This impressive compendium of Jewish wisdom from biblical, Talmudic, and modern-day teachers contains 90 chapters on nearly every topic you could imagine. The eight thematic sections will give you sense of the sweep of Rabbi Joseph Telushkin's mind and interests. He is a spiritual leader and scholar who lectures throughout the United States.
• Between People: How to Be a Good Person in a Complicated World
• Personal Issues: Judaism and the Quest for Meaning
• Between People and God: What God Wants from Us
• Between People and the World: Jewish Values Confront Modern Values
• Modern Jewish Experience: Major Themes
• The Holocaust
• Zionism and Israel
• On Being a Jew: Modern Reflections
A lively chapter titled "Mensch — Nine Challenges a Good Person Must Meet" gives us a keen sense of the importance of pursuing justice, pleasing God, pursuing peace, and loving our neighbors. The wise counsel of rabbis, seers, and writers comes across in commentary on stealing, lying, cheating, raising kids, poverty, prayer, the death penalty, anti-Semitism, Jewish rage, and much more. The book contains a mix of material from ancient and modern times. Here is a very brief sampler of some of the shorter passages from the book:
• "The stranger was to be protected, although he was not a member of one's family, clan, religion, community, or people; simply because he was a human being. In the stranger, therefore, man discovered the idea of humanity."
— Hermann Cohen
• "The world endures because of three activities: Torah study, worship of God, and deeds of loving-kindness."
— Ethics of the Fathers
• "Whoever saves one life, it is as if he saved the entire world."
— Mishna Sanhedrin
• "Keep doing good deeds long enough and you'll probably turn out a good man. In spite of yourself."
— Louis Auchincloss in The Rector of Justin
