Jewish Book Club discussion
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This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared
2020 Moderator's Choices
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2020/9 Impressions and conclusions for This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared by Alan Lew MOD'S CHOICE
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Jan
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rated it 4 stars
Aug 30, 2020 09:42PM
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Should we maybe wait until towards the end of September to do this 🧐?
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Sure. Remember I’m kind of new to this.
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Yes, definitely for This Is Real but maybe not for Here All Along ...
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Tomorrow I'll try and grab a minute for This Is Real. Can't do the other one until I begin it, though. It may not lend itself to the idea of a journey; just this one.
I did not find that Here All Along led me on a journey of any sort, not a personal one, at least; that book is Sarah Hurwitz’s journey as a ba’al teshuvah, and the more I read of it, the less I liked it.
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One size doesn't have to fit all, Susan!
We can eventually get into that one over on its own thread.
Also it occurred that for some people, neither of these books might be a good fit! If that's the case, they should feel free to discuss over in the What Are You Reading thread. Would love to hear about those other books!
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Jan, indeed, one size does not fit all. Hurwitz’s book gets generally rave reviews, and the writing itself is outstanding. Because I think I’m an outlier (not uncommon!) on this book, I’ve refrained from making further comments. After all, I voted for it! I’m still putting my thoughts together to write what is, for me, an objective review. Because, bottom line, as a book, regardless of how I feel about the content, it’s excellent.As to This Is Real ... I have it. I must admit that currently I’m getting more from the Institute for Jewish Spirituality ‘s daily online teachings and sits, and proceeding along that Elul path in their Shofar Project. Yes, I know it’s not a book. But when I’m done doing that almost every morning, I try to hurl myself into house cleaning and tidying, which is teshuvah in and of itself! As Heschel says, one has to pray with one’s feet (although housework was not what he had in mind 🙃), but I digress and will stop because I have probably already driven some folks crazy.
If anyone wants information on the IJS, please send me a private message.
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I had thought of starting a discussion thread for Zoominar and other online offerings that we've found good. I have gotten into some of them more than I had gotten into podcasts. Even though they're not books, they are related!
Susan also said "...when I’m done doing that almost every morning, I try to hurl myself into house clea...."
Oh, enviable! If I had that tendency, the house would be cleaner! 🙂
thought this was a worthwhile read for this time of year. I did not read from beginning to end. Its structure is set up to take you through the weeks after Tisha B'av; then the month of Elul leading up up to Rosh Hashana and then the 10 days of Tshuva leading up to Yom Kipper and beyond to Sukkot. I read the first chapters and found his concepts a bit contradictory: tracing our journey in a circle and then later like a river going from beginning to the sea... Can't do both!? but in other areas I found him to be quite inciteful. I skipped to the days before and including Yom Kippur - as I spent much of YK day reading - between multiple outdoor services. It was just the right thing to have on hand. I would consider picking it up again next year, a little earlier :)
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I'm glad you read the book.
I haven't read it yet, so I cant speak to the contradictions you make reference to.
I understand from others this book is good.
I know your in a book group, or run one.
Would you recommend this book to your group?
Always interested to compare book club picks.
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Debra, I think you plunged into this (river?) (sea?) in the spirit intended by the author.
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I'm glad you read the book.
I haven't read it yet, so I cant speak to the contradictions you make reference to.
I understand from others this book is good.
I know your in a book group, o..."
I forgot to ask if you read his other book?
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I studied it with a group over a 3-month period in 2018, and here's an excerpt from my review:
Alan Lew, the author, takes the Jewish High Holidays and uses the sequence of events and liturgy as a lens through which to look at life and make the experience real and transforming. Therein lies the bitterness of the pill he wants us to swallow in the reading of this book. Often enough, life itself is confronting and challenging us, so if at any particular moment it's not doing so, we prefer to retain our equanimity. ... The author ... seems to think most people are overly-defended and in need of being shaken and stirred. If that's you, whatever your religion, or even if you aren't religious, taking the plunge could be worth it. He doesn't want the truth of our lives at their end to be that we failed to live them.
However difficult it may have been for me to dive in while at a point where life itself hadn't pushed me over the edge--to dive in, that is, on somebody else's initiative--I'd say that, once I'd done so, this book is good medicine.
So at the time I read & reviewed this book, I was still thinking that it was the author who was wanting to unsettle the reader and missing the point that that's an aim of the holidays themselves. I was still circling around that understanding. And I'm still struggling with the need for it since I'm someone who finds my own disruption on a not infrequent basis. As in, do we really need unsettling in the midst of the pandemic, civil unrest, and general political precariousness? -- yet the experience this year was quite poignant.
I had the privilege and pleasure of meeting Rabbi Lew and driving him to the airport when he was a scholar-in-residence at by synagogue. I remember him as a kind and deeply intelligent man who listened with his entire being when I spoke to him; one of those people who could read me very quickly and respond well to a quandary I was in at the time. He was also very intense, as I recall; unafraid to speak bluntly and openly. That’s how I respond to this book. I believe he’s exhorting us to take advantage of the Days of Awe as an opportunity to dig deeply within ourselves. Certainly the uncertainty of this year as well as the fear, spoken or unspoken, of the pandemic has, as Jan says, already disrupted and unsettled us. Rabbi Lew not only reminds us that we, as Jews, have built into our calendar a period to reflect; he also reminds us that even though we have this period, everything is real and we are never prepared. He reminds us to be mindful and present all year, so perhaps when the Days of Awe roll around the next year we might find ourselves better prepared.
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Thanks for that, Susan. Helps me to relate to his book a little better!
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