Recent Reading
June 29th, 2009 by jeffbrodyWarning: constant() [function.constant]: Couldn't find constant TT_TH8US_LEN in /home/psblogs/public_html/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this.php on line 1821
Warning: constant() [function.constant]: Couldn't find constant TT_TH8US_LEN in /home/psblogs/public_html/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this.php on line 1821
Warning: constant() [function.constant]: Couldn't find constant TT_TH8US_LEN in /home/psblogs/public_html/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this.php on line 1821
Warning: constant() [function.constant]: Couldn't find constant TT_TH8US_LEN in /home/psblogs/public_html/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this.php on line 1821
Warning: constant() [function.constant]: Couldn't find constant TT_TH8US_LEN in /home/psblogs/public_html/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this.php on line 1821
I’ve just finished a fascinating book by Brad Hirschfield.
I heard Hirschfield interviewed on National Public Radio and decided to request his book, “You Don’t Have to Be Wrong For Me To Be Right,” from Kitsap Regional Library. It was certainly worth the read.
His website describes Hirshfield, a fellow Illinois native who became an Orthodox rabbi, as “a former activist in the West Bank (who) was committed to reconstituting the Jewish state within its biblical borders (but now) an Orthodox rabbi, devoted to teaching inclusiveness, celebrating diversity, and promoting acceptance.”
Hirschfield’s message is focused on the importance of accepting the views of people who believe in different religions from you. He uses his own biblical and Judaic scholarship, and his personal stories, to talk about how the holy books of the three Abrahamic religions all support the idea of tolerance and acceptance of other religious thoughts.
Worth the price of admission (in this case, the book was free from the library) is the chapter about his visit to a large mosque in Indiana at which he was to deliver a speech during a conference. After being introduced to the iman and beginning a conversation, the call to afternoon prayer was made. Unlike other previous visitors to the mosque, Hirschfield joined the iman in the prayer, praying in Hebrew the Jewish version of the exact same prayer that was being chanted from the Koran. It’s a fine description of a powerful moment which shows some of the commonalities of two religions that have been unnecessarily at war for hundreds of years.
I’d highly recommend it.
— Jeff
Tags: From my bookshelf
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Recent Comments