Milton Avery
Charles Burchfield
Alexander Calder
Joseph Cornell
Jean Dubuffet
Philip Guston
Lester Johnson
Alex Katz
Henri Matisse
Joan Miro
Pablo Picasso
Mark di Suvero
Bob Thompson
Tom Wesselmann
On The Bookshelf
'To Begin Again'
Rabbi Naomi Levy writes about how to thrive
emotionally and spiritually — when we feel
overwhelmed by pain, loss, or life itself.
The gallery is actively purchasing
paintings, sculpture, and prints by the above mentioned artists
Call to set up an appointment.
David Klein Gallery
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2/26
1999
78 Detroit Jewish News
She began to see God as "a presence
who has the,power to subtly point me
toward the holiness that resides in
simple
acts. Once I made that leap, I
hen Rabbi Naomi Levy
could
stop
hating God and start lis-
became the rabbi of
tening
to
God.
... I began to believe in
Temple Mishkon Tephilo
a God who was just as outraged as I
in Venice, Calif., in
was, just as pained, and just as helpless
1989, she was 26 and a recent gradu-
to protect my father from all harm.
ate of the Jewish Theological Seminary
When people questioned how she
(JTS). A member of the first JTS class
could help others when she was so
to admit women to study for the rab-
young in the beginning c__/
binate, she became the
of her rabbinate, she says
first female Conservative
she felt as though she
rabbi to lead a congrega-
had taken "a crash course
tion on the West Coast.
in life experience." Her
At first, she was treated
tone is one of compas-
like something of a curios-
sion and warmth, seeped
ity, but after a short time,
in Jewish learning.
after several marriages,
Most of the stories
births and burials in the
she
retells in the book
community, she went
about
congregants
from being the congrega-
who
suffer
from addic-
tion's new young woman
tions; who face terminal
rabbi to being their rabbi."
illness; whose children
Her debut book, To
die; who question,
Begin Again: The Journey
"What good is God?'";
Toward Comfort, Strength,
who
have experienced
and Faith in Difficult
Rabbi Naomi Levy:
rape,
financial ruin or
Teaching us how to mend
Times (Knopf; $23),
divorce
(including her
our
hearts
and
souls.
offers a Jewish perspective
own,
and
her happy sec- _(
on healing after life's
ond marriage) — are
inevitable dark moments.
drawn from sermons she gave at
Drawing on her rabbinate and her life
Mishkon Tephilo.
experience, she tells stories of people
In an interview, the 35-year old
suffering the kinds of great pain that
rabbi,
who has appeared on "The
might have crushed them, yet they
Today
Show" and at Jewish book fairs
manage to find new strength and faith.
across
the country, including Detroit's
Although the book is not a mem-
in November, explains that she started
oir, the author's own life story and
out giving traditional sermons and
sometimes rocky spiritual path are
—/
then began telling life stories, which
described. When she was 15 and a
),
was "very liberating.
student at Yeshiva of Flatbush, her
Congregations, she says, "create
father was shot and killed in a robbery
their
own rabbis. They helped to shape
on a Brooklyn street.
the
kind
of speaker I became. The text
Her own belief in God was also shat-
lives came alive for me and
people's
of
tered, and only years later, while study-
my community." In fact, the book was
ing the poetry of Yehuda Amichai at
sold to a publisher on the basis of tran-
Cornell University did she come to see
scripts of several sermons.
that it was possible to "love and hate
Rabbi Levy's speaking voice is
God at once, to view God as omnipo-
upbeat,
a bit girlish, with traces of
tent and impotent. ... I suddenly real-
Borough
Park, where she grew up.
ized that it was my own concept of God
When
asked
if rabbinical school pre-
that had caused me to feel so aban-
pared her for the rabbinate, she remarks
doned by God when my father died."
that it's really instinct and her personal
Sandee Brawarsky writes about books
experience that helps her to understand
from her home in New York.
people going through difficult times.
SAN DEE BRAWARSKY
Special to The Jewish News
W
"