Customer Reviews

Living a Life that Matters

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I picked this up at the Sheboygan Public Library a few months ago and I couldn't put it down. It has many excellent messages about life and living. One can see positive experiences in almost any life venture, even the scary life ventures. In his own special way, Kushner helps your life be more special when you read this book.

Jeffrey McAndrew
author of "Our Brown-Eyed Boy"

This book helps the reader in the long and sometimes difficult
journey through life. He explains the importance of strong
family bonds, friendships, generosity of spirit and sacrifice
for worthy causes/goals.Specific persons in the Bible are cited as evidence of the aforementioned experiences. Esau was said to
be a man ruled by appetites and excesses. G-d changed Jacob's name to Israel. The author pointed to Milton in reasoning that
personal revenge is sweet in contemplation but bitter to carry out. Jeremiah saved both Christianity and Judaism. After Jacob met an angel, he became "shalem" or whole. This book is perfect
for philosophers, theologians. ethicists and a wide constituency
of scholars in academe. This work would be very helpful for
anyone seeking a challenge in understanding the complexity of the theological issues presented.

Kushner has written another wonderful book with piercing insights into what life is about and what makes a life matter. He uses the story of Jacob throughout to illustrate his points. Kushner discusses topics of revenge, and what is more satisfying than getting even. I thought this paragraph by the author really eloquent in showing the difference between religious people and Godly people regarding prophecy:

"If the words you speak are hard for you to utter and hard for others to hear, if you get no pleasure from speaking them but you feel you must, then you can believe that they come from God. On the other hand, if your words make you popular and win you easy applause, or if people don't like hearing them but you get a certain pleasure from speaking them...then you may have reason to suspect that those are your own thoughts disguising themselves as the Word of God. When I hear politicians and preachers condemning the sinful ways of the society around them, I often agree with their criticisms but I don't hear the pain in their voices. It ought to hurt them more to condemn their neighbors..."

This is so eloquent and so true. It shows that there's definitely something wrong when one sees religious people condemning others to hell or some horrible fate and not showing sadness or grief about it.

Harold Kushner covers so much ground in his book, so many topics, as to what really matters. So much of it he describes as love - loving others, making a difference in people's lives, making others' lives easier. All of these things make a life that matters.

But one of my favorite sections of the book was the afterward, added after the book had been out for a while. This book was originally published a week before the September 11, 2001, attacks in the USA. The author added an afterward that really spoke to my heart. It is very similar in tone to his book, "When Bad Things Happen to Good People." I found it to be very comforting and offer new insights on the attacks, the families who were directly affected, why God allowed them to happen, and more.

A very uplifting, very inspiring book well worth adding to your library or at least checking out from the library.

As he has done in his previous, well-received books, Rabbi Kushner offers us practical, well-reasoned advice about universal life issues. "Living a Life that Matters" deals with making ethical decisions in everyday matters, and learning to listen to one's conscience and to trust one's best instincts.

Kushner's book is deceptively simple, written in a warm, conversational style, as if the good rabbi were sitting across from the reader at Starbuck's sharing an afternoon coffee. He presents anecdotes drawn from real life, familiar and easily identifiable, to make his points about living well and doing good in the world. Christians will be comfortable with every page of the book, although they may get a sense that Kushner's extremely rational portrayal of God makes Him emotionally distanced.

This was my first book from Mr. Kushner. I picked up this book because I liked the title and was feeling a little down. I read this book in a short period of time, not because I had interest in the solution of Mr. Kushner but because of how he matched all human actions to religion. Felling better about being religious and acting accordingly is different from matching our human to religion to show how our lives are better/matter.

Mr. Kushner thoughts and ideas are not wrong or bad but his idea of "Living a Life That Matters" is more about religion that matches human actions then helping us make our lives better in general.

Happy Reading!

I bought Living a Life that Matters after watching an interview with Rabbi Kushner on a local television program. Kushner cited psychological theories and shared interesting anecdotes as he discussed the need individuals experience to feel they are good people and that they matter to the world. Kushner mentioned god only a few times - and based on some of his comments, he seemed almost to be agnostic. I was intrigued, so I bought his book.

The first sixty pages or so did not disappoint - Kushner discusses the psychological need people have to feel both that they are loved unconditionally and that they are loved because they are good people - because they deserve to be loved. He offers the interesting view that being good does not have to be a struggle: that we can "give in" to our better nature; sometimes we resist for fear of appearing foolish, but perhaps it is better to take a risk and do something good. Finally (for me), Kushner discusses the human tendency to defer to authority, and he implores us to think for ourselves - sound advice.

However, all of this is discussed prior to page 60, at which point the book degrades into idealism and a poor defence of hokey, simplistic values: never seek revenge; make poor business decisions in order to keep local people employed instead of employing people elsewhere; it's okay to be stupid and to be severely abused if you love god, etc.

