This book is about coming to terms with your place in the world. It addresses the questions of what kind of person you want to be, as well as our desire to maintain integrity while reaching for success. If you've ever wondered if you really matter, this book helps you define what success is for you.



This is a quote from the front book flap:

"Persuasive and sympathetic, anecdotal and commonsensical, Living a Life That Matters inspires and uplifts."

I have never been one to be fascinated by the Bible, always finding the stories to be rather dry in the telling. Rabbi Kushner relates biblical stories in a way that makes the people in the stories come to life. I actually felt a connection to the events that happened to Job, and to Joseph and even his father, Jacob, whom I had never liked before reading this book. I like Jacob now. I understand how he struggled with morality and success just as we all do.

The book was so short. I wanted to keep reading because his style and the message were compelling and I wanted more.

Send a copy to my friends, both Christian and non-Christian. The way the rabbi writes speaks to anyone, no matter what their spiritual definition of self may be.

Comforted. I struggled with my meaning for being on this planet, and this book answered a lot of questions, and led me to acceptance of life in a way I had never considered before.

Harold S. Kushner is Rabbi Laureate of Temple Israel in his hometown, Natick Massachusetts. He's also written "When Bad Things Happen to Good People," "Who Needs God," and "How Good Do We Have to Be?"



He has also been honored by the Christophers as one of fifty people who have made the world a better place.

This book left me with a good feeling when I'd finished it and I was sad that it was over all too soon. His advice and anecdotes are so based in common sense, it makes the application of a more positive mindset about the world easier to manage.

This is a quote from the book jacket as well, and I can't say it any better:



"We sometimes do great things, and sometimes terrible things, to reassure ourselves that we matter to the world. We sometimes confuse fame, power and wealth with true achievement. But finally we need to think of ourselves as good people, and we are troubled when we compromise our integrity in the pursuit of what we think is success.



Harold Kushner tells us that the path to a truly successful and significant life is through friendship, through family, and through acts of generosity and self-sacrifice. He describes how, in affecting the life of even one person in a positive way, we make a difference in the world, and prove that we do in fact matter."

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of Living a Life That Matters: Resolving the Conflict Between Conscience and Success   from Amazon.Com!

Created Sep 07, 2002 at 1:52pm • Submit your own review...