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`God At The Edge'
BRIAN SELFON
Special to the Jewish News
R
abbi Niles Goldstein, 34, is a busy man. He presides over the New
Shul in New York's Greenwich Village. He is the national Jewish
chaplain for the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association. He's
also the one who answers your questions on Ask The Rabbi on the
Microsoft Network. And now he has written God at the Edge (Bell
Tower: $22.00), his fifth book.
God at the Edge uses Goldstein's personal adventures as case studies in
spirituality. His terrifying encounter with a grizzly bear launches Goldstein
into a polemic on the fear of God. His night in jail (he was arrested for rip-
ping down a urinal — if you've ever caught a whiff of a NYC bathroom,
you understand exactly why he did it) although physically imprisoning,
proves spiritually liberating.
In his book and in his life, Rabbi Goldstein hikes, canoes and dogsleds
his way into a better understanding of God.
In the spirit of the book's subtitle, "Searching for the Divine in
Uncomfortable and Unexpected Places," the Jewish News interviewed Rabbi
Goldstein on a dirty street, across from a reeking dumpster, in heart of the
most savage and unforgiving area of Manhattan: Greenwich Village.
"Today I Am
a Boy" describes
author David Hays'
journey as a
66-year-old
member of a
bar mitzvah class
of 12-year-olds.
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JN: Why do you look for God in "uncomfortable and unexpected" places?
NG: As I mention in the Introduction [to God at the Edge], my inner
machinery is much more attuned to Sturm and Drang than equanimity. So
part of it is just my disposition: I'm not the kind of person who can easily
access inner peace.
The experiences that I tend to have, either because I seek them out or
because they find me, have been tumultuous, sometimes scary, sometimes dif-
ficult and often very exciting. I have certainly found profound spirituality in,
and the book is really my attempt to process, a lot of these dark experiences.
JN: Can people not "at the edge" find spiritual satisfaction?
NG: I mean "edge" in a metaphorical sense. You don't have to run into a
grizzly bear to experience fear in life. By "edge" I mean that point where
the finite confronts the infinite, where mortal collides with the eternal, and
anything can bring that about.
`GOD AT THE EDGE'
on page 88
Rabbi Niles Goldstein
has stared down a grisly
bear and mushed across
Alaska, been in prison
and watched animal
sacrifices at a Tibetan
shrine — all the while
searching for God.
AT THE
EDGE
Searching
for the Divine
in Uncomfortable
and Unexpected Places--
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