It’s a topic that’s so scary it’s hard to write on your curriculum. It has teachers shaking in their boots.
Teaching about God. To teenagers.
And though it might be scary for us to teach, it’s also an important part of any young adult’s Jewish education.
That’s why we’re pleased to announce the release of God: Jewish Choices for Struggling With the Ultimate.
It’s the perfect text for confirmation classes, theology electives, or for teenagers who ask big questions about God. Carefully edited and organized to be a text for the Jewish classroom, God: Jewish Choices for Struggling With the Ultimate is a resource for helping every student clarify and expand his or her own beliefs.
Start with this premise: Judaism offers at least two (and usually many more) answers to every question.
We collected thirteen questions about God. Then we found a bunch of rabbinical students, young Jewish teachers, and other new voices in the Jewish world. We asked them the questions, and they gave us their answers. Sometimes they agreed. Sometimes they didn’t. Some of their answers are really traditional. Some of them are off-the-wall. All of their answers are Jewish answers to Jewish questions.
God: Jewish Choices for Struggling With the Ultimate is mostly a collection of their best work.
Judaism’s approach to the Divine is not a black and white matter. Finding belief is not about answering simple yes-or-no questions. God is about asking tough questions, finding that there’s usually more than one “Jewish” answer, and trying to make a choice that fits.
Table of Contents
1. Is there a God?
2. Who created God?
3. If there is one God, why are there so many religions?
4. Do we have free will?
5. Does prayer work?
6. Are Jews the “Chosen People”?
7. Is the Bible true?
8. Does God speak to people? or Why did God stop talking to people?
9. Does God make miracles?
10. How can a good God let bad things happen?
11. Does God care about my behavior?
12. Where do people go when they die?
13. How do I get close to God?