Dear Reader,
Today's the last day you can enter to win the March Chocolate Chip Cookie Giveaway. Three lucky book club readers will receive some of my homemade chocolate chip cookies delivered right to their front doors. I'm ready to bake for you. To see last month's winners and to enter the drawing, click here.
Rabbi Toba Spitzer is today's guest at the book club. A popular teacher of courses on Judaism and economic justice, she has received the honor of being included in Newsweek's Top 50 Rabbis in America list and the 2010 Forward list of 50 Female Rabbis Who Are Making A Difference. Since 1997, she has been the spiritual leader of Congregation Dorshei Tzedek in Newton, MA. Her new book is, God Is Here: Reimagining the Divine.
Email Toba at: [email protected]
In 2007, I received an email at work that I almost deleted. It began, "Dear Rabbi," which sounded sort of anonymous. I thought it might be spam. But I read on, and it turned out the email was from a literary agent at a very large talent agency. He had found some of my sermons online, and thought I should write a book. I was busy being a congregational rabbi and wasn't really thinking about writing a book. We emailed a bit and had a phone conversation, and I told him I'd think about it. He was based in L.A. and I told him, if you're ever in Boston, give me a call. And that was that.
About a year and a half later, I got another email, from another literary agent at a talent agency. She had also found my sermons online, and thought I should write a book. When she mentioned me to her business partner, it turned out that he was the one who had emailed me first.
While I don't believe in a God that micromanages human lives, I had to admit that something mysterious was afoot here. The universe seemed to be telling me I needed to write a book. The duo of literary agents had moved to NYC, and I took the train down one day to have lunch with them. I couldn't quite figure out what kind of book they wanted me to write. "Like your sermons!" they said. But I give sermons on lots of topics, I replied. What exactly is it that you think I have to say in a book? After an hour or so of conversation, I realized: "I think you want me to write a book about God."
That conversation happened back in 2011. In the years since, I began and completed a journey that resulted in my book, God Is Here: Reimagining the Divine. I wrote the book because, after discovering metaphor theory and cognitive linguistics, I realized that helping spiritually-inclined people who aren't so sure about God delve into ancient, non-human metaphors for the divine could literally change lives. With my congregants, I explored how we might bring metaphors like Water and Place and Rock off of the pages of ancient texts and into daily life. The results of our exploration were powerful, but there were only so many people I could teach in person. A book, I hoped, would help me share with many more people of all backgrounds the texts and practices that I had found to be so transformative. Writing this book has been its own spiritual journey, and my sincere hope is that it brings some measure of insight and healing to our broken, beautiful world.
-- Toba Spitzer
Email Toba at, [email protected]
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win.
This month's Penguin Classics book is The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway. I have a copy of the book to share with a lucky reader, so start reading and enter for your chance to win.
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