Non­fic­tion

The Chutz­pah Imper­a­tive: Empow­er­ing Today’s Jews for a Life That Matters

Edward Fein­stein
  • Review
By – August 3, 2015

Rab­bi Fein­stein takes us on a jour­ney, explor­ing the his­to­ry and prac­tice of hav­ing the chutz­pah, the audac­i­ty, to con­front the tough ques­tions of our Judaism. He reminds us of how our bib­li­cal ances­tors, par­tic­u­lar­ly Abra­ham and Job, argued with God, tak­ing a moral high ground. For today’s Jews, for whom sim­ple faith is not so sim­ple, the author sug­gests we look back to the ear­li­er role mod­els of the Jew who ques­tioned and chal­lenged. In a unique twist, he rein­ter­prets the play Fid­dler on the Roof, show­ing us how the play’s char­ac­ters con­front many of the same the­o­log­i­cal dilem­mas that we mod­ern Jews face. Notes, rec­om­mend­ed readings.

Relat­ed Content:

Rab­bi Arnold D. Sam­lan is a Jew­ish edu­ca­tor and rab­bi liv­ing in Mia­mi, Flori­da. He serves as exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Orloff Cen­tral Agency for Jew­ish Edu­ca­tion of Broward County.

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