UNFOLDING

A Reform rabbi, inspirational speaker, and writer offers a new Jewish High Holidays reader.

The author, who’s written several other books, including Amen: Seeking Presence with Prayer, Poetry, and Mindfulness Practice (2019), presents a guide to spiritual preparation for the Jewish High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. In an anthological format that employs a mix of traditional and creative sources, along with essay reflections, Kedar takes readers through a season that begins with the fast day of Tisha b’Av, which mourns the destruction of ancient Jewish temples. The sources and essays are designed to complement one another, and in some cases, a work may serve as an expansion on the one that preceded it—most notably, the essay that follows the classic story of Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav and the “turkey prince.” The book is divided into several sections, each of which introduces a different theme of the season, from the idea of human beings as “dust and ashes” to the concept of repentance as a process of return to one’s best self, which goes beyond the more familiar Christian concept. Published by a division of CCAR Press—the publishing arm of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (the Reform movement’s rabbinical association)—Kedar’s book is a broad-based Judaism-specific resource that doesn’t subscribe to a particular denominational path. The book doesn’t explore every High Holiday concept, and its selections and essays appear intended to appeal primarily to liberal, as opposed to more traditional, Jewish audiences. Still, Kedar’s book could potentially reach a wide readership, as the sources are wide-ranging and engagingly venture beyond traditional religious interpretations of High Holiday themes.

An excellent resource for readers seeking a deeper High Holidays experience.