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How a book by a ‘Zen Rabbi’ became a High Holidays classic
(JTA) — Every few years I put out a call asking what people will be reading in preparation for the High Holidays, and usually one book tops the list: “This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared: The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation,” by the late Rabbi Alan Lew.
Published 20 years ago this month, “This Is Real” is an attempt by Lew, a Conservative rabbi trained in Buddhist practice, to get perhaps jaded readers to see the period that includes Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot as a time for deep spiritual introspection — or, as he writes, a time to “move from self-hatred to self-forgiveness, from anger to healing, from hard-heartedness to brokenheartedness.”
If that sounds like the gospel of “self-care,” you’re not far off. Lew, who died in 2009 at age 65, came of age during the self-actualization movement, a serious attempt by psychologists to get people to live up to values that transcend their desire for wealth and status. By the time cosmetics companies, crystal sellers and lifestyle influencers took hold of the concept, it was derided as selfishness disguised as a spiritual journey.
But Lew’s book grounds concepts of “self-discovery, spiritual discipline, self-forgiveness and spiritual evolution” in normative Judaism. “This Is Real” never strays far from a traditional Judaism that saw the period of prayer, reflection and repentance surrounding the holidays as a time for a moral wake-up call.
That hybrid of the traditional and the much-maligned “New Age” continues to appeal to readers. Jewish educator Joshua Ladon, writing in the 2020 anthology “The New Jewish Canon,” calls the book “the handbook for American Jewish High Holiday survival,” comparing its influence to Rabbi Harold Kushner’s mega-bestseller “When Bad Things Happen to Good People.” Synagogues host book groups to discuss the book in the run-up to the holidays; the book’s publisher, Little, Brown and Company, issued a paperback version only in 2018, suggesting its hardcover sales had remained strong for 15 years.
Ilana Sandberg, a rabbinical student at JTS, recommended Lew’s book last month in a video for the seminary.
She first read the book in the fall of 2020 as she was preparing to lead High Holiday services at Brandeis Hillel for the first time as the rabbinic intern, and considers the late author her “spiritual hevruta,” or study partner, in the lead-up to the holidays. The book, Sandberg says, is about “accepting this idea that we are ever-changing beings and there really is a possibility for change, for renewal as we go through the cycle of the year.”
Lew was spiritual leader at San Francisco’s Congregation Beth Sholom from 1991 to 2005. Raised in Brooklyn and New York’s Westchester County, he was underwhelmed by the suburban Judaism of the 1950s and ’60s and, like many Jewish seekers of his era, turned to Zen Buddhism — at one point considering becoming a lay priest.
“It was in a Buddhist monastery, meditating, that I realized who I really am. I am a Jew,” he wrote in “One God Clapping: The Spiritual Path of a Zen Rabbi,” a memoir he co-wrote in 2001 with his wife, Sherril Jaffe. “A Jew can use the practice of meditation to illuminate his or her Jewish soul.”
Rabbi Alan Lew appears on the cover of “One God Clapping: The Spiritual Path of a Zen Rabbi,” a memoir he co-wrote in 2001 with his wife, Sherril Jaffe.
A poet and sometime bus driver, Lew was 38 when he enrolled at the Jewish Theological Seminary, the training ground for Conservative rabbis. In 2000, he founded Makor Or, a Jewish meditation center housed at his synagogue.
In “This Is Real,” he writes about the meditative aspects of High Holiday prayer. “When we sit in meditation with other people, breathing the same air, hearing the same sounds, thinking thoughts in the same rhythms and patterns, we experience our connection to each other in a very immediate way,” he writes.
But Lew’s version of the High Holidays is hardly passive or even gentle: Preparing for the holidays, as he suggests in the title, is hard and daunting work. The dreamlike opening sequence describes the “journey” of the High Holiday period as “fraught with meaning and dread.”
Ladon wrote that Lew’s book represents “the possibility of American Judaism, full of vitality and transcending boundaries.” Perhaps because of, or even in spite of this, it was mostly non-Orthodox Jews who replied to my recent social media post asking about their attachment to “This Is Real.”
“I’m really moved by the way that Lew takes the traditional images of the Holidays — the wake-up call of the shofar, the books of life, death and the undecided, the opening of the gates — and retells them in a way that they speak directly to my personal existential discomfort,” wrote Jonah Mendelsohn, an actor and writer who has been reading the book with fellow members of SAJ, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Manhattan. “The book has me facing my own insecurity and self-judgment in a way that isn’t always comfortable, but pushes me to change.”
