Product Description

In Down-to-Earth Judaism, Rabbi Arthur Waskow focuses on food, money, sex, and rest, the pillars of a spiritual life in the real world and the guide-posts that mark the communal path for the modern Jewish practitioner. To help readers infuse the rich traditions of Judaism into daily life, he examines what the Bible and the Talmud tell us regarding how to treat the environment, what greater roles women may play in Judaism, and how to allow worship to become an integral part of our lives.

Rabbi Waskow also brings to life the history of many prayers, ceremonies, and laws, such as Kosher or Kashrut. Through his thoughtful interweaving of these four central areas, Rabbi Waskow celebrates the relevance of Jewish tradition to modern times.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #462519 in Books
• Published on: 1997-04-02
• Released on: 1997-03-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

From Library Journal
In his inimitable style, Waskow (Becoming Brothers, Free Pr., 1993) discusses the practical aspects of life?eating, sex, earning a living, and leisure?within a religious context. While he extrapolates from traditional Jewish sources, his interpretations, as in his many previous books, are heavily influenced by mysticism, psychosocial theories, and current ecological movements. He is deeply troubled by the imbalance between men and women that he sees as part of Judaism, showing that women did not share in shaping the religion. Another major theme is the relationship between humans and the ecosystem; Waskow propounds new meanings for the premise that the earth is God's creation. Fluidity is the keynote to his approach, and this is the antithesis of organized religions. Provocative, stimulating, and controversial, his book is recommended because it raises serious religious issues, not because it offers solutions.?Carol R. Glatt, VA Medical Ctr. Lib., Philadelphia
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
As the subtitle indicates, Waskow divides his book into the categories of food, money, sex, and the rest of life--rest as in resting, reposing, and reflecting. Waskow examines new ways to understand Judaism and apply its spiritual meaning to daily life. He emphasizes the equality of men and women and the need to include all Jews in meaningful worship. Under the category of food, he discusses such problems as keeping kosher (not only how, but why it should be done), fasting, and reciting the blessings on the Sabbath and festivals. In regard to money, Waskow examines such topics as the ethical and moral implications of various careers, the relationship between employers and employees, borrowing and lending, and giving to charity. The section on sex deals with adultery, homosexuality, lesbianism, prostitution, procreation, marriage, and divorce. This spiritual guide to Judaism contains a wealth of wisdom and advice for Jews struggling to keep the faith in these secular times. George Cohen

Review
"Arthur Waskow brings forth a full-bodied vision of Jewish life today." -- -- Rodger Kamenetz, author of The Jewish in the Lotus

"Just like its, author, Down to Earth Judaism is practical, provocative, logical, loving, and wise." -- -- Letty Cottin Pogrebin, author of Deborah Golda and Me: Being Female and Jewish in America

Customer Reviews

Many more questions than answers
Waskow's a founder of the Jewish Renewal movement, an antiwar activist who turned his concern for social justice into his faith and his action. Waskow writes with a predictable mix of insight and utopianism. He's not a skilled synthesist of the many strands from three thousand years of the tradition, nor could he be. He simply adds his voice to those preceding him, if with an emphasis upon raising at least as many questions as he answers. This is a compendium of his thoughts more than a blueprint for particular remedies to what Waskow diagnoses as the malaise afflicting many Jews today. Modernity, from Columbus to the Holocaust has faded; we live in a gap between what was for Judaism and what will be, perhaps not shown fully until three centuries or so from now.

Meanwhile, Jews must reconstruct what works for them from the previous centuries. The Biblical period he characterizes as body-centered in ritual, gesture, agriculture, herding, and the land of Israel. The Rabbinical period brought a shift forcing the Jews into the diaspora, into money rather than land as their source of livelihood, and into a word-based reliance upon debate, exegesis, and Talmud that expanded upon Torah. Modernity moved Jews into confrontation and incorporation with the wider Christian ethos and capitalist hegemony, into political, social, and economic actions that assimilated many of the tribe, forced others into retreat, and left many caught between giving in and holding out.

Where are Jews perched today? At the cusp of a new age, one that Waskow suggests can finally provide women a role that they have been not allowed before, sexual practitioners a variety of commitments and expressions denied them by a Leviticus-centered, primitively male-based system of control over women's bodies, and one that asserts an eco-kosher awareness of the ties between labor, ecology, and what we eat, wear, and consume. He offers level-headed proposals for sanctifying sexual relationships outside of marriage that he labels "zug." He's confident when he examines how kosher should be based on much more than the rules governing slaughter; the effects of his model can be seen bearing fruit thirteen years later in the current widening in the Jewish Conservative movement of kosher certification into moral corporate policies and adherence to ethical treatment of workers.

