Paths of Faithfulness: Personal Essays on Jewish Spirituality

by Carol Ochs (Editor), Kerry M. Olitzky (Editor), Joshua Saltzman (Editor)

The recognition and celebration of diverse paths to the service of God is one of the great strengths of Reform Judaism, as it offers every Jew a chance to worship with authenticity and wholeness. The openness is most apparent in the thoughtful and deeply personal searching of the faculty of Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, reflected in this volume. What makes these essays uniquely Reform is the emphasis placed on holiness and the significance assigned to personal responsibility for shaping and discerning the way. Each one puts together a spiritual way built on the three pillars of the Torah, God and People. And each of these foci is further enriched by many layers of meaning and association. Torah is binding law ans also water that refreshes us in the desert of our ordinary lives; God is the source of all holiness and sldo an intimate friend; People represents Jewish tradition and history, and also family and ethics. A proposed fourth pillar, Land, is a political response to antisemitism and represents the sacredness of place. The contributors bring to this volume a broad cross-section of backgrounds, experience, and views. They include women as well as men, younger scholars a well as long-established rabbis and laypersons. All of them together show the richness of a Reform vision that celebrates diversity, autonomy, and an unending quest for the holy. These are the paths of faithfulness that the faculty of HUC-JIR in New York have chosen. They invite their readers to develop their own paths out of love for Torah, God, People and Land, configures to their unique gifts. --- from book's back cover

163 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1997