Living With a God of Light and Dark:
A Jewish Perspective

"kissing" mezuzah, Poland, 1930s
photo by Roman Vishniac
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"The spiritual quest wishes for contact with divinity, symbolized by a kiss. Spiritually understood, the kiss is the co-infusion of spirit between one being and another. It is thus an overcoming of transcendent distance by immanent presence. The kiss is the desire to transcend individuality for a Higher Unity. The yearning for transcendence is not a nullification of the world but rather its transfiguration through a consciousness of divinity infusing all things. This is a spiritual transformation of the everyday. A seeker strives to see the world in the light of the divine radiance."
Michael Fishbane
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FACULTY
Rainer Rilke, in Letters to a Young Poet, wrote to Franz Kappus: "My dear Mr. Kappus, I have had a letter of yours here for a long time. It is the kind one reads again when when one finds it among the others. Verses that you have composed...I shall always read, re-read, and experience as well and as sincerely as I can."
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Below are the teachers I read and re-read, whose thoughts have affected the "contours of my spiritual signature." (Nehemia Polen) Although just a few of these folks appear in the menu above, I owe my theological center of gravity to them all.
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A 'hiddush' (חדושׁ) is a new insight into, or novel interpretation of, the Torah. "The deepest power of sacred learning is found not in the memorization or recitation of canonical texts, but in the generation of new ideas...reading the same texts with a fresh sense of vitality and inspiration. One who approaches the Torah with a contemplative mind will continue to hear the voice of God in the present. Conceptually, every hiddush becomes a 'makif' (מקיף), an encompassing light that surrounds the person in whom it originated. This radiant aura may even be communicated to others, sparking a chain reaction of joy that begins within the individual human heart and extends forth to other people as the makif is communicated in language." (Ariel Evan Mayse)
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From my vantage point, each of the teachers below is surrounded, metaphorically, by a makif. My motivation with this website is to be one link in the chain of joy they spark with their hiddushim.​

RABBI BRAD ARTSON
Book recommendation: The Bedside Torah
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Videos: many on YouTube and Facebook
RABBI ELIEZER BERKOVITS

Book recommendation: Not in Heaven
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MARTIN BUBER
Book recommendations:
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The Martin Buber Reader (edited by Asher Biemann)
Martin Buber (by Paul Mendes-Flohr)
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CHOFETZ CHAIM
Book recommendation: Chofetz Chaim - A Lesson a Day (published by Artscroll Series)
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MICHAEL FISHBANE
Book recommendations: Song of Songs; The Exegetical Imagination; Fragile Finitude
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Videos: many on YouTube
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PAUL FLEISCHMAN
Book recommendation: Wonder
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VIKTOR FRANKL
Book recommendation: Man's Search for Meaning
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RABBI ARTHUR GREEN
Book recommendations: Radical Judaism; Judaism for the World; A New Hasidism; Hasidic Spirituality for a New Era; A Guide to the Zohar; Devotion & Commandment; The Language of Truth; Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl; Tormented Master; Your Word is Fire; These are the Words; The Light of the Eyes; Defender of the Faithful; Well of Living Insight
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Videos: many on YouTube
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RABBI DAVID HARTMAN
Book recommendation: A Living Covenant
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RABBI ABRAHAM HESCHEL
Book recommendations: Between God & Man (edited by Fritz Rothschild); The Insecurity of Freedom; The Earth is the Lord's; The Sabbath; A Passion for Truth
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Videos: some on YouTube
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CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
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Videos: many on YouTube

RABBI DAVID INGBER
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Videos: many on YouTube, specifically with Romemu Synagogue. Rabbi Ingber merits special highlighting for being the "pulpit Rabbi" whose Shabbat prayer services help me the most in terms of using Jewish liturgy to attain kavanah (see the "kavanah" page for explanation of that concept.) For establishing a mood of gratitude and joy and serenity, Rabbi Ingber's services are an integral part of my life, in that I often begin my morning by finding a random Kabbalat Shabbat or Shabbat morning service from Romemu on YouTube and listening to it for however long I feel.

RABBI HAROLD KUSHNER
Book recommendations: To Life; Nine Essential Things I've Learned About Life
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Videos: some on YouTube
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RABBI ANSON LAYTNER
Book recommendations: Arguing With God; Choosing Life After Tragedy
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DANIEL MATT
Book recommendations: The Zohar; God & The Big Bang
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Videos: many on YouTube
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RABBI ARIEL EVAN MAYSE
Book recommendations:
A New Hasidism; Speaking Infinities; Hasidism - Writings on Devotion, Community, and Life in the Modern World
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ANDRE NEHER
Book recommendation: The Exile of the Word
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RABBI JONATHAN SACKS
Book recommendation: The Politics of Hope
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Videos: many on YouTube
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CARL SAGAN
Book recommendations: The Varieties of Scientific Experience; Cosmos; Carl Sagan (by Keay Davidson); Cosmic Connection
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Videos: many on YouTube
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RABBI KALONYMUS SHAPIRA
Book recommendations: Jewish Spiritual Growth; The Holy Fire (by Nehemia Polen)
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MICHAEL SHERMER
Book recommendation: The Moral Arc
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RABBI MENACHEM SCHNEERSON
Book recommendations: The Rebbe (by Joseph Telushkin); Letters from the Rebbe
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Videos: many on YouTube
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RABBI HAROLD SCHULWEIS
Book recommendations: For Those Who Can't Believe; In Pursuit of Holiness (by Ed Feinstein)
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Videos and Audio: many on HMSI.info
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RABBI ZALMAN SCHACHTER-SHALOMI
Book recommendation: Jewish With Feeling
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Videos: many on YouTube
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RABBI JOSEPH TELUSHKIN
Book recommendations: A Code of Jewish Ethics (two volumes); Words That Hurt, Words That Heal; Hillel; The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism
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Videos: many on YouTube
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LEO TOLSTOY
Book recommendation: A Confession
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RABBI ABRAHAM TWERSKI
Book recommendations: Twerski on Chumash; Lights Along the Way
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Videos: some on YouTube
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ELIE WIESEL
Book recommendations: Memoirs; Gates of the Forest
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Videos: many on YouTube
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RABBI DAVID WOLPE
Book recommendations: Why Faith Matters; Healer of Shattered Hearts; In Speech and in Silence
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Videos: many on YouTube
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HERMAN WOUK
Book recommendations:
This is My God; The Will to Live On; The Language God Talks
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HILLEL ZEITLIN
Book recommendation:
Hasidic Spirituality for a New Era: The Religious Writings of Hillel Zeitlin (by Art Green)​
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AVIVAH ZORNBERG
Book recommendation:
The Hidden Order of Intimacy​
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