Mixing food, money, sex, and the necessity for "the rest of life" modelled on Shabbat as a mirror of the divine day of recuperation after work, Waskow raises hundreds of possibilities that we may, or may not, consider in integrating these aspects of Judaism. By studying the biblical and rabbinical texts, peppering them with contemporary scholarship and interpretation, Waskow presents what would be a valuable resource for study groups, philanthropists, havurot, and those who wish less formal and more energetic ways to make their Jewish identity matter in the microcosm of their ethnic and religious realms as well as the global macrocosm.

However, these goals being set, does Waskow, as Jews consider when translating "sin" as "missing the mark," always hit his target? He does score some bullseyes. His discussion of the interpenetration of the Shekinah feminine with the masculine "sky-god" presence, his explanation of how Lurianic kabbalah conceives the primordial fall from purity into shadow, and his pithy metaphor show his rapport at his best. Speaking of disenchanted Jews tired of institutions but still partaking of its ceremonies in hope for a rebirth of wonder, he notes how: "They are startled to hear that what tastes dry and empty may be freeze-dried food-- delicious, once some living juice, some heat, a pinch of spice are added." (2-3) This revigoration he tries to spark.

Yet, I sensed often he may be preaching not only to the converted but the coddled in a cocoon of petit-bourgeoisie liberal comfort in some gentrifying urban district. Speaking of cutting back on our toil so as to open up space for "the loving, murmuring, sacred kitchen," he suggests how "we may need to explore some wider social changes: shorter workdays, less commuter time, a four-day workweek (what a delight for making Shabbat holy!), less overtime-- one or more of these life-style modifications, with little drop in salary, or a broad rescaling of how much money each household needs to make." (87)

Part of me agrees completely, and I understand how so much of what we consume comes from the excuses that it will make our lives of toil easier, even as we work harder and longer to pay for such luxuries away from home and family. He's right. But another part of me wonders how many people practically will be able to make these modifications given parlous financial situations.

Waskow and those whom he addresses appear more than once here to be rather removed in their comfort zones from the rest of us. At another representative point, he provides an example that I suspect many will find unrealistic in reordering what we spend our money on vs. the advantages gained for our spirit: "Are you considering spending the next six months at a Zen retreat?" He brings up thoughtful advice, and this is admittedly one of hundreds of scenarios-- still, I wonder about the alternatives he invents: "What will be the comparative advantages for [others] and for you if you play the sax in a nightclub jazz quartet, if you give every cent you have to an AIDS hospice, if you spend every Shabbat in a neighborhood 'shtiebl'?" (236-37) I doubt if many "down-to-earth" folks have choices quite like these to agonize over a decade later. As an aside, many such Yiddish terms aren't explained, and despite the everydayness, such as it is, of much of his spiel, he does appear to be writing this for quite an educated audience of his peers.

On the balance, the previous reactions posted to this book have been sharply negative or uncritically positive. Mine's appropriately in the middle. It's all over the scriptural map and cultural record. Much gets raised without closure, but those familiar with how Jewish thinkers and doers wrestle with Torah should be encouraged. I wearied of him dancing in earthquakes and mooning over rainbows, but it may be a generation gap and an understandable indulgence. He certainly highlights many recondite passages, erotic poems, and academic findings you'd never hear at the usual Yom Kippur sermon.

Many readers may find their own prejudices against such counterculturally- inspired experimentation with the rabbinic and biblical precedents reconfirmed. And, many others may delight in how Waskow in true yeshiva fashion keeps asking away whatever comes to mind. He's boldly plowing on without waiting for solutions, striving to continue a vigorous and unpredictable conversation that's lasted three thousand years.

A terrific, insightful overview of holistic Jewish living
"Down to Earth Judaism" is a deeply insightful, profoundly thought-provoking survey of Jewish thinking regarding mundane activities: eating, lovemaking, earning and spending money, and periodic rest. He capably reviews classical Jewish attitudes and practices surrounding each of these areas, and then presents visions of how these practices can be renewed and transformed in our day and age, to foster a more meaningful life. This book isn't just for Jews, but for anyone interested in finding meaning in the seemingly profane activites of day to day life.

Jewish Renewal: How religion and sprituality link to LIFE
Rabbi Waskow provides historical insite and warmth to a newer vision of Judaism. His door is open as is his heart to include everyone, including zealots who often disagree with Waskow's 21st century vision of revived Jewish study and 16th century rabbinic interpretations of Torah. He breathes new life into ancient traditions and ritual. Not a favorite with Rightwing Jews or Christians.....