Karen Paul, a fundraising consultant and former executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Tikkun Olam Women’s Foundation, said a friend gave her a copy of the book the year her husband died from glioblastoma.
“Lew’s comforting and relatable stories were precisely the roadmap I needed to begin to reshape my future,” she told me. “My favorite parable in the book is the day that the rabbi had to be on one side of the park for a [funeral] and the other side of the park for a birth. This is the dialectic of life, which, if we listen for it, applies to all that we do.”
Rabbi Rachel Barenblatt of the Reform Congregation Beth Israel of the Berkshires in North Adams, Massachusetts, recommends the book for “folks who might not self-identify as seekers, but who are interested in approaching the holidays in a deeper or more informed way.”
“When I first read it, it changed how I experience this two-month window of time, and I love opening that up for those whom I serve,” she wrote me. “How can we harness this season to fuel our inner work so that we can emerge ready to grow and become and try again?”
But she, like others, notes that “This Is Real” isn’t without his flaws. She suggests that Lew “had some blind spots, notably around gender.” (Last year, Jewish blogger Shari Salzhauer Berkowitz criticized his “heterosexual, male” handling of the sexual dynamics in Ki Tetze, the Torah portion that includes instructions for soldiers taking women captives as “wives.”)
The book also has admiring references to Rudy Giuliani — the New York City mayor turned RICO defendant — and Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach — the songwriter who faced posthumous allegations of sexual misconduct — that read differently than they did 20 years ago.
Barenblatt suggests pairing his book with a “contemporary and feminist text” such as Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s recent book “On Repentance and Repair.”
Lew’s style — he glides between poetry and memoir, allegory and darshanut, or Torah commentary — isn’t for everyone. Many prefer Nobel laureate S.Y. Agnon’s anthology “Days of Awe,” first published in English in 1948, a collection of mostly primary texts related to the High Holidays. Philip Goodman’s various anthologies for the Jewish Publication Society take a similar approach. The 1999 essay collection, “Beginning Anew: A Woman’s Companion to the High Holy Days” by Gail Twersky Reimer and Judith A. Kates is a corrective to books that ignore the central place of women in the liturgy.
Many of these books seem intended for readers who are looking for inspiration in synagogue when their attention begins to flag. Lew invites you to read his book as a coherent narrative of a nearly three-month process from destruction (Tisha B’Av) to joy (Sukkot).
But for some readers, it is also a book to be dipped into and sipped from.
“I have never finished this book,” Pittsburgh Rabbi Mark Asher Goodman admitted last month in a column recommending books for the High Holidays. “I read four or five pages. I stop and ponder over the meaning of existence and God and human growth and obligation and fallibility. Lew is poetic and instructive and guru-esque but also deeply personal; you feel you know him. The book’s title is perfect, and yet the book really will prepare you for the High Holidays, even if you, like me, never actually finish reading it. One might argue that this book, if properly read, is never finished.”
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Gaza 70-Degree ‘Cold’ Chills Media Curiosity as New York Times Depicts Israel as Baby Killer
A general view shows destroyed buildings in northern Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza border, Nov. 11, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The “cold” temperatures in Gaza have been a staple of New York Times and other news coverage — and of anti-Israel activism in the US — in recent weeks. But just how cold is it, actually, in Gaza?
“At Least 5 Babies Are Dead From Cold as Winter Grips Gaza,” was a Dec. 31, 2024 headline in the New York Times. “Dead From Cold” was something of a euphemism, as the real baby-killers, the Times made clear with echoes of classical libels against Jews, were the “Israeli military’s bombardment and attacks.”
Toward the end of the article came a mention of “more heavy rain expected in the coming days, and lows in the mid-40s Fahrenheit.”
The Times doubled down on this with a follow-up piece in its Jan. 2, 2024 edition headlined, “No Respite for Gazans as the War Grinds On.”
“Over the past few days, Gazans have endured chilly winter rainstorms; Gazan officials say some infants have died from the cold,” the article said, with no mention of any temperature readings.
Such claims were widespread. “Born at war, dying in the cold,” was an NBC News headline. “Babies are dying in the cold,” said a Washington Post article published on Jan. 6, about “at least seven infants in Gaza who have died in the cold in recent weeks, according to relatives, doctors, and the enclave’s Health Ministry.” The Post, too, made clear who the real baby-killers were — the Jews — referring to :ongoing Israeli restrictions on aid convoys.”
So, how cold has it been in Gaza? According to TimeAndDate.com, which seems reasonably reliable, the coldest it got in Gaza City for the entire month of December 2024 was 45 degrees Fahrenheit. On Dec. 25 the temperature hit 70 degrees. According to Google, the weather in Rafah, Gaza on Jan. 7, 2025 was sunny with a high of 69, a low of 51, and zero precipitation. Not exactly the Yukon permafrost.
