Celebrating Life (Continuum Compact Series) - Softcover

Jonathan Sacks

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0826473377 ISBN 13: 9780826473370

Publisher: Continuum, 2010

Synopsis

I have tried to say what happiness is, how we make it, how we lose it, and how we sometimes walk past it without recognising it. Happiness isn't somewhere else, it's where we are. It isn't something we don't have, we do. It isn't fantasy, it's reality experienced in a certain way. Happiness is a close relative of faith'Following the painful loss of his father, Chief Rabbi Sacks began to learn how to celebrate life in a new way. He discovered where happiness lives, often in unexpected places, through family, community, friendship and responsibilities. He also found it through a renewed relationship with God who spoke to his deepest needs.Based, in part, on his columns in the UK's Times newspaper, Celebrating Life is for people of all faiths and none. It shows us how to be human and, in becoming so, how we can touch the divine.

About this title

Review:

British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has an extraordinary way with words--poetical, philosophical, magical, intensely personal and exquisitely inspirational. His latest book, Celebrating Life: Finding Happiness in Unexpected Places is a joyous discovery of the power of prayer, the majesty of faith, the landscape of beauty, the meaning of happiness, the glory of God, and, above all, the gift of life--which, he says, is nothing more than "being ourselves."

Making a blessing over life, writes the Chief Rabbi, is the best way of turning life into a blessing. God often chooses circuitous routes, "but it helps to know that where we are, here, now, is where we need to be." And, quoting the 19th-century philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore, he adds: "We are worth what we are willing to share with others... Happiness is not made by what we own: it is what we share." Shot through with humility, humour and hope, this book is itself an act of sharing. Each of the 50-odd essays--the summation of Rabbi Sacks's own tests and tribulations--provides a rich and rewarding read to anyone with five minutes or so to spare, particularly (though not exclusively) in the throes of a fraught and frustrating day. The intimate, and often courageous, reflections of one of this country's most respected religious leaders, they constitute a powerful antidote to despair and depression, a path to happiness and peace, and a recognition, in the Chief Rabbi's words, that "life is beautiful if we open our eyes." --Meir Persoff

Review:

In this inspiring collection of columns written for The Times, Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Britain and the Commonwealth since 1991, reflects on the art of celebrating life.... It is salutary to savor the words of this respected spiritual leader and to see how forcefully he lifts up and affirms what is best in religion. ---www.spiritualityHealth.com, November 10, 2004

About this edition

• Publisher: Continuum
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0826473377
• ISBN 13: 9780826473370
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208