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papidoc's review against another edition
4.0
This is a thought-provoking (and thought-consolidating) book, just what I would expect from Rabbi Kushner. The good Rabbi reminds us that what is truly important in life rarely has anything to do with the size of our bank accounts, the number of rooms in our houses, or the number of toys we own. Rather, it has more to do with the quality of our relationships, the strength of our character, and the steadiness of our personal growth.
Rabbi Kushner takes us on a thoughtful journey of the mind and heart. Some things that stood out for me included the following.
1. "When I was young, I admired clever people. As I grew old, I came to admire kind people." (source: Abraham Joshua Heschel)
2. "People need to hear the message that they are good. And people who are not entirely sure of their goodness may need that validation even more."
3. His analysis of the two sides of Abraham's grandson, Jacob, was incredibly insightful, and instructive in so many ways. It is worth studying over and over on its own merits, aside from what it contributes to the rest of Kushner's book. He sees young Jacob as at war with himself, the weak struggling with the good, which is reminiscent of similarly insightful ideas from the Arbinger Institute.
4. "...it hurts more to keep winning out over conscience. Too often, we compromise our integrity, we do something we really don't believe in doing, to reach some important goal, only to find one of two frustrating things happening: Either we gain the prize and realize it wasn't worth gaining, or we end up with neither the prize nor our integrity."
5. “Some people use religion to strengthen their immune systems and help them resist temptation. Some use it as an antibiotic to cleanse their systems of infection and make them feel healthy again. And some use it as an aspirin, to take away the pain of wrongdoing without affecting the cause of that pain.”
6. “It is important for us to remember, though we don’t often stop to reflect on it, that only good people feel guilty. Evil people rarely feel guilty. They deny, they justify, they rationalize, they blame others without accepting their share of responsibility. Only morally sensitive people struggle with the gap between who they are and who they know they ought to be.”
7. “When facing a dilemma, choose the more morally demanding alternative.”
8. “For the spiritually authentic person, God is real, not a label we brazenly attach to our own wishes and opinions. God is out there, but through a miracle of divine communication, God’s words move from out there to in here, and after a struggle, God’s will becomes our will. We will have integrated God’s perspective into our own thinking, and achieved integrity.”
9. “We cannot live without the knowledge that someone cares about us, and marriage provides the most accessible, though not the only, way of having that need met. That may be why recent efforts to create alternatives to marriage – communes with interchangeable partners, couples living together without ceremony and with both partners having the freedom to leave whenever they feel their needs are not being met – have never managed to be as nourishing to the soul as the thousands-of-years-old institution of marriage. They carry a message of “you can be replaced” instead of “you matter to me more than anyone else in the world.”
10. “When we worry that our lives are passing in a parade of trivialities and insignificant events, when, like George Bailey, we yearn to do things that matter and feel like failures because we haven’t, I have always found that an effective cure is simply to find someone who needs our help and reach out to that person.”
11. “…burnout results not from hard work – people are capable of working very hard – but from a sense of futility, the fear that all the hard work isn’t making a difference.”
12. “I believe that, whoever we are and however much of little we accomplish in our lives, we matter to God. Our relationship to God is not that of slaves to a master who demands obedience, but of students to a master Teacher…When God tells us not to steal or commit adultery…(it) is because He wants us to know the enduring satisfaction of living as people were meant to live. When I, as an observant Jew, refrain from eating certain foods and from working on the Sabbath, I don’t feel deprived, I feel exalted. Ostensibly trivial things like my choice at lunch or my decision to read for pleasure on the Sabbath rather than write to deadline are transformed into religious affirmations, moments of connecting with God. God has shown me how to invest the most mundane moments of my life with holiness.”
Rabbi Kushner’s Living a Life That Matters is another keeper, and one whose lessons are worth pondering from time to time.
Rabbi Kushner takes us on a thoughtful journey of the mind and heart. Some things that stood out for me included the following.
