Dear companions of the Spirit Rising,

As Rosh Hashanah approaches, there are two of my books that you might want to consider as gifts to yourself or others to celebrate the coming of a new year--

A shanah tovah -- a new transformation  - shinui tov – a year of Shmita – Release of Earth from overwork and Release of human earthlings from crushing debt, a year of Shabbat Shabbaton of reflective restfulness from ‘the same old thing.”

One of those books – Seasons of Our Joy --  is almost 40 years old, and it gained such a reputation as a “classic” that it has gone through more than a dozen printings and three different editions to keep updating it. It’s still out there from the Jewish Publication Society. It is five books imtertwinedtwined with each other:

• A sacred eco-anthropology on how all the festivals are the offspring of a love affair between Earth and the Jewish People;
• A warm description of the symbols and practices of each of the festivals and fasts with colorful flags for their deeper spiritual meanings;
• A history of how they have changed to match the changing lives of Jews during four millennia;
• A guide to how their celebrations, one to the next through the spiral of the years, can help grow the spiritual maturity of individuals;
• And a collection of paper-cut artistry and heimisch recipes to enrich each festival.

To buy a new copy, click here: https://jps.org/books/seasons-of-our-joy/

The second book is my most recent, the harvest of my life experience – like any abundant harvest, meant to grow from the past what can feed the future:  Dancing in God's Earthquake : The Coming Transformation of Religion  Its cover is a darker, more mysterious dancer, as befits an exploration into the future.

It draws in new and unconventional ways on ancient stories to propose a religious life drenched in an ecological, not a hierarchical, view of the world. God  as not King or Lord but as “Interbreathing Spirit of the  world, the Breath of Life.”

It can be ordered at https://www.orbisbooks.com/dancing-in-gods-earthquake.html  Or a comgregation or book club could by calling order ten or more copies at half price and have a group discussion. And the gathering could possibly arrange for me to join the conversation. 

I'll look forward to sharing thoughtfUL action with you, by word of mouth or word of word!

Shalom, salaam, paz, pease, namaste -- Arthur