Yearnings: Embracing The Sacred Messiness Of Life »

Rabbi Irwin Kula is an eighth-generation rabbi, nationally known speaker and teacher, and the president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. He is also the host of the public television broadcast called The Wisdom of Our Yearnings. Rabbi Kula lives with his wife and daughters in New York City.

Linda Loewenthal is a writer and literary agent who has published and promoted spiritual and religious books.

The host of PBS's Simple Wisdom and The Wisdom of Our Yearnings explores life's most defining human experiences.

A perfect love, enduring happiness, discovering our purpose. Yearning for these experiences accompanies us through life, leading us to both joy and disappointment, and to a powerful vision of who we are, and who we can become. Far from being a burden, our yearnings can themselves become a path to blessing, prompting questions and insights, resulting in new ways of being and believing.

In Yearnings, renowned Rabbi Irwin Kula explores and celebrates seven of our deepest desires. He opens the spiritual toolbox of Jewish wisdom -- it has much to teach about the ambiguities and uncertainties we all encounter -- and takes us on an excursion into our age-old questions, merging ancient wisdom and stories with contemporary examples and insights. Whether it's a woman struggling with a breach in her marriage, a child wondering about the tooth fairy, or Moses yearning for answers in the story of the burning bush, Yearnings offers a broader perspective to enrich our search for meaning.

The practices and insights in this book are based on teachings that have evolved for over three thousand years, as generations have wrestled with the messiness and complexities of the human experience. Rabbi Kula invites us to do the same, urging us to seek answers to our deepest questions, to search for spiritual and personal fulfillment while knowing we will never finally get there, and to celebrate the discoveries we'll make along the way.

Spirituality & Health

This sagacious book will be a blessing to all who read its teachigns on the value of spiritual learning.

Preface     xi
Yearning for Truth
Humble Absolutes     3
God Will Be What God Will Be     15
The Silent, Thin Self     25
Yearning for Meaning
Sacred Messiness     41
Turning It Over     55
Duality Diving     67
Yearning for the Way
Dancing with Uncertainty     87
A Commanding Presence     98
The Necessity of Transgression     114
Yearning for Love
Covenant     129
Giving and Receiving     141
Forgiveness     158
Yearning to Create
Inspiration and Illumination     183
The Practice of Being     197
The Sabbath of Work     210
Yearning for Happiness
The Blessing of Pleasure     225
The Ethics of Joy     240
Full of Enough     250
Yearning for Transcendence
Dying for Life     265
Messiah-ing     282
Repairing the World     295
Acknowledgments     307
Bibliography     313