1. "When I was young, I admired clever people. As I grew old, I came to admire kind people." (source: Abraham Joshua Heschel)
2. "People need to hear the message that they are good. And people who are not entirely sure of their goodness may need that validation even more."
3. His analysis of the two sides of Abraham's grandson, Jacob, was incredibly insightful, and instructive in so many ways. It is worth studying over and over on its own merits, aside from what it contributes to the rest of Kushner's book. He sees young Jacob as at war with himself, the weak struggling with the good, which is reminiscent of similarly insightful ideas from the Arbinger Institute.
4. "...it hurts more to keep winning out over conscience. Too often, we compromise our integrity, we do something we really don't believe in doing, to reach some important goal, only to find one of two frustrating things happening: Either we gain the prize and realize it wasn't worth gaining, or we end up with neither the prize nor our integrity."
5. “Some people use religion to strengthen their immune systems and help them resist temptation. Some use it as an antibiotic to cleanse their systems of infection and make them feel healthy again. And some use it as an aspirin, to take away the pain of wrongdoing without affecting the cause of that pain.”
6. “It is important for us to remember, though we don’t often stop to reflect on it, that only good people feel guilty. Evil people rarely feel guilty. They deny, they justify, they rationalize, they blame others without accepting their share of responsibility. Only morally sensitive people struggle with the gap between who they are and who they know they ought to be.”
7. “When facing a dilemma, choose the more morally demanding alternative.”
8. “For the spiritually authentic person, God is real, not a label we brazenly attach to our own wishes and opinions. God is out there, but through a miracle of divine communication, God’s words move from out there to in here, and after a struggle, God’s will becomes our will. We will have integrated God’s perspective into our own thinking, and achieved integrity.”
9. “We cannot live without the knowledge that someone cares about us, and marriage provides the most accessible, though not the only, way of having that need met. That may be why recent efforts to create alternatives to marriage – communes with interchangeable partners, couples living together without ceremony and with both partners having the freedom to leave whenever they feel their needs are not being met – have never managed to be as nourishing to the soul as the thousands-of-years-old institution of marriage. They carry a message of “you can be replaced” instead of “you matter to me more than anyone else in the world.”
10. “When we worry that our lives are passing in a parade of trivialities and insignificant events, when, like George Bailey, we yearn to do things that matter and feel like failures because we haven’t, I have always found that an effective cure is simply to find someone who needs our help and reach out to that person.”
11. “…burnout results not from hard work – people are capable of working very hard – but from a sense of futility, the fear that all the hard work isn’t making a difference.”
12. “I believe that, whoever we are and however much of little we accomplish in our lives, we matter to God. Our relationship to God is not that of slaves to a master who demands obedience, but of students to a master Teacher…When God tells us not to steal or commit adultery…(it) is because He wants us to know the enduring satisfaction of living as people were meant to live. When I, as an observant Jew, refrain from eating certain foods and from working on the Sabbath, I don’t feel deprived, I feel exalted. Ostensibly trivial things like my choice at lunch or my decision to read for pleasure on the Sabbath rather than write to deadline are transformed into religious affirmations, moments of connecting with God. God has shown me how to invest the most mundane moments of my life with holiness.”
Rabbi Kushner’s Living a Life That Matters is another keeper, and one whose lessons are worth pondering from time to time.
pattydsf's review against another edition
3.0
I had not read a book by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner in years. However, I found this one on my daughter's bookcase and the topic intrigued me. As I get older, I do hope that my life has made a difference for someone else. I would like to be remembered as a good person. Kushner believes that it is the little things we do that have a positive impact.
I would say that nothing Kushner says is new, but very little that is written about the meaning of life is. However, if you need a little inspiration to be a good person, Kushner's book may inspire you.