Any infant’s death is tragic. It is indeed possible to die of hypothermia in wet conditions in the 40s, especially without adequate shelter and clothing. Yet it’s also possible to survive in even lower temperatures, even without a fire.
You wouldn’t know it from the press coverage, but infants also do die for reasons other than cold or Israeli bombardment. In New York City in 2021, 400 infants died before their first birthday, for causes including respiratory distress, infections, cardiovascular disorders, sudden infant death syndrome, and congenital malformations. The Times has paid those New York City deaths less attention than the ones in Gaza, perhaps because they don’t provide as ready an opportunity to vilify the Jewish state.
The “Gazan officials” the Times mentions are part of a Hamas power structure dedicated to defaming Israel. Those officials use information as warfare against the Jewish state they are dedicated to destroy. The Gaza doctors are largely the same. Any claims coming out of Gaza deserve to be treated with a substantial dose of skepticism. They often reflect not so much the reality on the ground but the propaganda agenda of what remains of the Hamas terror organization.
Time and time again, the most extreme claims coming out of Gaza have proven false. There was the New York Times claim that Israel had bombed a hospital. The Times published an editors’ note after it had accompanied the original claim with a photograph of a different demolished building, and after it turned out that the damage to the hospital site was caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket meant for the Jewish state, not an Israeli air strike targeting terrorists in Gaza.
There was also the New York Times claim that Israel was starving Gazan children to death, which left out the UN statistics showing Gazans about as well fed as children in India, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
Now the Times and the rest of the media crowd are claiming that Gazan children are freezing to death in a place that enjoys 70-degree sunshine during the day and 40-50 degree lows at night.
For sure, I’d rather be here in the US than there in Gaza. I don’t doubt that some young Gazan children are genuinely miserable. There are also Israelis who are miserable because they are in bomb shelters hiding from Iranian-supplied rockets and missiles, and because their family members are kidnapped or serving on reserve duty.
The best way to improve the lot of innocent Gazans would be for Hamas and Islamic Jihad to immediately put down their arms, surrender, and release to freedom the hostages who were kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023.
The coldest things of all in Gaza are the hearts of the Hamas terrorists. That is a fact that the international press, in its newfound fascination with the not-actually-that-frosty Gaza weather, seems intimidated by, and also a fact that the press is all too frequently unwilling to share directly with readers.
Ira Stoll was managing editor of The Forward and North American editor of The Jerusalem Post. His media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here.
The post Gaza 70-Degree ‘Cold’ Chills Media Curiosity as New York Times Depicts Israel as Baby Killer first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Free Palestine’ Activist in Arizona Wearing ‘Israel Kills Children’ T-Shirt Gets Arrested After Refusing to Leave Gym
A pro-Palestinian activist who was kicked out of a gym in Gilbert, Arizona, and arrested after he wore a shirt that read “Israel Kills Children.” Photo: Screenshot
A pro-Palestinian activist wearing an offensive T-shirt critical of Israel was kicked out of a gym in Gilbert, Arizona, and arrested this week after he ignored requests by gym management to leave the premises.
The man, who goes by the social media handle Resistance is Beautiful, posted videos of the incident on Wednesday on Instagram. It began when he was exercising at a Life Time gym in Gilbert while wearing a black short-sleeve T-shirt that said “Israel Kills Children.” He said that when he arrived at the gym and was checked in, a gym employee told him that he needed to take off the shirt, whose message was an apparent commentary on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war falsely accusing the Jewish state of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. He refused to take off the shirt.
Shortly afterward, the gym’s manager approached the activist and told him that he must leave the premises for not having “an active membership, or the gym would call the police. When the activist refused to leave the facility, police were called to escort him out of the building.
“You don’t have an active membership so I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” the gym’s manager, Mike Esposito, said to the anti-Israel activist in a video shared on Instagram.
“I just paid for my membership, what do you mean?” the activist replied. “I pay for my membership … I’ve been a member here for three years. Payment goes through every month.”
“Someone from corporate … the cops are on their way,” Esposito said. “Your membership is not active so we called the police because you’re trespassing here in the club.”
The activist then asked Esposito, “Is the problem the shirt? Or is it the skin color?” He also told the manager: “You know where there are no more gyms left? In Palestine. Because you guys bombed it all. Are you offended by the shirt or the fact that you guys kill all the Palestinians in the gyms over there [in Gaza]. Is the problem the shirt?”
