Description:
A book about love, because the Bible is all about love
The subject of Rami Shapiro's new book is not simply the Tanakh (Torah, Prophets, and Writings)--what Christians call Old Testament. Rabbi Rami loves the New Testament and the Apocrypha as well. When he functions as a rabbi in a synagogue, he limits himself to those books Jews hold sacred, but when teaching Bible in a university setting he teaches it all. And as a seeker of wisdom, he refuses to be limited in his search for wisdom.
The Bible is one of the most, if not the most, important collections of human literature ever written. Its influence on the lives of billions of people over thousands of years is incalculable. For this reason alone, it demands our attention.
Shapiro shows how the wisdom of the Bible, unlike its various theologies, is testable. The purpose of wisdom is to help navigate the intricacies of life more effectively, to deepen our capacity for compassion and commitment to justice, and help us "walk through the shadowed Valley of Death" fearlessly, even tranquilly, and almost certainly fed by faith understood as the capacity to engage the world with an open heart and open mind regardless of what we encounter. Throughout these sometimes philosophical, sometimes deeply textual, and always profound reflections, Rami's hope is that readers will see what he sees, and hear what he hears in these texts of love for people of all traditions.
Review Quotes:
"Rami Shapiro's conclusion to this book is the first and last thing that needs to be said about the Bible. Stephen Hawking wrote a Theory of Everything. Ken Wilber wrote a Brief History of Everything. And now Rami has written on the Meaning of Everything with his signature wink. This book is a joy!" --Gordon Peerman, Episcopal priest, author of Blessed Relief: What Christians Can Learn from Buddhists about Suffering
"Every book that holy rascal Rami Shapiro writes is a book about love, but in this luminous offering he distills the essence of biblical literature to an elixir that awakens a direct experience of love itself. By lifting the Bible out of the quagmire of literal interpretation and returning it to our hands and hearts, Rabbi Rami grants us access to our own love language, and shows us the way to love each other back into wholeness." --Mirabai Starr, author of God of Love and Ordinary Mysticism
"Rami locates the essential and abundant meaning of the Bible in God's love for humanity, the love of wisdom, love of neighbor, love of stranger, love of enemy, the ways of lovers and friends, love of nature, love of animals, and how human love beautifully blends with the neediness of God. Don't miss this book!" --SpiritualityandPractice.com
Blurbs for the author's last book:
"A great way to deepen your spiritual life is to take a deep dive into a tradition other than your own--especially if you have a competent guide, and Rabbi Rami is an extraordinary guide. Not into Zen? Not a Jew? Not a problem. Anyone on any path will benefit enormously from this profoundly illuminating book." --Philip Goldberg, author of American Veda
"I say every time Rabbi Rami writes a new book that he is a master teacher full of love, wisdom and a reverent irreverence that illuminates both mind and heart." --Dr. Joan Borysenko, New York Times best-selling author of Pocketful of Miracles
"I have been a fan of Rami Shapiro's for over three decades and his gifts to the world are considerable. Judaism Without Tribalism is quite possibly the jewel in his crown, a brilliant culmination of his work to repair and return us to the profound mystical depths of the ancient Jewish tradition. Crisp, cogent, utterly lucid, this book is, as its title suggests, a blessed relief for all true seekers." --Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, PhD, author of Wounds into Wisdom