Where God Is Hiding

84 T I K K U N W W W. T I K K U N . O R G W I N T E R 2 0 1 1 Culture B O O K S | F I L M | M U S I C F orthepasttenyears,rabbis and other Jewish leaders have come from all over the world to the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, a retreat-based program in which they learn something new about Judaism, spirituality, and themselves. A keyfeatureoftheseretreatsismindfulness meditation with Rabbi Sheila Weinberg, formerly a pulpit rabbi herself and a lifelong social justice activist. Weinberg has taught mindfulness meditation and yoga to over four hundred rabbis, cantors, educators , social activists, and lay leaders. She is a rabbi for rabbis. Many of her students, myself included, report that learning with her has transformed not only their work and teaching but also their own spiritual lives. In creating more authentic, creative, courageous leaders, Weinberg has been instrumental in bringing spiritual vitality and meaning to contemporary American Judaism. What is it about Weinberg’s teachings that so deeply touch, inspire, and renew overworked, burned-out leaders? Weinberg is a funny, fast-talking New York Jew. She writes beautiful liturgical poetry, some of which is included in the pages of her new book, and brings to her teaching the wisdom of Jewish and other spiritualtraditions.Butthetransformative power of Weinberg’s teaching, in my opinion, comes from her encouragement not to rely on the words of the ancients as they speak about the sacred, but rather to investigate the truth of their assertions in our own experience. As it was for the early Hasidic masters, the everyday details of life become the place where we can search for God. Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan discussed God as “the power that makes for salvation .” It is this salvation, redemption, and healing that are present as Weinberg explores the stuff of her own life in the pages of Surprisingly Happy. In each page lies the question, “Where is God hiding in these stories, in daily life, in resistance, struggles,relationships,twistsandturnsof choice and chance?” In the juxtaposition of moments from generations past and future, we find children redeeming the “sins” of the parents. Weinberg tells the story of herpaternalgrandmother,a bitter woman from whom the author was estranged, whobequeathsherdiamond engagement ring to Weinberg . After leaving the ring untouched in a safe for years, Weinberg gives it to her son as he prepares to propose to his girlfriend. In doing so, she is “finally able to accept this gift, which I immediately pass along to another as an act of welcoming, trust, and love.” After giving birth to two girls, Weinberg ’s maternal grandmother considered terminating her third pregnancy because shewasafraidthatthisone,too,wouldbea girl. Weinberg’s own utter delight in her young granddaughter is a bit of tikkun to the patriarchy in which only boys are valued. Weinberg is not afraid to step off the pulpit, to shatter the illusion of perfection that may be projected onto rabbis, as she revealsherownchallenges.Aswithfigures in the tales of the Torah, it is the very particularityandfallibilityofthis “Jewishbaby boomer, spiritual seeker, recovering alcoholic …[and]feministgrandmawholoves yoga and is a rabbi” that draws us into its pages.Hercompassionandhonestyabout her own struggles evokes in the reader a sense that change is possible, if not easy. “My life is a struggle between avodah zarah (idol worship) and avodat hashem (worship of God),” Weinberg writes. “It is my constant choice to embrace my humanness. It is my regular practice to open to something greater than my own tale of woe.” Throughout the book, Weinberg ≈offers resources that have helped her, and can help readers, with this struggle: her poetry, Jewish ritual, and a capacity to forgive moments of failure, cultivated through years of practicing and teaching mindfulness meditation. She adds: I have noticed that it is not helpful to scold my mind for forgetting. That is the way the mind is built [BOOKS] Where God Is Hiding SURPRISINGLYHAPPY:AN ATYPICAL RELIGIOUSMEMOIR by SheilaPeltzWeinberg White River Press,2010 Review by Margie Jacobs CULTURE W I N T E R 2 0 1 1 W W W. T I K K U N . O R G T...