As Rab­bi Gold­stein approached mid­dle age, he reeval­u­at­ed his life: who he was becom­ing as a con­gre­ga­tion­al rab­bi, what his mar­riage was or was not, and life in New York City. Gold­stein is a unique indi­vid­ual, both as a social being as well as a fierce indi­vid­u­al­ist. Through a painstak­ing process of self-reflec­tion, he rein­vent­ed him­self, leav­ing his con­gre­ga­tion­al posi­tion, going through a divorce, and mov­ing from New York. In going through these life changes, he became aware of the par­al­lels between the ques­tions he seeks to address and the chal­leng­ing ques­tions that were raised in var­i­ous Bib­li­cal texts.

Eight Ques­tions of Faith doc­u­ments Rab­bi Goldstein’s per­son­al soul search­ing, along with the bib­li­cal texts that call all of us to exam­ine our lives. The author is trans­par­ent about inci­dents and expe­ri­ences that have shaped his jour­ney, invit­ing his read­ers to be hon­est about the chal­lenges they face through­out their lives. Ever the schol­ar, he brings in both mod­ern and ancient lit­er­a­ture — includ­ing the reli­gious lit­er­a­ture of oth­er faith tra­di­tions — as he walks his audi­ence through the uni­ver­sal exis­ten­tial ques­tions that he faces. Goldstein’s search for answers are res­o­nant with any reader’s con­sid­er­a­tions of per­son­al life and career. Indeed, the great val­ue of this book is in the way the read­er will take the author’s expe­ri­ences, per­son­al­ize his ques­tions, and move toward more mean­ing­ful choic­es in their own life. Though lack­ing a full bib­li­og­ra­phy, along with sug­ges­tions for fur­ther read­ing, the sources quot­ed with­in Eight Ques­tions of Faith pro­vide the read­er with ample future reading.

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