There Is Another Way: Essays, Poems and Stories

There Is Another Way is a collection of poems, reflections, meditations and Jewish teachings - woven together into a practice of awareness and moral courage. Sheila Weinberg shows us that Judaism and mindfulness equip us with compassion and awareness- not by protecting us from pain but by teaching us how to feel it fully without going numb. The book offers a path which is neither enraged nor numb, but rather an open heart inside the wound. It teaches us to be present, to breathe without looking away, to choose compassion over hardening and to see each other as human images of the Divine. As a non-Jew and a Palestinian, I found this book profoundly inspiring and creative. It does not ask me to abandon my pain, but it reminds me of our shared humanity, our shared breath and the simple radical possibility of loving all God's creation.-Dr. Samah Elhajibrahim, PhD, Palestinian scholar and peace activistYou will read this book many times, as I did, letting its heart-wrenching message of compassion for all living beings sustain your own commitment to kindness.-Sylvia Boorstein, PhD, Co-Founder, Spirit Rock Meditation CenterAuthor of "Pay Attention for Goodness' Sake" and "That's Funny, You Don't Look Buddhist".Rabbi Sheila Weinberg is one of the most inspiring and influential teachers of Jewish spirituality of our generation. In There Is Another Way, she reveals how her mindfulness practice yields the courage to sit compassionately with the world's unspeakable cruelty and to remain steady, nevertheless, in the pursuit of justice and lovingkindness for all. A must-read for anyone who cringes at the news these days.Rabbi Jacob Staub, Ph.D, Professor Emeritus of jJewish Philosophy and Spirituality, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College