God Was in This Place & I, i Did Not Know: Finding Self, Spirituality and Ultimate Meaning

Selected as a Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) Significant Jewish BookRabbi Kushner is a beautiful storyteller.   Los Angeles TimesJacob was running away from home. One night he lay down in the wilderness to sleep and had one of the great mystical experiences of Western religion. He dreamed there was a ladder, with angels ascending and descending, stretched between heaven and earth. For thousands of years, people have tried to overhear what the messengers came down to tell Jacob, and us.Now in a daring blend of scholarship and imagination, psychology and history, Lawrence Kushner gathers an inspiring range of interpretations of Genesis 28:16 given by sages, from Shmuel bar Nachmani in third-century Palestine to Hannah Rachel Werbermacher of Ludomir who lived in Poland two hundred years ago. Through a fascinating new literary genre and Kushners creative reconstruction of the teachers lives and times, we enter the study halls and sit at the feet of these spiritual masters to learn what each discovered about Gods Self and ourselves as they ascend and descend Jacobs ladder.In this illuminating journey, our spiritual guides ask and answer the fundamental questions of human experience: Who am I? Who is God? What is Gods role in history? What is the nature of evil? How should I relate to God and other people? Could the universe really have a self?Rabbi Lawrence Kushner brilliantly reclaims a millennium of Jewish spirituality for contemporary seekers of all faiths and backgrounds. God Was in This Place & I, i Did Not Know is about God and about you; it is about discovering Gods place in the universe, and yours.Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, one of the most widely read authors on Jewish spiritual life, is the Emanu-El Scholar at San Franciscos Congregation Emanu-El and visiting professor of Jewish spirituality at the Graduate Theological Union. He is the bestselling author of such books for adults as Filling Words with Light: Hasidic and Mystical Reflections on Jewish Prayer; Honey from the Rock: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism; The Book of Letters: A Mystical Hebrew Alphabet; and The Way Into Jewish Mystical Tradition (all Jewish Lights), among many others. His childrens books include Because Nothing Looks Like God (with Karen Kushner) and In Gods Hands (with Gary Schmidt) (both Jewish Lights), among many others.