Esposito, who is reportedly not Jewish or Israeli but of Italian descent, ignored the man’s questions about the T-shirt and his remarks about Palestinians. Instead, the manager repeatedly said that the activist does not have an active membership at the facility. “You just don’t have an active membership, so right now you’re trespassing because you’re in the club without an active membership,” he said. “We have to ask you to leave.”
Two Gilbert police officers arrived not long afterward and arrested the anti-Israel activist for trespassing. Before they escorted him out of the gym, he told police, “There’s a Holocaust going on in Palestine … there are no more gyms left in Palestine, you guys bombed all of them. Free Palestine.” He also shared that he wore the “Israel Kills Children” T-shirt previously at the gym, and staff members told him in the past that it was offensive. “They’ve always said, ‘Oh that shirt is offensive.’ You know, typical Gilbert white supremacy stuff,” he said.
The founder, CEO, chairman, and president of Life Time is Bahram Akradi, who was born in Tehran, Iran, and emigrated to the US months before the 1979 Iranian revolution. He founded the chain of gyms in 1992.
The activist was released from the Gilbert police station shortly after the incident at the gym. “There is no greater honor in the world than to sit in a jail cell for Palestine,” he said in an Instagram video posted on Wednesday after his release. “And we’ll do it over and over and over again until we break this enemy and we get Palestine back. That’s my word.”
The man has shared other photos and videos on social media of him clashing with police officers in Gilbert, trespassing while carrying a Palestinian flag and getting arrested for his anti-Israel activism. He also shared clips of himself wearing other anti-Israel shirts, including one that read “Israel is a terrorist project, Free Palestine,” and another that said, “Israel KILLS and America covers it up.”
The post ‘Free Palestine’ Activist in Arizona Wearing ‘Israel Kills Children’ T-Shirt Gets Arrested After Refusing to Leave Gym first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Gal Gadot Addresses Controversy Over Not Wearing Hostage Pin to the Golden Globes
Gal Gadot at the 82nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. Photo: Dan MacMedan-USA TODAY via Reuters Connect
Israeli actress Gal Gadot took to social media on Wednesday to explain why she did not wear to the 82nd Golden Globes this past weekend a pin in solidarity with the 100 hostages still held by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip for more than 450 days.
In a message shared on her Instagram Story, the “Wonder Woman” star, 39, started by clarifying that contrary to Israeli media reports, she was “never forbidden” by Golden Globes organizers from wearing to the award ceremony on Sunday night in Beverly Hills a pin that featured a yellow ribbon, which is a symbol that calls for the return of hostages abducted by Hamas terrorists from Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
“Some people chose to tell a story that never happened, and I prefer to focus on what’s real and truly important — our hostages,” she wrote. She then detailed her conscious decision not to wear a pin with a yellow ribbon to the Golden Globes — a move for which she was widely criticized by many pro-Israel supporters on social media. The “Red Notice” star explained that she instead chose to show solidarity with the hostages by wearing a yellow sapphire ring to the award show, where she was a presenter.
“Everyone expresses their support in a way that suits them. I chose to share a post with global reach and wear a yellow ring as a symbol of solidarity,” she wrote in the Instagram Story. “What truly matters is that the hostages come home now. My heart is with the families waiting for them. May we experience quieter and safer days.”
The message on her Instagram Story was written in both English and Hebrew, and was accompanied by an image of a yellow ribbon.
Before the Golden Globes took place on Sunday night, Gadot uploaded a post on Instagram that featured a statement and photos about the remaining 100 hostages with a focus on 20-year-old Israeli hostage Liri Albag, who was featured in a video that Hamas released on Saturday. Albag was taken hostage along with six other female soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces at the Nahal Oz army base on the Israel-Gaza border during the deadly Hamas-led terrorist attack in southern Israel in October 2023. The five women are still held hostage by Hamas.
Gadot wrote in her Instagram post on Sunday afternoon that while she prepared to attend the Golden Globes, “my heart is heavy, and my soul aches knowing the hostages are still there [in Gaza].” She added: “Every day that passes without an agreement puts their lives in greater danger. I can’t stop thinking about the families, waiting for them, counting the hours, the minutes, clinging to hope. They must come home. We all deserve to see them return, alive. Bring them home now.”
Gadot presented at the 82nd Golden Globes wearing a custom black silk Giorgio Armani Privé long sleeve gown that she styled with Tiffany & Co. jewelry and a yellow sapphire ring.
A screenshot of Gal Gadot’s Instagram Story.
The post Gal Gadot Addresses Controversy Over Not Wearing Hostage Pin to the Golden Globes first appeared on Algemeiner.com.