Living a Joyous Life The True Spirit of Jewish Practice [Paperback]

Secular and religious Jews alike will find wisdom and inspiration in this new book in which Rabbi David Aaron reveals the joy that living a Jewish life can bring. With his characteristic humor, enthusiasm, and insight, Rabbi Aaron looks at key, and often misunderstood, aspects of Jewish practice—our relationship with God, Torah study, prayer, living the commandments, celebrating the Sabbath, and keeping kosher—and shows us how they enable us to access and express the godliness within us.

Celebrating Shabbat, for example, reminds us that we are created in the image of God, empowered with free choice and intention; studying the Torah releases ourchen, or inner beauty and grace; and observing kosher laws helps keep us in touch with our human sensitivity. Rabbi Aaron clarifies why many Jews today feel disconnected from their heritage. He invites readers who have lost touch with their Jewish roots to "unpack their spiritual baggage" and discover the true spirit of Judaism.

Rabbi Aaron is one of the most dynamic and accessible teachers of Kabbalah and Jewish wisdom today, and this book is a warm invitation to anyone struggling to find fresh meaning in Jewish practice."To go from ‘the oy to the joy,’ Aaron provides accessible, readable chapters. Each chapter asks a complex, theological question, then proceeds to answer it simply and clearly, with personal anecdotes, analogies, and teachings from Jewish sources. Because Aaron himself grew up without a strong religious background, his empathetic insights strike a note resonant enough to reawaken the spiritual taste buds.”—Publishers Weekly.Rabbi David Aaron, the son of a Holocaust survivor, has struggled since early youth to understand the world's potential for hatred and paradoxical yearning for meaning, love, and creativity. His own spiritual journey led him to Israel, where he studied Torah and Jewish mysticism under the tutelage of the great mlã‘