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Autographed Edition:
Illumination the Generations by Rabbi Hillel Goldberg
-- From the middos of the patriarchs and the
matriarchs to the Musar thinkers of our time....
 Rabbi
Hillel Goldberg is a scholar, a poet of the soul, a
professor, a journalist, a historian. Most of all, he
is a student of Musar masters and their teaching, and
an inspiring and inspired personification of what they
represented.
In this
beautifully written book, Goldberg explores the
tradition of ethical thought the lives and
personalities of those who lived and taught it. He
delves into the personalities of great men, and goes a
step further. He draws parallel between their lives
and those of the historic Patriarchs and Matriarchs of
Jewish history. The result is an unusual combination
of commentary, anecdote, and insight, blended and
presented by a writer of unusual grace and skill.
The
Musar Movement was hardly a "movement" in the usual
sense of the word. it never swept countries and
embraced millions of people. Musar developed the
ability of individuals to peer into themselves and
find a spark that could be nurtured into a glow that
would illuminate themselves and anyone else who cared
to expose himself to it.
It is an
aspiration that transcends time. Is the modern,
frenetic, Westernized world conducive to such
introspection? Many people think not. Hillel Goldberg
shows that it is.
He takes
us by the hand -- indeed by the heart -- and
introduces us to people we know only as legends (and
to some we never heard of at all) and brings them
alive. He makes us feel their warm smile, their
friendly hand, the agony of their ascent, the wisdom
of their counsel, the exaltation of their
self-effacing example.
This is
a book to read for sheer beauty of its writing. I is
book to treasure for the richness of its content.
Taken
from the Preface and Acknowledgements: "As it
Were" The lives of the seven Patriarchs and Matriarchs
of Judaism are favorite subjects of Musar thought.
Since Musar concentrates on the perfection of
personality, people who closely approach perfection
occupy musar thinkers. Since the seven founders
of Judaism serve as role models for all Jew, they be
studied, analyzed, and emulated........
Picture
above: Rabbi Hillel Goldberg stops by
Aharon's Jewish Books and Judaica, Denver,
Colorado
Taken
from
Jewish Books |
