Nine Essential Things I've Learned About Life [Paperback]

In this compassionate and deeply personal work, Rabbi Harold S. Kushner distills his experiences as a twenty-first-century rabbi into nine essential takeaways. Offering readers a lifetime’s worth of spiritual food for thought, pragmatic advice, and strength for trying times, he gives fresh, vital insight into belief, conscience, mercy, and more. Grounded in Kushner’s brilliant readings of scripture, history, and popular culture,Nine Essential Things I’ve Learned About Lifeis practical, illuminating, and compulsory advice for living a good life.“A lifetime of wisdom from someone who has studied, suffered, celebrated, and through it all, taught an entire generation.” —Rabbi David Wolpe, author ofWhy Faith Matters

“Whatever one’s religious beliefs may be, Mr. Kushner has much to say about the enduring value of community, the universal need for a sense of belonging, the moral sense that makes us human and the ways in which we also help ourselves by helping others.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Kushner both wrestles with and celebrates the capacity of faith and community to re-affirm life’s purpose and generate joy and meaning in the 21st century.” —Dr. Erica Brown, author ofHappier Endings: A Meditation on Life and Death
 
“As always, Rabbi Kushner writes in a way that makes deep religious thought accessible to the casual reader while giving the more sophisticated reader a great deal to ponder. . . . This is a book that will stimulate your mind and encourage you to examine what are the lasting lessons in your life.” —The Jewish Book Council

This book is a provocation and a balm for the skeptical and the religious, offering persuasive evidence that belief, forgiveness, hope, altruism, and joy are all possible, even in the face of death. —Publishers Weekly

“An absorbing read and easy tolCÝ