Rest, community, and celebration are for everyone in this radical, refreshing book―where traditional Jewish wisdom becomes essential advice for today.

SYNOPSIS

The Jew­ish Way to a Good Life: Find Hap­pi­ness, Build Com­mu­ni­ty, and Embrace Lovingkindness by Rabbi Shira Stutman

For as long as Judaism has been a reli­gion, ​“Jew­ish” has been a cul­ture. In The Jew­ish Way to a Good Life, Rab­bi Shi­ra Stut­man invites read­ers of every faith — and none — to do chesed (good work), fos­ter tzedek (jus­tice), prac­tice Shab­bat (rest), and ulti­mate­ly find hap­pi­ness.

From Love and Sex to Mourn­ing and Mon­ey, Rab­bi Shi­ra vis­its ten realms where we all get lost on occa­sion, to deliv­er spir­it­ed, sur­pris­ing wis­dom. On love: Sex is meant to be fun and lib­er­at­ing. On rest: Time is even more sacred than things. Again and again, she reveals how cus­toms have sur­vived not out of oblig­a­tion but because they meet our deep­est needs — from shi­va, which allows mourn­ing fam­i­lies not to be OK, to the unbri­dled joy of danc­ing the hora at wed­dings.

For any­one seek­ing com­mu­ni­ty or sim­ply ​“some­thing more,” The Jew­ish Way to a Good Life offers prac­ti­cal, time-test­ed ways to enrich our dai­ly rou­tines and engage those around us. By look­ing in and reach­ing out, we can all help tikkun olam—heal the world.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rabbi Shira Stutman is a nationally known faith-based leader and change-maker with more than twenty years of experience motivating and inspiring groups large and small, most recently as the founding rabbi of Sixth & I in Washington DC.

She teaches Torah and speaks nationally on topics including growing welcoming Jewish spiritual communities; building the connective tissues between different types of people; and the current American Jewish community zeitgeist. She currently is working on a variety of projects including writing a book on the blessing of interfaith couples; starting a new minyan in Aspen, Colorado; and helping synagogue communities have less reactive and more heart-centered conversations about Israel.

In January, she and the actor Joshua Malina launched the PRX podcast “Chutzpod,” which aims to provide Jewish answers to life’s contemporary questions and help listeners build lives of meaning. She was named one of “America’s Most Inspiring Rabbis” by The Jewish Forward, among other awards. Rabbi Shira graduated from Columbia University and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where she was a Wexner Graduate Fellow.

instagram.com/shirastutman