What does spirituality mean in a Jewish context? A quick Google search shows there is no real consensus. Prayer, ritual and Kabbalah all surface, but there is agreement that we should know more, study more, and participate more.
The most traditional way to connect spiritually is through worship and ritual. Poet Dinah Berland discovered a forgotten world of women’s prayer when she found a copy of the Hours of Devotion in a used bookstore in Los Angeles. Originally published in German in 1855, this book of prayers for Jewish women by Fanny Neuda was translated and reprinted over and over again, well into the 20th century, before fading into obscurity. Now Berland has brought Neuda’s prayers for every occasion into the 21st century, rendered beautifully into verse form (Schocken, cloth, $24).
More than an intellectual exercise for Berland, many of these prayers inspired her to reconcile with her son, from whom she was estranged.
Another prayer book hits closer to home as Reform congregations in Washington begin to open their cartons of the new Central Conference of American Rabbis’ Mishkan T’Filah: A Reform Siddur, and assimilate them into synagogue life.
Bellevue’s Temple B’nai Torah has been using a pre-publication version of Mishkan T’filah for a few years.
Assistant Rabbi Yohanna Kinberg observes that, “a new siddur is a sign that Reform Judaism is vibrant.”
The new book brings more traditional prayers back to the Reform service with more accurate translations and all Hebrew prayers transliterated. Poems and prayers written by present-day rabbis and others (including Rabbi Emeritus Norman Hirsch of Temple Beth Am) balance the service, allowing the book “to be not only multi-vocal, but poly-vocal — to invite full participation,” as the introduction states. Rabbi Kinberg says the siddur (“order” in Hebrew) “highlights the spiritual importance and spiritual quest” of the service.
Despite the centrality of God to Judaism, theological skepticism seems to be part and parcel of modern Jewish life. Author Aryeh Ben David wishes it were otherwise. The founder and director of the spiritual institute Ayeka suggests we open up a new file in our lives, and in our computer, in The Godfile (Devora, cloth $16.95).
If synagogue prayer doesn’t uplift you, David proposes you lack the relationship with God required for prayer to work. By trying each of the 10 approaches to increased spiritual awareness described inside, and then writing about them in your own God file, Rabbi David hopes you can improve your spiritual awareness and practice.
In Inventing Jewish Ritual (JPS, paper, $25), Vanessa Ochs, author of Sarah Laughed and professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia, shows us how new Jewish rituals are being created and accepted, and always have been. Although we consider many Jewish rituals to be “old,” much of what we think of as traditional were considered radical in their day (square matzah is one example given). “Radical” rituals of today—such as Rosh Chodesh women’s groups — are already finding their way into the mainstream.
Scott A. Shay is more concerned with the day-to-day matters of synagogue life, which he says is suffering. Getting Our Groove Back: How to Energize American Jewry (Devora, cloth, $24.95) is a step-by-step program to increase participation and enthusiasm in liberal Judaism. Many of his suggestions are based on recent successes in the Orthodox community, including improving Hebrew school curricula and creating more Jewish day schools. These are good ideas, but they require increased fundraising, and there is a question as to how feasible they are. The author is a Wall Street venture capitalist with a long volunteer résumé in the Jewish community.
Turning back to the soul, Bernie Kastner offers us the foundations of bibliotherapy (reading for therapeutic purpose) when coming to grips with the death of a loved one. The death of his own son led him to write Understanding the Afterlife in This Life (Devora, cloth, $21.95). After reading everything he could on the subject of death and dying, Kastner concludes that the afterlife exists, and he has compiled his sources here. Kastner draws on everything from the most traditional rabbinical authorities to personal accounts of near-death experiences. Most books in this genre are New Age or Christian; a Jewish perspective should be appreciated.
In Opening the Doors of Wonder (UC Press, cloth $24.95), journalist Arthur J. Magida turns his curiosity to the spiritual lives of 23 individuals of five major faiths. Some of his subjects will be more familiar to the reader: Dr. Yusuf Islam (once known as Cat Stevens) is here, as are Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, cartoonist Roz Chast and health writer and lecturer Deepak Chopra. Each contributor shares the significance of a religious rite of passage in his or her life.
Finally, Reva Mann shares her personal spiritual journey in her memoir, The Rabbi’s Daughter (Bantam, cloth, $24). A rebellious teen growing up in the shadow of her Orthodox rabbi father in an upscale London neighborhood, Mann swings completely in the opposite direction when she moves to Israel and joins an ultra-Orthodox women’s yeshiva. Mann tells a captivating story with a novelist’s skill as she details her struggle to find her place in her family and her religion.