I AM: A Journey in Jewish Faith
A Spiritual/Theological Reflection on the Shema
Imprint: Wipf and Stock
I AM: A Journey in Jewish Faith is a spiritual/theological meditation on the Shema, the biblical statement of God's oneness that rests in the heart of the Jewish people. Through poetry and prose, Rabbi Eron uses the words of the Shema--"Listen carefully all you people of Israel, the Eternal is our God, the Eternal alone!"--and the three biblical passages that follow it in the Jewish worship service to explore and express a contemporary understanding of the ties that bind each of us and God together.
The two fundamental themes of the Shema--declaration of the oneness of God and proclamation that people and God are in a relationship--anchor Eron's presentation of a deeply spiritual expression of monotheistic faith from a modern Jewish perspective. As we discover ourselves as unique individuals, we open our hearts and minds to the God who, like ourselves, is unique. This powerful symmetry provides the foundation upon which we can build the lasting and sustaining relationships that connect us not only to God but also to each other and to all creation.
Lewis John Eron is the Rabbi Emeritus of Lions Gate, a continuing care retirement community in Voorhees, New Jersey, where he served for twenty-five years as the Director of Religious Services and Jewish Community Chaplain. He received his PhD in Religion from Temple University in 1987 and the title of rabbi from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1981. He is a coauthor of Bursting the Bonds: A Jewish-Christian Dialogue on Jesus and Paul (1990).
“We might imagine that after millennia of interpretation, there is little left to say about the Shema that has not been said. But Rabbi Eron’s I AM proves the wisdom of the ancient rabbinic aphorism: ‘perpetually turn the words of the Torah, for it is the gateway to everything.’ Eron uses the well-known words of this most central of Jewish prayers to explore in remarkably fresh ways the intricacies of life observed over time, harvesting what has been and imagining what might yet be.”
—Richard Hirsh, rabbi, Congregation M'kor Shalom, Cherry Hill, New Jersey
“After decades of serving Jewish elders as they face the spiritual issues of their lives, Rabbi Eron has taken on the intellectual challenge of clarifying his own beliefs. The faith on offer in this book is as intellectually sophisticated as it is rooted in tradition. Anyone with an interest in the life of the spirit and of the mind would do well to spend time in the company of this wise rabbi.”
—Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
“Rabbi Eron has taken Judaism's central prayer, the Shema, and turned its key words and phrases into gateways opening onto paths of personal theological exploration. . . . The writing is clear, careful, and warm. As he explores spiritual metaphors, Divine names, and the limits of human perception, Rabbi Eron also draws us into the vulnerable places we inhabit, where we grapple with our feelings of loneliness and our intuition of belonging to the One of many names, who cannot accurately be named.”
—Rabbi Maurice Harris, author of Leviticus: You Have No Idea (Cascade, 2013)
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