I would say that nothing Kushner says is new, but very little that is written about the meaning of life is. However, if you need a little inspiration to be a good person, Kushner's book may inspire you.
dakotavander's review against another edition
3.0
😌 Living a Life That Matters by Harold S. Kushner 😌
I was reading this because I thought it would be more about Kushner’s theological perspective. Instead this reads more like an inspirational self-help book (totally my fault for not reading the back of the book). I don’t mind that at all but it certainly wasn’t what I was looking for.
That being said this book was short and sweet and full of stories that will inspire you to be a better person and to live a better life. Even though it wasn’t what I expected, I couldn’t think of a better first read of the New Year.
Happy 2024 everyone!
eatandearn's review against another edition
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Reminds us to live a life that impacts others.
gidsreadsthings's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
2.0
marierossi's review against another edition
3.0
Pretty interesting all and all. Wouldn't read it again but it would be a good book to have by your beside table.
papi's review against another edition
4.0
This is a thought-provoking (and thought-consolidating) book, just what I would expect from Rabbi Kushner. The good Rabbi reminds us that what is truly important in life rarely has anything to do with the size of our bank accounts, the number of rooms in our houses, or the number of toys we own. Rather, it has more to do with the quality of our relationships, the strength of our character, and the steadiness of our personal growth.
Rabbi Kushner takes us on a thoughtful journey of the mind and heart. Some things that stood out for me included the following.
1. "When I was young, I admired clever people. As I grew old, I came to admire kind people." (source: Abraham Joshua Heschel)
2. "People need to hear the message that they are good. And people who are not entirely sure of their goodness may need that validation even more."
3. His analysis of the two sides of Abraham's grandson, Jacob, was incredibly insightful, and instructive in so many ways. It is worth studying over and over on its own merits, aside from what it contributes to the rest of Kushner's book. He sees young Jacob as at war with himself, the weak struggling with the good, which is reminiscent of similarly insightful ideas from the Arbinger Institute.
4. "...it hurts more to keep winning out over conscience. Too often, we compromise our integrity, we do something we really don't believe in doing, to reach some important goal, only to find one of two frustrating things happening: Either we gain the prize and realize it wasn't worth gaining, or we end up with neither the prize nor our integrity."
5. “Some people use religion to strengthen their immune systems and help them resist temptation. Some use it as an antibiotic to cleanse their systems of infection and make them feel healthy again. And some use it as an aspirin, to take away the pain of wrongdoing without affecting the cause of that pain.”
6. “It is important for us to remember, though we don’t often stop to reflect on it, that only good people feel guilty. Evil people rarely feel guilty. They deny, they justify, they rationalize, they blame others without accepting their share of responsibility. Only morally sensitive people struggle with the gap between who they are and who they know they ought to be.”
7. “When facing a dilemma, choose the more morally demanding alternative.”
8. “For the spiritually authentic person, God is real, not a label we brazenly attach to our own wishes and opinions. God is out there, but through a miracle of divine communication, God’s words move from out there to in here, and after a struggle, God’s will becomes our will. We will have integrated God’s perspective into our own thinking, and achieved integrity.”
9. “We cannot live without the knowledge that someone cares about us, and marriage provides the most accessible, though not the only, way of having that need met. That may be why recent efforts to create alternatives to marriage – communes with interchangeable partners, couples living together without ceremony and with both partners having the freedom to leave whenever they feel their needs are not being met – have never managed to be as nourishing to the soul as the thousands-of-years-old institution of marriage. They carry a message of “you can be replaced” instead of “you matter to me more than anyone else in the world.”
10. “When we worry that our lives are passing in a parade of trivialities and insignificant events, when, like George Bailey, we yearn to do things that matter and feel like failures because we haven’t, I have always found that an effective cure is simply to find someone who needs our help and reach out to that person.”
11. “…burnout results not from hard work – people are capable of working very hard – but from a sense of futility, the fear that all the hard work isn’t making a difference.”
