I have enjoyed reading several of Rabbi Harold Kushner’s books. He is always down to earth and tells good stories. He talks about life as the average person lives it and rather than offering advice relates the experiences he, his family, and the people he has known and counseled have dealt with their problems and what Judaism teaches about how life should be lived. Judaism, experience and common sense are his guides.
So, when I saw a book by another Rabbi, in the Metaphysical section of the book store, I thought that maybe I would enjoy that book too. Rabbi David Aaron’s book, “Endless Light: The Ancient Path Of The Kabbalah To Love, Spiritual Growth, and Personal Power” intrigued me also because it mentioned the Kabbalah, something I wanted to know more about.
Rabbi Aaron tells stories too, but his are Biblical stories as seen from the perspective of the Kabbalah and Midrash, the Jewish interpretation and commentary on Biblical texts. And boy, does he have a different take on Biblical passages. Several examples will illustrate.
After God created the heavens, earth and animals, He said that it was “good.” But, after He created man, He says, “It is not good for man to be alone” and that a human being needs a helpmate. Here Adam is told to name all the animals. According to the Midrash God is playing matchmaker for Adam trying to ease his loneliness by fixing him up with the animals in the garden. But an animal is subordinate to man, not an equal. And man cannot achieve true love and happiness with someone subordinate to him, so God creates Eve
Then there is the Tower of Babel. Everyone on earth spoke the same language at a time when they decided to build a city with a tower that reaches into the heavens. God figured that they were up to no good so He decided to disperse them and give them different languages. The Kabbalah explains that the people wanted to “undermine the moral principles” that God had established, therefore God had to separate the troublemakers.
These brief descriptions don’t do justice to the depth of explanations given in the book. Many people, me included, dismiss the notion that God talked to people. If He did talk to them, why isn’t He talking to them now? But, what if people then were doing what many of our channelers and psychics are doing today, and which they claim everyone can do. We don’t think that Neale Donald Walsch is crazy for saying that God talked to him. He in fact wrote several very successful books about his experience. We may not think he was talking to God, but he was getting messages from somewhere. Could the same thing have been happening to people long ago?
In Endless Light Rabbi Aaron explains love in all its aspects, he explains fate, soul, and in one chapter, titled, “Me, Myself, and I,” answered a question I’ve had for a long time: Am I my personality?
He seems to be saying, no. But again, my short answer doesn’t do justice to the rabbi’s explanation. I got the book from the library, check it out.
