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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Familiar and foreign, all at once, January 3, 2000
I was born into a family of Holocaust survivors who had the "misfortune" (their perspective) to be born Jews at a time (pre-WW I) and place (Austro-Hungarian Empire) when anti-Semitism was official policy. They regarded Jewishness as a handicap - not to be denied but certainly not to be practiced or celebrated. My parents were raised as "Christmas-Tree Jews" ("It's for the maid, of course") and raised us the same way. I didn't set foot into a synagogue until I was well into my 40s. After an intense relationship foundered on the rocks of religious differences, I decided to explore this religion that was getting me into trouble without any knowledge or effort on my part. (Coincidentally, my older sister embarked on the same search at about the same time, and independently of one another, we have wound up in the same place.) While my spiritual needs are nowhere near as intense as Rabbi Firestone's, and it never occurred to me to seriously explore other faiths, our individual searches led us both to the Jewish Renewal movement. I approached this book expecting to read of a journey similar to mine, and was quite surprised to see how radically different it was! We both began with Judaism and wound up back there, but her search took her to places far beyond anything I ever seriously considered for myself. I was surprised to read of her search through the entire supermarket of New Age belief systems, and gratified to see how open she was to the influences of other faiths. I believe that there is something of value in every religion, and have tried to find a way to synthesize a practice that incorporates it all - hence the attractiveness of the Renewal movement, which I believe does so better than any other form of religious practice. And it's especially gratifying to know that this intelligent seeker came home again and found her place within Judaism. I hope our paths cross some day. I found the book fascinating reading - she is articulate, insightful, and honest. That said, I must also say that I do not share her adherence to Jungian precepts, and found those passages slow going. But here again, she demonstrates her ability to assimilate what she needs and incorporate it into a system that works for her within the greater context of Judaism. That's nothing but good, and I am encouraged that she - and maybe also I - will continue to seek and find and create a belief system that meets her needs within the flexible framework of Jewish practice. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the general subject of spiritual searching.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
She Shows The Dark Underbelly of Orthodox Judaism, March 2, 2000
I could really relate to this book in many ways. I was raised in a very traditional Jewish household, left that branch of Judaism, explored the New Age, and also still practice Judaism (I never really left it). I really love and admire this book. Firestone shows in sad detail what often happens when a child from a very religious background decides to head off in another direction - the parents, relatives, and community shun him or her. As I read along in the book, and I saw Firestone falling in love with her husband-to-be (a Protestant minister) I literally heard tense drumbeats in my head, as I knew her parents would cut her off from their lives. I also really appreciated the author showing her reaction, how distraught she was at her own wedding because her parents were so opposed to it, and her deep grief at her mother's refusal to even acknowledge her existence. Unfortunately, I have seen this "shunning" in the Orthodox community, as well as in other religious communities. This book also aptly explores the spiritual search a great number of Jews undertake - that is to what is commonly called "The New Age". Many Jews leave Judaism for good, but Firestone showed how she returned, and how she had to do it her way, in the Jewish renewal movement. This is a book that is courageous, honest, and very well-written. Anyone remotely interested in spiritual searching would love this book.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An inspiring, honest book for Jews and non-Jews alike., January 24, 1999
By A Customer
I recommmend this book to readers engaged in spiritual searching, who wish to travel beside another searcher as she describes her journey. The book challenged me to be more compassionate with myself, because the author had grown into compassion for herself in the process of her searching. Though I was raised in the Catholic religion, I grew up in the same historical context as the author. And though my searching took me into politically extreme, rather than spiritually extreme, experiences, much of the impulsiveness and experiences of self-neglect described in the early part of the book was familiar to me. I especially appreciated being admitted into a world that has felt so inaccessible and mysterious to me, the world of the Jewish religion. As a non-Jew, I have felt excluded from this world, and at the same time drawn to it. Having only recently understood that as a Christian I am historically and psychically tied to the Jewish tradition, I have hungered for ways to better understand Jewish history and experiece. In this book Rabbi Firestone offered me a very personal route to understanding the practical realities of being Jewish in this culture, at this time. Her willingness to speak so honestly about the dark side of Orthodox Judaism, and about her own faults and missteps in her journey away from and back to the Jewish religion, far outweigh the sometimes tedious detail she includes in the telling of her story. Just as her telling of events that are 20 years past are ripe with wisdom and perspective, her telling of more recent life events are, understandably, lacking in those qualities. At the same time, because I so appreciated encountering this book at this point in my own journey, I'm glad she didn't wait to tell her story. Firestone makes no attempt to gloss over the pain and difficulty of authentic soul-searching, of building interfaith bridges, and of facing whatever shortcomings are at the root of our own intolerance. I am especially grateful that she dared to tell it like it is, on so many levels. All of our great religions, as practiced, are deeply flawed. But the kind of courageous and thoughtful examination reflected in this book gives readers cause to hope that transformation of these flaws is possible. I look forward to the next book, at a later time, from this admirable and wonderfully human woman.
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