12. “I believe that, whoever we are and however much of little we accomplish in our lives, we matter to God. Our relationship to God is not that of slaves to a master who demands obedience, but of students to a master Teacher…When God tells us not to steal or commit adultery…(it) is because He wants us to know the enduring satisfaction of living as people were meant to live. When I, as an observant Jew, refrain from eating certain foods and from working on the Sabbath, I don’t feel deprived, I feel exalted. Ostensibly trivial things like my choice at lunch or my decision to read for pleasure on the Sabbath rather than write to deadline are transformed into religious affirmations, moments of connecting with God. God has shown me how to invest the most mundane moments of my life with holiness.”
Rabbi Kushner’s Living a Life That Matters is another keeper, and one whose lessons are worth pondering from time to time.
Rabbi Kushner takes us on a thoughtful journey of the mind and heart. Some things that stood out for me included the following.
1. "When I was young, I admired clever people. As I grew old, I came to admire kind people." (source: Abraham Joshua Heschel)
2. "People need to hear the message that they are good. And people who are not entirely sure of their goodness may need that validation even more."
3. His analysis of the two sides of Abraham's grandson, Jacob, was incredibly insightful, and instructive in so many ways. It is worth studying over and over on its own merits, aside from what it contributes to the rest of Kushner's book. He sees young Jacob as at war with himself, the weak struggling with the good, which is reminiscent of similarly insightful ideas from the Arbinger Institute.
4. "...it hurts more to keep winning out over conscience. Too often, we compromise our integrity, we do something we really don't believe in doing, to reach some important goal, only to find one of two frustrating things happening: Either we gain the prize and realize it wasn't worth gaining, or we end up with neither the prize nor our integrity."
5. “Some people use religion to strengthen their immune systems and help them resist temptation. Some use it as an antibiotic to cleanse their systems of infection and make them feel healthy again. And some use it as an aspirin, to take away the pain of wrongdoing without affecting the cause of that pain.”
6. “It is important for us to remember, though we don’t often stop to reflect on it, that only good people feel guilty. Evil people rarely feel guilty. They deny, they justify, they rationalize, they blame others without accepting their share of responsibility. Only morally sensitive people struggle with the gap between who they are and who they know they ought to be.”
7. “When facing a dilemma, choose the more morally demanding alternative.”
8. “For the spiritually authentic person, God is real, not a label we brazenly attach to our own wishes and opinions. God is out there, but through a miracle of divine communication, God’s words move from out there to in here, and after a struggle, God’s will becomes our will. We will have integrated God’s perspective into our own thinking, and achieved integrity.”
9. “We cannot live without the knowledge that someone cares about us, and marriage provides the most accessible, though not the only, way of having that need met. That may be why recent efforts to create alternatives to marriage – communes with interchangeable partners, couples living together without ceremony and with both partners having the freedom to leave whenever they feel their needs are not being met – have never managed to be as nourishing to the soul as the thousands-of-years-old institution of marriage. They carry a message of “you can be replaced” instead of “you matter to me more than anyone else in the world.”
10. “When we worry that our lives are passing in a parade of trivialities and insignificant events, when, like George Bailey, we yearn to do things that matter and feel like failures because we haven’t, I have always found that an effective cure is simply to find someone who needs our help and reach out to that person.”
11. “…burnout results not from hard work – people are capable of working very hard – but from a sense of futility, the fear that all the hard work isn’t making a difference.”
12. “I believe that, whoever we are and however much of little we accomplish in our lives, we matter to God. Our relationship to God is not that of slaves to a master who demands obedience, but of students to a master Teacher…When God tells us not to steal or commit adultery…(it) is because He wants us to know the enduring satisfaction of living as people were meant to live. When I, as an observant Jew, refrain from eating certain foods and from working on the Sabbath, I don’t feel deprived, I feel exalted. Ostensibly trivial things like my choice at lunch or my decision to read for pleasure on the Sabbath rather than write to deadline are transformed into religious affirmations, moments of connecting with God. God has shown me how to invest the most mundane moments of my life with holiness.”
Rabbi Kushner’s Living a Life That Matters is another keeper, and one whose lessons are worth pondering from time to time.