Beyond the Instant: Jewish Wisdom for Lasting Happiness in a Fast-Paced, Social Media World

by Mark Wildes

More than ever, young people today are searching for a sense of purpose and direction. Advances in science and technology have given our generation opportunities our grandparents could only dream of, yet our need for meaning and values is more unfulfilled than ever. Growing addiction to instant gratification and attachment to circumstantial highs leave us lacking when it comes to long-term contentment.
Beyond the Instant shows young adults how to enrich their lives through faith. It examines ten different areas of contemporary life, including friendship, family, dating, money, and career, to demonstrate how a return to spirituality can help people find happiness and satisfaction. It addresses many important questions along the What is the true role of sex in relationships? What is the significance of failure? How can people really make a difference in the world?
In the book, Rabbi Mark Wildes draws upon Jewish tradition and wisdom to bring a sense of balance, stability, and purpose to the often frenzied and occasionally directionless twenty-first-century way of life. Each chapter examines what the Torah has to say about a particular concern of modern life and then shows how thousands of years of rabbinical teachings can be applied to the contemporary situation. Written in a relatable and engaging style, it shows how faith and religion can provide a practical guide to finding happiness that goes beyond the instant.

Genres: Jewish

160 pages, Hardcover

Published September 4, 2018

Reviews

[Zechariah Rosenthal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book accurately reflects its author, Rabbi Mark Wildes: it is engaging, lively, and profound. Written in the light & accessible style of pop psychology, with moving anecdotes and sprinklings of recent clinical data, Rabbi Wildes ensures his book is easy to pick up - and hard to put down.

However, don't let the facade fool you. Rabbi Wildes has encapsulated and repackaged some of the most profound insights of Judaism into a slim 144 pages. Not only are his ideas deep and lucid, but he is diligent in bringing them back down to earth and delivering them as practical and actionable advice.

I'd highly recommend this book as an entry point for anyone into their exploration of Jewish Values. However, even the advanced yeshiva student can gain tremendously from this fresh perspective and formulation of the most essential Jewish beliefs and values.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slim volume of thoughtful life lessons distilled from the Torah and Talmud and presented by Rabbi Wildes to teach young Jewish adults (and all of us) how to live more purposeful and spiritually fulfilling lives in contradiction to our egocentric and disconnected culture. His "Eleven Commandments" of jewish wisdom apply equally to Christians as well as Jews and come as no great revelation to those who know the teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ, for example: that authentic happiness lies in service of others rather than the pursuit of personal pleasure; that people must take personal responsibility for their actions rather than blame others; that our free will makes life changes always possible no matter how lost to God we may be; that all of us have a spiritual mission, whether great or small, that God intends us to pursue. My one major objection is the Rabbi's badly mistaken view about what the Catholic Church teaches about sex. The Rabbi seems to believe the Church teaches that the sexual urge should be suppressed, that it is a concession to man's weakness and that it is connected to the transmission of original sin. Reading this was very surprising from a religious scholar who should know better. He should know that the Church teaches that within the sacrament of marriage and for the purpose of procreation, the Church celebrates the sexual union between a man and a woman as a great gift from God. In any event, this is one significant blemish in an otherwise sound compendium of ethical lessons.

[Kevin Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, highly recommend!!

[Allan Finkel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Relevant read for modern times

I really appreciate how the timeless teachings of Torah are brought into modern times. Relevant for all streams of Judaism.