Simple Words: Thinking About What Really Matters in Life - Softcover

9780684869186: Simple Words: Thinking About What Really Matters in Life
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Defining Ourselves

Friends, family, love. God, death, faith. These, and others, are deceptively simple words that we use all the time. Do we know what we mean by these important words? Do we know what other people mean when they use them? We seldom pause to reflect on these words or to make sure that we understand them, yet we continue to use them, so we misunderstand others and they misunderstand us.

Adin Steinsaltz examines some of the meanings of these powerful words. He transforms each word into a gem, turning it this way, then that, examining it to see more clearly its brilliant facets and what lies beyond them. He challenges us to think deeply about the connotations of these commonplace words, and in so doing, to see that there may be other ways of looking at things that we have taken for granted in our lives. Simple Words is a thought-provoking -- and surprising -- adventure that may change the way we think, speak, and act.

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Review:
"Simple words are by no means simple," states Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz in his introduction to Simple Words. This is certainly true of the words he has teased out from contemporary spirituality to expound upon here. Each chapter is dedicated to so-called simple words such as death, envy, masks, sex, good, and love. Steinsaltz uses familiar language and progressive thinking to offer a greater moral and spiritual understanding to these core concepts.

Although many of the selected words are age-old, the accompanying commentary feels fresh and contemporary. When writing about envy, Steinsaltz explores how this misunderstood emotion can be used to serve the higher good rather than lowly desires. And in addressing the idea of sex, he writes, "Jewish tradition ... does not see sex per se as sinful.... It is a pleasure that is derived from giving and being connected with another--both in the body and beyond the physical plane; it can become a most meaningful expression of love, of charity, of benevolence. Sexual desire, possibly the most powerful human desire, can become an expression of holiness." --Gail Hudson

About the Author:
Adin Steinsaltz is internationally regarded as one of the leading scholars and rabbis of the modern era. His well-known multivolume translation and commentary to the Talmud is currently being published in Hebrew, English, and other languages. He has been a resident scholar at academic institutions in Europe and the United States, among them Yale University and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and is a recipient of the Israel Prize.

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  • PublisherSimon & Schuster
  • Publication date2001
  • ISBN 10 0684869187
  • ISBN 13 9780684869186
  • BindingPaperback
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages224
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