Travels with the Evil Inclination: A Rabble-Rousing Renegade Rabbi's Story [Paperback]

Gershon Winkler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 13, 2004

According to Jewish theology, the "Evil Inclination," or yetzer ha-ra, is the small inner voice that tempts us into doing wrong. In a tone at once witty and heartfelt, Rabbi Gershon Winkler, a.k.a. the “stand-up theologian,” tells stories of his own struggles with that voice as he passes from yeshiva boy with a strong libido, to earnest infantryman, to Orthodox rabbi, to redneck ranch hand, to the respected "rabbinic trickster" and scholar he is today. Travels with the Evil Inclination offers a tongue-in-cheek account of a most unusual life journey, a humorous and sometimes exaggerated tale of personal spiritual dissolution and re-emergence. This moving story of his transition from orthodoxy to what the author calls “flexidoxy” will inspire, entertain, and provoke as Winkler explores roads not only less traveled but virtually unmapped.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Combines the wit of actor Robbin Williams with the wisdom of the Ba’al Shem Tov."
—The Jerusalem Post

"Travels an unusal path and ruffles feathers."
—The Washington Post

About the Author

Rabbi Gershon Winkler, initiated in Jerusalem by the late Kabbalist Rabbi Eliezer Benseon, has devoted his energy over the past decade to revive and make accessible the aboriginal elements of Judaism. A frequent lecturer and workshop facilitator across the United States and Israel, Winkler is both a student and practitioner of this lesser-studied dimension of ancient Jewish mystery tradition. He is the author of eleven books Jewish mysticism, philosophy, and folklore. He lives with his family in the remote wilderness of San Miguel, New Mexico, where he runs the Walking Stick Foundation and Retreat Center.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books (February 13, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556434928
• ISBN-13: 978-1556434921
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,610,623 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Off the Derekh and Off the Wall, May 9, 2006

By 

Leonard Moskowitz "Len Moskowitz" (Teaneck, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Travels with the Evil Inclination: A Rabble-Rousing Renegade Rabbi's Story (Paperback)

I hesitated to write this review because this book made me so sad.

Rabbi Winkler's earliest books (e.g., Soul of the Matter, Dybbuk, Golem) reflected a high level of Jewish scholarship and dedication to truth. If you followed up the sources cited in the footnotes of Rabbi Winkler's early books, you'd have ended up with a pretty broad and deep grounding in Jewish spiritual subjects. Back then Rabbi Winkler had that breadth and depth of knowledge. He perhaps had the potential to be on the level of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan z"l, one of the finer American-Jewish scholars of the last fifty years, who succeeded, with integrity, in making previously closed subjects available to a much wider audience. His early writings meant a lot to me.

And then Rabbi Winkler seems to have lost his way.

It hurts to say that this book is the work of someone who seems to be seriously confused about what Judaism is. He rejects the core of Jewish practice (like performing work/m'lah-kha on Shabbat) in favor of libertine-ism, behaving more like a New Age neo-pagan than a Jew.

Like one of the four who entered "Paradise" (of the four only Rabbi Akiva entered in peace and left in peace), he has "uprooted his plantings", effectively undoing much of the good that he accomplished earlier in his life.

If I had to distill his argument, I'd say that his main gripe is that over the last two-thousand years Judaism has grown too narrow and constraining, restricting the average Jew from polygamy, sex before marriage, sex outside of marriage, shamanism, witchcraft and earth magic. While he wants to understand how the Torah masters of previous generations were able to perform miracles, instead of following in their footsteps by living as they did according to Halakha (the Jewish legal system) and investigating from within their system, he rejects their teachings & methods and sets out on his own peculiar path.

I take his strained style of humor as saying to the reader that he was in serious emotional pain and wrote this book in the process of thrashing around trying to find relief. He doesn't seem to me to be succeeding.

Perhaps the Jewish community would have paid more attention to him and his opinions had he made the effort to rise to the level of one of the rabbinic leaders of our generation. Instead, he left the community and wrote a book like this.

Oy Gershon, Gershon, Gershon...

If you liked Winkler's early books, I recommend that you have a look at Yitzhak Buxbaum's books here on Amazon.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, Honest and Funny account of one man's spiritual path, August 23, 2009

By 

EG (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Travels with the Evil Inclination: A Rabble-Rousing Renegade Rabbi's Story (Paperback)

Fascinating, Honest and Funny account of one man's spiritual path

I read the whole book in two days - I couldn't put it down. I also recommend his other book 'Magic of the Ordinary' which completely shifted my perceptions of Judaism.

3.0 out of 5 stars Crazy!, October 15, 2009

By 

A. Singer "Arnie Singer" (NYC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Travels with the Evil Inclination: A Rabble-Rousing Renegade Rabbi's Story (Paperback)

This book is crazy, irreverent, mocking, angry, abusive...and lots of fun to read. I feel sorry for the author though. No one should have to struggle that much.
If you're looking for a concise handbook geared towards those unfamiliar with the beliefs, practices, and guidelines of Orthodox Judaism, you should try The Outsider's Guide To Orthodox Judaism It's a great gift for your "outsider" friend, boss, or coworker.