If you are a very strong theist, this book could serve as chicken soup for your soul, but if you are a non-theist, as I am, save your money. I recommend "Can We Be Good Without God?" by Robert Buckman instead - it doesn't offer chicken soup for your soul, but you will find heartier food for thought.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Rabbi Harrold Kushner's LIVING A LIFE THAT MATTERS. It had an interesting title; one that suggests a deep message, and I had heard good things about the book in reviews. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed.

Being a Christian, I knew that there would be some things that I would not agree with Rabbi Kushner in his book. I was surprised to find how many things I did not agree. For starters, Kushner uses the story of Jacob wrestling with an angel throughout his book. I have no fault there. However, Kushner views the story in a total non-literal point of view; suggesting that Jacob didn't actually wrestle with the Angel of the Lord, but instead just had a struggle with his conscience. He doesn't consider or suggest once that maybe Jacob actually, literally wrestled with the Angel of the Lord.

The book also talks alot about duality, the duality between one's "regular" or "commercial" life and one's "spirtual" life. Kushner ignores the idea that there is no difference between the "two" lives; that they are both one and the same. Reading these parts in the book I was reminded of the Apostle John and how much of his writing and preaching was aimed at eliminating the dangerous duality of Gnosticism.

Finally, this is a warm and fuzzy book. It is not challenging in any way. It stirs very little emotion and presents God as a grey-beard man sitting on His throne who only mixes with His people when necessary. The book suggests that even though Rabbi Kushner is a Jew, Judaism isn't the only religion that will lead one to Heaven (a view that contrasts with what God spoke to the prophets). The book ends on a note of feel good happiness and universalism. Though those things in themselves are not bad, they are dangerous when discussing matters of eternal importance.

Overall, what disturbed me the most about LIVING A LIFE THAT MATTERS is that it lacked emotion. There was no passion. I don't mind reading a book and disagreeing with what the author writes. In fact, I enjoy that. It makes us better readers, thinkers, and people. However, when an author presents a viewpoint and is very politically correct about the whole thing and shows no passion or emotion, fearful someone may become upset with what has been written, it irritates me. Have the courage of your convictions.

Few authors writing today offer the kind of comfort that Harold Kushner does. In all of his books, including his latest "Living a Life that Matters," he deals with the big issues in life, and does it in a simple writing style that manages to be both profound and soothing.

Like his readers, Kushner lives in a dual world: a world of commerce and competition, and a world where he desires to be a good person, and feels guilt when he isn't. How does a person integrate these two worlds? As in his other books, Kushner draws on biblical stories that illustrate the universal and timeless nature of this conflict. In Genesis, Jacob is a character at first wily and ambitious (he steals his brother's birthright, among other things) but also a character who has the famous wrestle with an angel. Kushner sees this image as being a perfect symbol of man's struggle with his dual nature. Throughout the book he returns to his struggle of duality, which he believes is inherant to human nature. We all desire to be good, while needing our competitive side to survive in this world. Kushner encourages that balance between the two is key to living a life that matters.

With that resolved, Kushner delves into why life has meaning in spite of our nature. He believes, as do many religious people, that every life has value to God, and even the smallest decisions we make can affect others' lives for the good. There is a nice sentiment to his spirituality, and he is gifted at handling broad topics with grace --he references sources as diverse as the Old Testement, the movie "Witness," and the Jeckyll and Hyde story to illustrate his points, and does it without seeming heavy handed or moralizing. Somehow religion makes sense when Kushner explains it -- even something as baffling as eating kosher makes perfect sense when he is done explaining it.

I've enjoyed all of Rabbi Kushner's books. This one is on par with the rest -- graceful, moving and impactful.

Mr. Kushner is quite surprising, from page one I was taken in. A life that has meaning to me is the ultimate happiness. Harold certainly contributes to showing and convincing me that I do have meaning whether I believe in God or not. This is also a book that helps a person escape pressures and norms of society, to allow free meaningful life. I would like to recommend a book similar that worked for me, SB 1 or God by Karl Mark Maddox

In my years of ministry, I have held the hand of many dying persons. And you know what? Never has one said "I wish I had spent more time at work", or "My life would have been complete if I had got that promotion." Nope. They talk about words of love unsaid, words of anger they wish they could unsay, time that should have been spent with their kids and family that they wasted on chasing an ephemeral ideal of 'success'.

In Living a Life that Matters, Kushner has given us a timely examination of why it is that so many in our culture spend their valuable time striving for a culturally defined success that doesn't really matter, and how to reevaluate and reorient for a meaningful life. Kushner's wonderful stories and examples, as well as clear entertaining writing make this a gem. It's easy to read, and as deep as the night sky.

If you are a person with an unsettled feeling in your soul, wondering what your life really means after all, Kushner's book is a great place to start looking for answers.