work in creating this well written book.

Hoffman, a prolific author of scholarly and popular works on Jewish liturgy, now offers the first guide that speaks to the many travelers to Israel who visit for spiritual growth, not suntanning. Full of inspired suggestions for spiritual preparation, meditations, and prayers.

One important caveat: Hoffman, surprisingly, includes a self-composed Jewish prayer to be said on the Temple Mount. Visitors should be aware that, in order to avoid tensions with the Mount's Muslim administrators, it is ILLEGAL for non-Muslims to pray on the Temple Mount, and any non-Muslim caught doing so faces immediate expulsion and prosecution.

Apart from this oversight, Hoffman's guide is essential for anyone making a spiritual pilgrimage to Israel.

When I went on my Birthright Israel trip, I was like many young Jewish people and just didn't know all that much about my religion and it's history.
Aside from prayers and tips on how you can approach these places with a more spiritual frame of mind, it also gives you the requisite history about it. And it's a tiny book and an easy read, so you can even read the section on the place you're going to during the bus ride there, or even the night before you go. This made a huge impact on what I got out of my trip to Israel.
Another book I recommend for a similar reason, and you can check out my review of that one too, is Telushkin's Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People and Its History

I'm usually fairly generous with ratings but I must say this book is not what I expected. I read when first received and then tried to look at it again before our trip to Israel. We did not bring it with us. It did not fit in our agenda.

But I did later, and it often moved me to tears. It is not a "guidebook" but rather a set of spiritual reflections on many places in Israel. I do understand why some people didn't like it - it IS highly idiosyncratic - there were things included that I might not have, and some things I wish were there. But if you are going to Israel for the first time, I highly recommend this book.

Response to this book will inevitably be highly individual, but I for one was quite disappointed with it, and surprised by that. I liked the *concept* of this book, but I found the actual content to be not very interesting nor profound. Maybe someone else would respond differently. Profundity is a lot to ask, of course, but the title promises a lot. I think Rabbi Hoffman would have been better advised to write a good deal less and compile a lot more. But that's a different book.

This is a great book to have with you on your trip to Israel. The readings and blessings add so much to an already special experience.

Had to return this book. Chunks of it were written in Hebrew script with a romanized translation underneath followed by an English translation.